Today I hiked a great 6.8 mile loop on Cougar Mountain from the Redtown trailhead.  Ten cars were in the lot when I pulled in at 1:15.  It was 44 degrees with partially cloudy skies.  In a clockwise loop, I followed Military Road, Sky Country, Nike Horse Tr., Old Man’s Tr, Cave Hole, Coyote Creek, Klondike Swamp, Cougar Pass, Tibbett’s Marsh, East Fork, Fred’s Railroad, Quarry, Coal Creek, Cave Hole and Redtown Creek Trails.  Some trails seemed spotless (leaves blown off and side drainages diversions dug out) and many others were covered with a nice cushion duff of fallen maple and cottonwood trees.  There were several downed dead wood tree

Today I hiked a great 6.8 mile loop on Cougar Mountain from the Redtown trailhead.  Ten cars were in the lot when I pulled in at 1:15.  It was 44 degrees with partially cloudy skies.  In a clockwise loop I followed Military Road, Sky Country, Nike Horse Tr., Old Man’s Tr, Cave Hole, Coyote Creek, Klondike Swamp, Cougar Pass, Tibbett’s Marsh, East Fork, Fred’s Railroad, Quarry, Coal Creek, Cave Hole and Redtown Creek Trails.  Some trails seemed spotless (leaves blown off and side drainages diversions dug out) and many others were covered with a nice cushion duff of fallen maple and cottonwood leaves.  There were several downed dead wood tree trunks / branches to step over on Military Road, Sky Country Tr and the biggest a fir tree on Cave hole trail just past Redtown Creek Trail. I pushed off and cleared smaller branches that were easy to lift  in many places.  The last of the fall foliage color change still looked respectable on the Klondike Swamp Trail.  When I passed Sky Country Th just before 2:00 the lot looked 3/4 Full.  What I love about Cougar Mtn trail system is that there are so many trails it disperses all park users.  On the day I encountered 28 hikers and walkers.  The most being in the last 2 miles on the Coal Creek Trail loop. Wildlife sightings included: a Douglas squirrel, towhee, creeper and a woodpecker was tapping but not seen.  The water level is still extremely low and barely a trickle was flowing down below Coal Creek Falls.  At falls the headwaters on the East Fork Trail above the duckpond there was no standing water anywhere.  Every drop coming from the sky seems to be soaking into the soil.  A very encouraging territorial view at the clay pit. All the Cascade Mountains to the east were snow covered including Tiger Mtn summits. When I arrived back at Redtown at 4:20 22 cars were in the lot.  Another fantastic day to be out in nature. 

Hiked with 3 kids 5, 7 and 11.  The North Fork Fall is quite close to the beginning of the hike.  There isn't much water though.  This trail is has lots and lots of black berries bushes on the side, go there on 1st week of august if you want to eat along the way.  The trail is quite flat but gravels make it slippery.  My 7 years old kept falling and he was quite upset of the hike.  There isn't much view, just a walk.  We started out from red town trail, ended up stopping at YMCA and walked to DIY tea lab to cheer up kids instead.

Drawing everyone's attention to the situation that 12 acres along Lakemont Blvd that connect Coal Creek Natural area to Cougar Mountain-Red Town Trailhead are slotted for development. 35 houses are planned. Issaquah Alps Trail Association has a video and a petition to stop this.

I found out by way of the Eastside Audubon and thought it would be good to post this news here.

https://www.issaquahalps.org/save-coal-creek

Found: silver ring. If you recently lost your ring on coal creek trail please email me tblee206@gmail.com and I would be glad to coordinate its safe return. PS. the trail was great.

Just a short walk today. I started from the west trailhead and walked west until the end of the trail. This trailhead has TONS of glass all over the parking area, and I've seen people just hanging around the parking lot in junk cars on previous occasions... so make sure you don't leave anything valuable in the car. Today there was a motorcycle cop using the entrance to the parking lot as a speed trap, so I figured it was unlikely anyone would break in to my car. 

Lots of flowers today: trillium, bleeding hearts, salmon berries, spring beauties... lots of blue egg shell fragments about. The next generation of babby birbs have hatched.

Weirdly I saw EIGHT dead mice on the trail... This seems odd to me and makes me wonder if maybe there was some kind of spray or poison recently? Be careful if you bring your dog here... I wouldn't want anyone's pup getting sick eating mice that have been poisoned. (Also, the last pic is a dead mouse, so don't scroll all the way down if you don't want to see it.)

I also think I might have seen a coyote... It happened really fast. It turned a corner on the trail running in my direction, saw me and turned around. I rounded the corner and then a big golden retriever sans owner came running past me. The dog barreled by me several more times. I think the dog spooked the coyote and chased it, but thankfully the coyote managed to get away. After a few laps past me, the dog ran off in the other direction, presumably back to its human.