Coal Creek Falls is running nicely. The trail to the falls has some bad mud holes that need to be drained. I noticed some new piles of gravel and turnpike structures, so it appears that work is in progress to improve the trail.

I walked several of the City of Bellevue Parks trails post the early December flooding to see what the water had done. Both Coal Creek Park and Lakemont Park have significant flood damage. The trail at Coal Creek Park is now temporarily closed from the Red Town Trailhead to Coal Creek Pkwy due to bridges out and trail washouts (the Cougar Mountain side is still open). It was amazing to see the power of water. Part of the trail is passable despite being closed, however there is no access to Coal Creek Pkwy without a couple of bridgeless creek crossings. Peggy’s Trail at Lakemont Park is passable down to Lewis Creek on both sides of the drainage. The trail running parallel to the creek at the bottom of the drainage is completely gone. It is now steep slopes on both stream banks leading to creek bed. It’s really interesting to see where the creek has incised through a few small land slides along the former trail. I wouldn’t recommend trying to traverse this trail unless you have chest waders. I ended up walking through the creek for about ¼ mile to get back. I had anticipated the damage and brought chest waders. The Parks Dept said that they hope to have the trails repaired by the end of the summer of ’08. To check conditions of the closed trails the number posted on the signs is 425-452-6855.

Early dismissal from work allowed for a short loop hike in the Alps. I chose a loop to include Coal Creek Falls. Starting on the Wildside Trail, I noted the Coal Creek was running normally, much better than when I was last in the area. Some mud on Wildside but less than normal. Wildside to Quarry and then to Coal Creek Falls was almost mud free! Coal Creek Falls had a good amount of water coming down making a nice place to take a break. Then back to walking to the car. Dry weather and sun made for a great 1.5 hour or so walk.

After a day at Mt. Rainier I needed to stretch my legs closer to home after a visit to the dentist. I decided to do a short loop in Cougar Mt. Park which took about 2 hours total and covered about 5 miles.

The trails, including the new ones in the Sky Country Region were all in excellent shape. The Military Road trail can be hard to find when driving 166th but a new sign will help guide people to it from 166th.

The new Sky Country trail head is a great place to start a hike as the road and parking lot are paved and the trail head now allows easier access to a number of the central trails in Cougar Mt. Park.

I did not get to the Primrose Overlook, which must be on the short loop trail. Other than this, the hike was pleasant and relatively quite on this day.

One note Coal Creek Falls has almost no water flowing over it. This is the driest I have seen the area. But I normally do not hike these trails in the height of summer.