At the Fifteenmile Forest Camp on the northern edge of the 44-square mile Badger Creek Wilderness, I was greeted with warm temperatures.

The Trail steeply followed Fret Creek into an upper basin, reaching Oval Lake in two miles. This is very pretty, small lake sitting underneath the cliffs forming the headwall between the Fifteenmile Creek Basin to the north and the Badger Creek Basin to the south.

Soon I met the Divide Trail and began heading west. At 6,000 feet I was clearly in an alpine environment with meadows, wildflowers and short alpine trees (mainly hemlock, but also whitebark pine, alpine fir and a few alpine spruce.)

Another pleasant mile and I was on top of 6,525-foot Lookout Mountain, the highest peak remaining of the old Cascade mountains, all much older than Mt. Hood.

Breaking out a snack, I was soon joined by a large number of beautiful butterflies. (Thanks to Caitlin for the butterflies’ IDs.)

A very nice day indeed.