The huckleberries are ripe at Diamond Peak! Pick your fill along an easy 0.8-miles trail to Notch Lake. For a longer hike or a backpacking trip, continue another 3.2 miles to the spectacular alpine scenery at Divide Lake.

Divide Lake is one of the prettiest places in the Diamond Peak Wilderness that hasn’t burned. A fire last fall swept through the southwest quadrant of the wilderness, damaging but not closing trails to Blue Lake, Corrigan Lake and Marie Lake.

No parking fees or advance permits are required, even if you’re backpacking for an overnight stay.

Snow melted off the path to Divide Lake in July. Thank goodness you didn’t rush up here then. The snowmelt launched a full month of fierce mosquitoes. By September, the bugs are all but gone.

This is turning out to be a great year for blue huckleberries, with laden bushes literally hanging into the trail on the way to Notch Lake. The blue berries are sweet, fruity and big enough that you can fill a cup in five minutes.

In the upper elevations around Divide Lake you’ll find a different, smaller species of huckleberry that’s ripe when it’s red. The red berries are perfectly edible, but were usually avoided by Native tribes because of taboos.

Divide Lake has views of three mountains — broad Diamond Peak to the south, Gibraltar-shaped Mount Yoran to the south, and an unnamed crag to the east. Most hikers turn back at Divide Lake, but the trail passes two smaller lakes in the next quarter mile. And hidden in the trailless woods within a quarter mile to the west are four more lakes and eight ponds.

To find the trailhead, drive Willamette Highway 58 east of Eugene 37 miles. Beyond Oakridge 1.5 miles, at the sign for Hills Creek Dam (between mileposts 37 and 38), turn right on paved Forest Road 21. After half a mile, continue straight at an intersection onto Forest Road 23. Follow this route for 15.7 miles of pavement — but drive slowly because the last few miles of pavement have some head-banging slumps and bumps. When pavement ends, continue another 3 miles on gravel to a pass with a sign for the Hemlock Butte Trail on the right. Ignore this trailhead and drive another 0.2 miles to a brown hiker-symbol sign on the left, marking the entrance to a parking loop for the Vivian Lake Trail.

The Vivian Lake Trail heads into old-growth mountain hemlock woods full of huckleberry bushes. After 0.6 miles ignore the Diamond Peak Tie Trail branching off to the right. This connector allows backpackers to trek around Diamond Peak in a giant 29-mile loop.

After another 0.1 miles you’ll reach a pond at the start of Notch Lake. Continue to the lake’s far end for the best overview of this scenic, rock-rimmed pool. On a hot day, the lake warms up enough to make for nice swimming. There’s even a little island.

If you’re continuing to Divide Lake, hike 0.2 miles beyond Notch Lake and turn right onto the Mount Yoran Trail. This path climbs in earnest for 1.6 miles before leveling off along a ridgecrest with views of Diamond Peak.

After a mile along the ridge, Mount Yoran’s massive monolith suddenly appears above the woods ahead. Then the trail contours to the right across a rockslide to small, blue-green Divide Lake. Walk around the shore to the right, following a pointer labeled “Pacific Crest Trail.” Notice how the rock at the far end of the lake has been rounded and polished by the Ice Age glacier that carved this scenic basin.

The view of Diamond Peak is actually a bit disappointing from Divide Lake. That spread-out mountain has five summits, and four of them are hidden behind a ridge. For a more spectacular view, continue onward. Beyond Divide Lake the trail switchbacks steeply 0.8 miles over the Cascade crest to a junction with the Pacific Crest Trail. Turn right on this wilderness byway, climbing very gradually to grander and grander alpine meadows. After a mile you’ll reach a long pond shaped like a figure 8. Here at last you’re face to face with the big mountain.

Bring a stove if you’re backpacking, because fires are banned everywhere in this wilderness above 6,000 feet of elevation. Or maybe, if you’ve filled up on huckleberries, you won’t need to cook at all.

William L. Sullivan is the author of 27 books, including The Ship in the Ice and the updated 100 Hikes series for Oregon. Learn more at OregonHiking.com.