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Penner Lake Loop, August2005

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The Penner Lake hike was the most beautiful Sierra adventure of our summer 2005. This was easily achieved, as it was the only one. Jest aside, the hike from Grouse Ridge to Penner Lake, in a loop around the lakes of the region, is truly magnificent. The pristine Penner Lake lies at 6,895 feet, and is about 5.5 miles from Grouse Ridge via the trail along Shotgun Lake, or about 4 miles going around Island Lake. We did it as a loop, first going towards Shotgun Lake and then coming back by Island Lake. We walked via the Crooked Lakes trail rather than the direct way between Penner Lake and Island Lake, to add some variety to the adventure. This image shows the actual GPS route, and this one the actual elevation profile of the hike. As can be seen from the profile, it is not a daunting hike, with reasonable elevation change. Although the last quarter mile or so back up to Grouse Ridge is always a bummer (we've hiked here before...). The GPS generated route can be downloaded here, and then can be used to guide you on this beautiful hike.
The map that we used was printed from the National Geographic TOPO! California 4.x version map software. Although a few discrepancies can be seen on the map between the marked trail and reality (as shown through our GPS generated route), the TOPO! State software is a truly indispensable tool, and should be standard-issue for any back country planning and hiking. It is part of the TOPO! family of products from National Geographic. The TOPO! California maps can be printed in any of five scales and for any area and size. What's more, they can be imported into a PDA/GPS combination device, such as the Garmin iQue, for live location tracking. Below are some other features of this great product:
A worthy alternative to the TOPO! State Series software is the DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 product. The DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 topographic map software features updated USGS topographic map and elevation data integrated with the most recent DeLorme street, trail, campground, and highway network. The newly-designed 3-D mapping engine produces lifelike views of your favourite terrain, allowing you to soar above rivers and lakes, ascend mountains, and explore new places - all from your computer. The DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 software exchanges waypoints and draw objects with most popular handheld GPS models, as well as Palm OS and Pocket PC PDAs with attached receivers.
There are three versions of DeLorme's Topo USA 7.0. The DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 National Edition is on DVD and covers the entire United States with 1:50,000 baseline topographic maps based on USGS 7.5' quads. The DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 East Region on DVD includes all states east of, and including, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 West Region on DVD includes all states west of, and including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Otherwise, the features included in the regional products are the same as in the national product. The DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 National Edition software also comes bundled with the Earthmate GPS PN-20, an excellent all-around GPS receiver.
All of these are available from our map software on-line store.