Snuck out of the house early for a little birthday walk. Weather was supposed to be good but by the time I arrived at the Red Town trail head it was raining pretty good. I had never done any of the hikes from this side of Cougar. I took the Cave Hole trail up to the Coal Creek Falls trail, down along the Quarry trail then back to the trail head via the Red Town trail making a nice little loop, (grab a map at the trail head and just keep turning right.) The falls isn't super huge but still definitely worth seeing, especially when it's big in winter and spring. There is a neat boulder wall along the Quarry trail before it runs into the Red Town trail. A bunch of spring birds are out already - lots of Robins looking for breakfast and a bit annoyed I was following them down the trail. The entire walk is in the area between Cougar and Newcastle proper so it's really quiet - no road or neighborhood noise. Even though it was raining much of the way, the trail was in good condition and easily passable even for little ones. Sorry no pics since it was so wet out.

A rare sunny day in February, so I decided to explore the upper reaches of Coal Creek. I started out from Red Town trailhead, following the Red Town trail to Indian Trail, then out to Far Country Falls. Not much of a "falls" - just a series of small cataracts flowing down and around mossy rocks. From the Far Country lookout, I doubled back to the Quarry Trail, climbing up to the cutoff for Coal Creek Falls. There was still a bit of snow in the woods, though none on the trail. Spent some time photographing the falls before continuing along the Coal Creek Falls trail to connect with the Cave Hole trail, then back to the Red Town trailhead. The trails were in generally good shape. A bit muddy in patches, and in places some water over the trail, but that's to be expected this time of year, and nowhere were either of these a problem. A few blowdowns had obviously recently been cleared. The main purpose of my trip was to photograph Coal Creek Falls. I visited Far Country Falls first, on the off chance that it was worth a photo or two, but mainly, I was after photos of Coal Creek Falls. The falls was flowing quite vigorously, and I arrived after the sun had gone behind a hill, so there were no issues with harsh lighting. The Quarry Trail portion of the hike was a bit strenuous (I am over 60 and have asthma), but manageable. The rest was relatively easy, and would make a nice day hike for a family.

We decided to take advantge of the "break" between weather systems and head to Coal Creek Falls for a quick hike. The forcasted partly cloudy skies remained mostly cloudy all afternoon and even squeezed out a couple of surprise hail showers for us just to make things more exciting while we were hiking. Our route yesterday included the Cave Hole Trail to the Coal Creek Falls cutoff and a return to the Red Town Trailhead along the same route for a 2.5 mile hike. The trails were in fine shape on this date and the falls were flowing nicely. There were no blowdowns or obstacles to speak of on any of the trails we hiked yesterday. There were many other parties out taking advantage of the "break" in the weather as well. After returning to the Red Town Trailhead, we ventured across Lakemont Boulevard for a .6 mile roundtrip hike to North Creek Falls along the Coal Creek Trail. There are no problems to speak of on this mainly downhill part of the trail. As you hike along the trail, near the large cave on your right the trail splits and you can either go straight or take a bridge across Coal Creek to your left. Either way will take you to North Creek Falls and the two trails merge into one just before arriving at the falls near another large bridge. All in all, it was a great family outing with two nice waterfalls to check out.

This was a quick outing in Cougar Mt. Park, about 3 miles in length with a fair number of mud/water holes and blowdowns on the trail. With all of this the trip took about 1 hour to complete with some stops for dogs [dog owners, if your dogs do not like seeing strange people, keep them on a leash] on the trail and photos (this is the quickest I have walked this trail). There is still some snow in the area I hiked but only one patch on the trail (Nike Horse Trail). There were several downed trees on the Quarry Trail including one that horses can not pass (a duck under and step over maneuver). The other blow downs were not as bad and there was evidence of horses getting over these as well as deer tracks in some of the muddy areas. Coal creek was running high and fast and the falls were as full of water as I have ever seen them.

Our route today from Red Town Trailhead included the Coal Creek Falls trail to the Quarry Trail. We then doubled back along the Shy Bear Trail to the Far Country Lookout, then returned to the trailhead via the Indian and Red Town Trails. All of the trails are in great shape right now. There were only a couple of blowdowns along the route and not even a lot of standing water despite the recent rains. Coal Creek Falls and Far Country Falls are not yet flowing where they typically are this time of year, which is not surprising given the recent dry spell during the first part of the month. It was evident that there had been some recent drainage work done on the Far Country Trail (maybe WTA?). This route is a moderate route with some mild ups and downs throughout. I estimate the total distance is about five miles and we were able to complete this route in about 4 hours total including stops for lunch and pictures. There weren't very many people out on this rainy afternoon.