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.

February 11, 2004

What a beautiful day for a hike, warm and sunny. I walked the Bagley Seam Trail to its junction with the Red Town Trail and then out via the Indian Trail to the Far Country Look Out. The trails are all in good shape with less mud than 10 days ago when I hiked the area. The Bagley Seam trail does have a blow down that needs to be crawled under but other than this no problems.

Next I wandered up Shy Bear to the Deceiver Trail and up to Long View Peak and then to Fred’s Railroad and the cut off to the Cave Hole trail ending the walk by taking the Clay Pit Road to the Military Road Trail and back to the car.

Trip was about 7 miles in length and very pleasant with sun and mild temperatures. Cougar is a great escape from the city and noise; on this walk I saw lots of folks at the Red Town Trail Head but few hikers once past Far Country. Some of the water pools near Doughty Falls looked like impressionist paintings, the mid February lighting being perfect. As the 20th anniversary for Cougar Mt. Park approaches I am thankful that we have this park so close to the city as an escape valve for humans and wildlife.