Incredible day for a hike! My goal was to hike some of the trails less travelled on West Tiger. So the Wonder Pup and I left the High Point Trailhead at 9:30, not to return for many a sunny hour.

My route was as follows:
TMT 2.6 mi,
N on Lingering Trail 0.2 mi,
E on Dwight's Way 0.6 mi,
SSE on W. Tiger #1 0.5 mi to junction with Lower Bootleg,
Continuing on W. Tiger #1 1.4 mi,
W on Upper Bootleg 0.4 mi,
SSW on Poo Top 0.9 mi,
W on Hidden Garden 0.1 mi,
N on TMT 2.2 mi
N on K-3 0.8 mi,
NW on TMT 1.9 mi

All the trails were in excellent shape, with only two items of note:

First, the eternally closed High Point Creek bridge is still, well, closed (sigh). But the creek is low enough where you can cross it with very little difficulty (I crossed downstream of the bridge).

And second, the West Tiger #1 Trail, south (uphill) from Preston Junction, is snow covered from about 2200 feet to the end. The Upper Bootleg Trail is also snow covered from that junction westward to the summit (and presumably before the junction as well). I definitely appreciated my Yaktrax and poles.

One note about the northern intersection of K-3 with the TMT. Both directions of the TMT angle generally to the west (left, as you descend the K-3). To actually head west, take the uphill fork. East is the lower fork. It's a bit counterintuitive, and I have to stop and think every time.

I didn't feeling like driving a long way to hike today, so I decided to take a nice long (9 mile) hike on Tiger. As usual, once I got away from the popular trails around Tradition Lake, I saw few other hikers. There was a mob of cars parked at the end of the paved access road (cable line hikers and adventure pass evaders), but the inner trailhead lot still had lots of space even at 10:30 am (adventure pass needed to park here).

In general, the Tiger trails were in good shape, although I was surprised to see a number of blowdowns that had not been cut. As one would expect, the trails have dried out and have even become a bit dusty.



Well, here's the rundown on trail conditions that I found on my long ramble:

TMT from Tradition Lake to High Point Creek:

In good shape. Steep climb beyond the Cable Line junction has sections of slumped tread, and a number of step-over blowdowns. Beyond the K3 junction, the trail is closed due to the damaged bridge over High Point Creek. This part of the trail is still quite hikeable, however.

K3 Trail:

Hikers have reported a bee nest on the trail

High Point Trail from TMT to Fred's Junction:

In good shape. I always enjoy hiking through the well-aged second growth forest here. Big, well spaced trees have the flavor of an old growth forest.

W Tiger RR Grade from Fred's Junction to Preston Trail:

In good shape. There is quite a durable spring that flows across the trail a quarter mile before the Preston Trail junction. Wonder if the water is drinkable?

Preston Trail from W Tiger RR grade junction to upper Bootleg junction:

In good shape. With this steeply inclined trail, maintenance of the drain dips is important. Someone should dig them out before the rainy season hits.

Poo Top Trail:

In good shape. Steep, narrow, old-school trail that is lightly used. If usage increases, this trail will have to be rebuilt.

Hidden Forest Trail above TMT:

In good shape. The lower portion is overly steep, needs rerouting with a reduced grade.

One View Trail:

In good shape. East end of the trail has a rooty, rough tread, and is steep in places. The west part of the trail has been rebuilt to a high standard, but sections are overgrown by brush.

Poo Poo Point Trail:

In good shape. One of the more heavily used trails on Tiger. Sections of the trail above the Many Creeks Valley bridge are excessively steep given the heavy usage, and could use rerouting. Below the bridge, drain dips need repair. This part of the trail is prone to erosion damage and needs good drainage. About 3/4 of the way up to Many Creeks Valley, there is a 100 foot section that gets a lot of runoff from a seasonal spring, and needs extensive tread repair and drainage features to remove water.

Tiger Mountain, Loop over Tiger 1: Bus Trail, Nook trail, Section Line Trail, West Tiger RR Grade, One View Trail, Poo Top Trail, West Tiger NO. 1 Trail, TMT Issaquah Alps

    Scott, Betty and I did this as an alternative to the originally scheduled Mountaineer’s hike of Mt. Si and Mt. Teneriffe. Hiked Bus Trail to Nook to Talus Rocks. Then continued on upper Section Line to West Tiger RR Grade. Continued to One View Trail. RR Grade was very overgrown and we got scratched up a bit. Continued on One View to TMT to upper Hidden Forest to Poo Top (tracks of illegal mountain bike usage here) to summit of Tiger 1. Great views and no one up here. Returned via West Tiger No 1 Trail and the TMT. More overgrowth. Trails never crowded and we met most of the other users late in the day. Damaged bridge on the TMT was easy to cross. Stats were 3,460’ gross elev. and 11.2 miles. Many of the Tiger Mtn. trails are now very heavily overgrown with thorny bushes and thistles. Don't wear shorts like I did. In fact long sleaves are a good idea.

New Years Eve can only mean one thing, a trip to Tiger Mountain. I've only missed one year since 1983. Okay, so I don't have much imagination. A tradition is a tradition. This year Gary and John joined me for a one way trip from the Chirico trailhead to High Point East. Three summits and Poo Poo to make sure the trip would not be pointless. I went out early and scraped ice off my car. It was 25 degrees in Seattle. I went back out to leave at 8:00 am and in 30 minutes all the windows were iced up again. Not off to a good stop. I was 12 minutes late arriving at High Point and no car was in sight. I headed to the main trailhead and passed Gary and John driving back out. We left my car and headed into Issaquah to the Chirico parking lot.

The Chirico lot is now twice as large as on my previous visit. There were half a dozen cars already there. Some clouds and mid 20s greeted us as we headed out just after 9:00 am. The day before I found dry snow and no ice on Rattlesnake Mountain. Much different conditions this day. There was only a little snow but it was packed down and very slick. I was tempted several times to stop and put on Yak Trax but my poles were enough to keep me from falling.

We met several groups coming down and they were having a hard time staying on their feet. We came out of the forest at the paraglider lower take off meadow and there was enough snow to cover the grass. Nice clear views out. A few minutes later we were at the upper take off site. Of course we had to hike up to the high point of Poo Poo Point. Mt. Baker was crystal clear to the north and the Olympic Mountains were clear too. Several groups were at the point. I expected to not see many tracks for the next few hours. We headed out towards the West Tiger RR Grade and there were tracks in the snow. The snow was only a few days old so there were folks on this trail recently.

At the junction with the High School and One View trails we found tracks in every direction. Even on snowy cold days at the end of the year there are folks on these less used trails. We headed uphill on the One View trail. Traction was much better here. Not nearly as icy. We turned right on the Tiger Mountain Trail. We hiked three sections of the TMT this day. The Poo Top Trail is steep in places but traction was okay. Poles helped a lot. Much to my surprise there were three sets of tracks on that trail. Tiger 1 was our high point at about 2950'. We had 2800' of our days gain out of the way.

The Bypass trail brought us around to the viewpoint at the Hikers Hut. I was hoping the snow and cold temperatures would leave everything coated in rime ice as on another recent New Year's Eve hike. No such luck. Not a single bit of rime on anything. On the positive side, the view was outstanding. The Olympics really stood out. Overcast skies gave way to partly sunny. It was right about noon and lunchtime when we arrived. We had a nice stay enjoying the views.

The road down was covered in footprints. It looked like an army had been up in the last few days. We climbed up to Tiger 2 and found a group on top. We went to the high point and then headed for Tiger 3. Rather than head down the narrow and likely icy current route we chose to take the old route to Tiger 2. The Seattle View trail was in surprisingly good shape. Not very brushy at all. Someone must be doing some maintenance. I minute on the TMT again and we headed down the Cable Line to Tiger 3. The expected crown was on the summit. I have 13 people in on photo so I'd guess there were about 18 folks on top.

A few minutes later we retraced our route back to the TMT. When we first reached the TMT - Cable Line junction we noticed that the TMT heading north had no tracks on it. When we returned a few minutes later there were tracks in both directions! We missed our one chance to hike on untracked snow. I did have my first time on a new section of trail. Even that one had tracks on it. We finished up with a rare trip down the Lingering Trail and out at High Point East.

Back at my car I found it was iced up of course. A third round of scraping and we were headed back to Chirico to close the loop. In more than a quarter century of year end hikes on Tiger I have had sun, rain, hail, snow, sleet, and just about everything else. Sunny and sub freezing was not bad at all. This has been a tough year personally but a pretty good year for hiking. More than 800 miles and 200,000' of gain is plenty good. We had a nice hike to end the year and I hope for a better year to come in 2011.

25 photos have been posted at: http://www.hikingnorthwest.com. Go to "Trips-2010" on the left margin.