For a short day hike, we chose West Tiger #3. We arrived at the parking lot at 10 am; there were still spaces left for those with Discover Passes--other people were parked all along the frontage road, especially when we left. The trail was in great condition. There is no snow or water anywhere along the trail. Lots of people, dogs, and kids were out to enjoy the sunny day.

I made my first slug sightings of the year, Arion rufus (European brown slug) and Ariolimax columbianus (Pacific banana slug). As we neared the top, we could see the surrounding mountains (Mount Si, West Defiance Ridge) through the trees. At the top, we could see all the way to the Olympics. There were lots of hikers at the top, and the gray jays were capitalizing on the situation. We learned that they prefer grapes over trail mix, for one thing.

On the way down, we didn't pay careful attention and ended up taking the West Tiger Cable Trail down most of the way. It was steeper and rockier, with many mud patches, and poles were helpful. We reconnected with the main trail about 1 mile from the bottom.

Beautiful mountain to hike and quite the maze of trails for one to adventure.
 
We started out on the Bus Trail for a hot minute, veered off on Tiger Mountain Trail, and continued onward over a few bridges. The trail started declining so we decided to head up to the unmaintained trail. Hiked that for a while and followed signs to continue on the Tiger Mountain Trail. 5.5 miles later, we were eager to get to summit and luckily ran across a sign pointing us to just that - West Tiger 3 Summit @ 2700 ft. In fact, got there just in time to see some sky divers!

NOTE: We bypassed the TMT Cable Trail as it was straight up to summit, not as scenic, rocky, and unmaintained.

This was a great cardio workout trail. Especially when we veered of of the TMT for a bit.

Enjoy!

A *long* day hike starting from the Tradition Plateau trailhead, going up West Tiger 3, then down the High School Trail to cross over into Squak Mountain, continuing through the Cougar-Squak Corridor to Wilderness Peak, ending at Red Town trailhead.

Trail conditions were mostly very good overall, with the ascent up West Tiger 3 having just one small patch of snow on trail, everything else entirely clear of snow. Some blowdowns but nothing that would pose a problem for anyone wanting to cross. Lots of mud puddles but none of them were deep. As a result, I managed to complete this hike without any special traction gear, only a pair of poles.

Descending from West Tiger 3, I chose to follow the railroad grade, which seemed rather iffy in places as the trail was covered by branches and leaves, and it became necessary to look ahead several dozen feet to see where the trail was going. The "unmaintained" Section Line Trail had some slippery spots that require some care when planting footsteps, but nothing dangerous. Log bridges have to be crossed very gingerly. But by the time I got to the High School Trail, it was all very easygoing back to the trailhead.

Not much to say about Squak Mountain. Views were rather unimpressive, even at the summit as there's an antenna facility there. I did not see any other hikers on Squak, making me feel that I had the entire park to myself.

The wilderness peak on Cougar Mountain also did not have much to offer in terms of a view. On the other hand, the Coal Creek Falls had some substantial water flow due to recent rains.

Overall, I'd call this grueling, but still worthwhile.

I took advantage of the relatively good weather to run up West Tiger 3 today. I took yaktrax but didn't use them. There's a slush patch on the cable line trail just below the summit and a little compacted slush/snow on the main trail a bit farther down, but nothing that should cause problems.

Dan