The first summit on the ridge looking south, the green mountains on the other side of the road are the south ridge and the dark mountain behind them is Mt Pennell (11,417) Mount Pennell is named after Joseph Pennell a late 19th century American artist/illustrator.

The bike has now been joined by a Jeep.

On top of each of the summits were shelters built into the rocks.

The high point, complete with temple, 11,522 feet.

Temple View.

Right at the summit was a mail box, inside were a couple of notebooks and other souvenirs from visitors. The government actually stocks these boxes with fresh notebooks so I wrote about my hike in the latest one which had been up there since late last summer and was still in almost perfect condition. The older book had obviously been chewed by some critters and went back to 1999.

Lunch, Mediterranean Curry Couscous, yummy.

Mount Ellen Peak, the saddle between here and the peak is 400 feet down, and up again...

Yours truly at the summit.

Looking west towards Torrey, the Torrey valley is between the two long dark pieces on the horizon which are Boulder Mountain and Thousand Lake Mountain, if you know what to look for in the middle the Anthill is just visible but it's hard to see. Since I can see this point from my yard my house must be there somewhere too.

In the saddle, it looked like a steep hike up there and it was! My legs were beginning to get a bit rubbery by now but that was only the beginning of things to come.