8 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain • 1 night
Dayhike up Ball Point near Little Badger Creek trail. Made a loop by parking at the Little Badger Creek trailhead, hiking up a hillside meadow to the Ball Point Trailhead, and returning via Little Badger Creek Trail. Good variety of trees here, since it's near the Cascade crest where the East/West transition allows both ecosystems to exist. There is some cool rock formations up near "heli-spot viewpoint" where campers from the night before failed to put their fire out properly and the ashes were still hot to the touch. I scattered and buried the ashes. The trail down to Badger Creek from up top is"heli-steep". There is an old mineshaft near the bottom, as well as the miner's shack. Eventually the trail reaches the creek and we spotted some large Cottonwoods in the forest. Got back to the car just before dark.
