This was a 4.5 mile round trip with about 500 to 600 feet of elevation gain/loss. The trails are mostly dried out from the wet spring with very few mud holes that have not hardened.

The spring rains did bring out flowers, phlox, trillium and bleeding heart were in evidence. The trees are all decked out with spring leaves and the scent of spring was in the air on this sunny day. It took about 1.75 hours to do the hike sans pack and with light hiking shoes.

Saw several hikers on the trail to Wilderness Peak and one man resting on the bench at the summit.

A great walk and a nice sunny day for a walk.

Today I did a long one-way hike up the Coal Creek Trail, over the top of Cougar Mountain, and down to Issaquah Transit Center. This was a bus-assisted hike - I parked at Eastgate Park & Ride and took the Metro 240 bus to the start of the lower Coal Creek Trail on 119th Ave SE. More info on the route of this hike can be found here:

https://sites.google.com/[…]/cougar-mountain-grand-traverse

The Lower Coal Creek Trail has been greatly improved since I hiked it last. The City of Bellevue has their own distinct style of trail maintenance, which involves extensive use of curb logs to support the downhill side of the tread, and liberal use of bark dust on the tread. Bellevue also likes to build wide tread that they can drive motorized carts on. They have a certain blithe disregard for trail grade - some of their trails are remarkably steep. Most trail construction guides recommend removing as much organic matter from the trail tread as possible, while Bellevue loves to dump more on! Well, whatever...there was little mud on the Lower Coal Creek Trail and it was a pleasure to hike on. No blowdowns either - in fact there was little problem with blowdown anywhere on this hike.

The upper end of the Lower Coal Creek Trail has been relocated to the intersection of Coal Creek Parkway and Forest Drive. There is a stoplight here which makes the crossing of the parkway easier - no more scary, run-for-your-life jaywalking through 50 mile per hour traffic.

I continued hiking on the main Coal Creek Trail upstream of Coal Creek Parkway. This is a beautiful stretch of trail that closely follows the rushing waters of Coal Creek. The trail here has also been upgraded and is in lovely shape, until it approaches the creek crossing. The Bellevue beauty bark treatment ends abruptly here, and the trail becomes muddy and steep until it climbs to the old railroad grade that once went toward the Newcastle mines. Beauty bark and good maintenance resumes here, and the hiking is easy all the way to Red Town Trailhead.

From Redtown Trailhead, I followed the Cave Hole trail/road uphill. This trail was in good shape of course, but above the turnoff to Coal Creek Falls there were some drain dips that needed repair. A thin layer of snow covered the trees and open ground here, as well as other high parts of Cougar Mountain, but not much was sticking to the trails.

I took the Bypass Trail (in good shape) to Fred's RR Trail. Followed that north a short distance to the Clay Pit Road. From there, I hiked the Klondike Swamp Trail (in good shape) to Cougar Pass Trail. Followed that trail (horrible clay mud, needs a tread treatment of some sort like gravel) to Tibbetts Marsh Trail. Followed the TMT (very muddy, needs work) to Tibbetts Creek Trail (muddy), then followed that path down to Bear Ridge Trail. Went left on the BRT to Shangri-La Trail. Followed the SLT down to the Talus development.

I walked the streets of Talus to James Bush Road, then followed that quiet lane down to SR 900. A short hike north the highway brought me to the Issaquah Park and Ride, where I caught a Sound Transit 554 bus that quickly took me back to Eastgate, where my car was stashed.

All in all, a nice 9 mile day of hiking on a crisp early March day.

A rare sunny day in February, so I decided to explore the upper reaches of Coal Creek. I started out from Red Town trailhead, following the Red Town trail to Indian Trail, then out to Far Country Falls. Not much of a "falls" - just a series of small cataracts flowing down and around mossy rocks. From the Far Country lookout, I doubled back to the Quarry Trail, climbing up to the cutoff for Coal Creek Falls. There was still a bit of snow in the woods, though none on the trail. Spent some time photographing the falls before continuing along the Coal Creek Falls trail to connect with the Cave Hole trail, then back to the Red Town trailhead.

The trails were in generally good shape. A bit muddy in patches, and in places some water over the trail, but that's to be expected this time of year, and nowhere were either of these a problem. A few blowdowns had obviously recently been cleared.

The main purpose of my trip was to photograph Coal Creek Falls. I visited Far Country Falls first, on the off chance that it was worth a photo or two, but mainly, I was after photos of Coal Creek Falls. The falls was flowing quite vigorously, and I arrived after the sun had gone behind a hill, so there were no issues with harsh lighting.

The Quarry Trail portion of the hike was a bit strenuous (I am over 60 and have asthma), but manageable. The rest was relatively easy, and would make a nice day hike for a family.

This was a quick outing in Cougar Mt. Park, about 3 miles in length with a fair number of mud/water holes and blowdowns on the trail. With all of this the trip took about 1 hour to complete with some stops for dogs [dog owners, if your dogs do not like seeing strange people, keep them on a leash] on the trail and photos (this is the quickest I have walked this trail).

There is still some snow in the area I hiked but only one patch on the trail (Nike Horse Trail). There were several downed trees on the Quarry Trail including one that horses can not pass (a duck under and step over maneuver). The other blow downs were not as bad and there was evidence of horses getting over these as well as deer tracks in some of the muddy areas.

Coal creek was running high and fast and the falls were as full of water as I have ever seen them.