Love this urban trail.  Was in W Richland visiting a friend and decided to explore this man-made trail system.  WOW!  What a ton of work went into the trails .. up, down and around this 'mountain'.  Hand cut, graveled and even  traversing up cement steps and giant cinder blocks. I put in almost 9 miles exploring.  A very different experience hiking above urban housing developments and shopping malls, but on the backside the view is mostly orchards.  Love the steppe butte of central WA and our high desert regions.

If you are fatiguing of the grey skies and fog that have covered the tri cities recently try Badger Mt.  Just around 3/4 mile up this excellently maintained, clean trail we left the fog below and felt the wonderful sun.  Climbing up my exertion kept me warm without the coat, descending into the fog again I definately was glad to have the puffy coat.  We passed many others enjoying the trail including many with well trained dogs on leash and one mountain biker on the appropriate trail. 

Rainy day hike with freezing fog at the summit. Beautiful view of the city on the way down.

I was over in the Tri-Cities visiting family this weekend.  I always love hitting up Badger and Candy Mountains when I am over there.  The weather was forecast was for cool, clear conditions so I hooked up with a local Nomad Runners of Eastern WA runner Brandon for a sunrise run of both mountains.

On the way out we took the Sagebrush trail to the Skyline trail to the far end of Badger then ran the road over to Candy.  Apparently, there is a trail planned to connect the two trail systems but it has not been built yet.  We ran to the top of Candy then down the back, not quite to the culvert, to get some extra elevation.  Once back on Badger we followed the Skyline trail again but descended via the Canyon trail where we ran into lots of little trick-or-treaters coming up the mountain.

Great day out!

We were in Richland for the state softball championship and had an open morning, so we used the WTA map to find this hike.  We found the trail head and discovered that a "Trick or Treat on the Trail" event was going on.  Kids in cute costumes - how fun!  Families were heading up the gentle loop to hit different stations.  We went up the steeper, quicker way to the top. The views were fabulous, the trail was in great condition and it was fun to see so many families out enjoying a hike!