So, this was an adventure.  Didn't summit any peaks, but went around all of the West Tigers. Started out on the Rainier Trail from Downtown Issaquah, going to start out towards Poo Poo Point Trail.  Get on the High School Trail, and a blowdown within the first 0.1 miles.  This was recent, as it wasn't present on a trip to Poo Poo Point a couple weeks prior to this trip, so maybe it will be cleared by the time you hike this who knows.  Rest of the High School Trail is in good condition, as is the Poo Poo Point Trail up to the new junction with the One View Trail.

If you haven't hiked this trail since Spring 2021 or earlier, the Poo Poo Point trail has changed.  After you cross the second bridge, they fixed the existing trail to make for less dangerous inclines, but more noticeable than that is the trail no longer goes up to the junction with the West Tiger RR grade at about 1900 feet.  Instead, a new trail was created about 1650 feet or so that continues to Poo Poo Point.  However, I was not going to Poo Poo Point, and thus had no reason to stop there. There are signs indicating which trail you're on, and please note it looks like horses are no longer permitted on the Poo Poo Point trail at any time, but always be on the lookout.  I went to Poo Poo Point two weeks prior, so I can say the new trail is a big improvement to the trail it replaced, especially the now deleted portion. It's a lot more safe and should help minimize crowding at the Chirico Trailhead since this one is a lot more accessible now.

But I wanted more, so I continued up the One View Trail.  The first part is essentially replacing the deleted poo poo point trail, so it's the same as the old trails.  Once I left the Poo Poo Point trail, it became a lot less crowded and people were scarce.  There was obvious erosion on the One View Trail, so be watchful for that.  Also, the trail from the West Tiger RR grade is still open, but the connection to Poo Poo Point is closed.  Don't do it.  Go down to the new junction instead. As I approached the Tiger Mountain Trail, there's the Fifteen Mile Gap, which is what I'll be following as I swing from the south of the tigers to the north.

Shortly after, is the intersection with the Tiger Mountain Trail.  This is as far north you can go on this trail before it closes down due to logging activity.  Please respect closure signs.

Shortly after continuing South on the TMT, I ran into the junction with the Hidden Forest Trail.  Left takes you to Tiger Mountain Trail and then to the Poo Top Trail, which leads nowhere because of the aforementioned logging closure.  So don't do that.  Right takes you down to the 15 Mile RR grade, but that's a bad idea because it's hard to follow the trail from here.  I'll join the trail later.  Continue on the TMT, and it's beautiful here.  a nice big rock on your left (or right if you're going the other way).  Shortly after, we join the 15 Mile RR grade, take a left there.  If you want Middle or South Tiger, stay on this trail.  In the WTA guides, past Custer's Bridge which is 0.1 mile from the TMT / 15 Mile RR Grade junction, the Tiger Mountain Trail - South is what describes your hike. 

This is just about as far from any trailhead as you can get.  It's probably at least six miles to ANY of the trailheads in the system, so beware of that if you go this way. From downtown Issaquah it seems a lot longer than that and it would be a long walk around and back.

So i started going North to the Paw Print Rest stop, which apparently used to have an outhouse, and before that picnic tables, but those have long been removed, before my unposted trip a year ago going the opposite direction.  

Paw Print Connector has streams instead of trails especially close to the Bootleg trail.  At the junction of the Bootleg trail  you have a decision to make.  You can either go down (right) the Bootleg trail and then use the Preston and Dwights Way trail to get you back to civilization or you can go up (left) the bootleg trail and take the Preston Trail, West Tiger RR grade and the TMT back to safety.

So I wound up taking the bootleg / Preston Trail down, and Dwight's Way.  I should have taken the TMT over, even though I know it would have added about 700 or so feet more elevation gain.  I still would have taken the bootleg down and such but this would have gotten me back on a more familiar trail and exited at a safer spot, which I wound up going to anyway because i needed to walk back to downtown Issaquah.  It was a long day.  But I made it!

Hopefully the West Tigers will clear up at some point, I hear West Tiger 3 might be accessible but West Tiger 1 definitely is NOT.

My next hike I want to do East Tiger which will likely see me going up the TMT and a lot of the same trails I was on this past Saturday.  I hear the logging activity south of the Middle Tiger Trail and on the East Tiger Trail from Paw Print connector has been completed and officially reopened to hiking, so thats tempting.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, there was no snow on any of the trails I was on, but lots of streams, especially on the North slopes of the West Tigers.

One of the things I love about the PNW is I don't have to drive far to find a trail I haven't been on before. I was able to park on a shoulder, without a no parking sign, on Southeast Tiger Mountain Road not far from the entrance spur to West Side Road. These trails and the road make a nice loop.

I took the road left and walked to the Hidden Forest Trail which gets a lot of the elevation gain out of the way. The Hidden Forest Trail does climb steeply up a ridge before traversing northeast, then up to the Fifteenmile Railroad Junction. There's quite a bit of blowdowns to step over, the trail is overgrown, and there's a little section that is slumping. The Fifteenmile has little to no elevation gain but there's more blowdowns, with branches you have to push through, and deadfall. It's also overgrown in spots and very muddy in sections, the saving grace is some filtered views south.

When I arrived at the TMT junction I went right and crossed Fifteenmile Creek. This was the only area where I encountered snow but not enough to warrant a conditions mention. I'm disappointed to say the recent clearcut does butt up against some of the trail up high and debris is across the trail. There's also a fair amount of blowdown, some of which you'll have to duck down to get through. The trail near Paul's Cove is narrow from the trail edge falling away so this part of the trail will need some work in the near future. I went right on the connector trail at Hal's Cove and dropped down to the Hobart-Middle Tiger Railroad Trail. Other than a little deadfall the hike out to the West Side Road was uneventful.

I've always wondered how people leave poles behind until I found out today. I sat for a while at the TMT junction, snapped a couple pictures, then put my pack on and took off. Just as I was crossing Custer's Bridge the light went on and I hiked back up to retrieve them. Glad I wasn't further down, or I would have written them off. The weather was pleasant, and I never saw a soul.  I did carry out one mylar balloon..argh!   7.1 miles with only 1220 feet of gain.

This would be our first local hike since January due to injury so we wanted to get some mileage in to test my knee. Also wanted some relative solitude. Decided to do West Tiger from Tiger Mt Rd SE.

Parked in one of the 2 legal spots around 11:30 - to our surprise no other cars around! We watched 4 horses coming onto the road and greeted them - at their owner's request - so as not to spook them. Headed up West Side Rd and turned onto Middle Tiger. There was a trail run event today but we turned onto Hobart-Middle-Tiger RR facing them. All in all, we only saw 5 runners as we were at the tail end of the 5k - 50k event. Trail was in good shape with no real muddy spots. The trail narrows inside of my hiking width - got a couple nettle stings and had a few pole entanglements. The creek crossing to 15-Mile RR was easy. Chugged up Hidden Forest Trail with our heads down and legs moving as the burn set in. Passed a water station for the Race on TMT and continued the burn up to Main Tiger Mt Rd where we sat for a bite. Continued Poo Top to West Tiger 1. Caught a glimpse of Baker and started down. We ran most of the down and ended up turning left onto 15 Mile RR Grade instead of right so that was a 1-mile detour. Finally got re-orientated and back onto Hobart-Middle-Tiger and saw one last runner at 3:30.

Got back to the car by 4:05 with a couple more cars parked between the No Parking signs. It felt great to get out our shoes AND knee did great! 10.82 miles 4.27 hours and we saw maybe 4 other hikers.

Been really getting into exploring the Issaquah Alps, especially Tiger Mtn, over the last year or so, when conditions don’t allow for higher elevation hikes, and fortunate to have a few hiking companions interested also. It’s fun to piece together loops and one-ways and seemingly endless possibilities. And despite the fact that it seems every photo looks about the same ferny mossy green gray, there is more subtle variety in the forests, undergrowth, shadows, and views than meets the phone camera eye.

Today’s exploration with a friend was a south to north one way connecting 11 trails,  from Tiger Mtn Road SE to the High Point trailhead at I-90. We walked about 9 miles with 1900 feet of gain, including one small inadvertent detour described below.

Started on Road 1000 heading west and quickly connected to the Grand Canyon 15 Mile. After exploring the ruins of the coal crushing building we took the unmarked trail heading right off the GC15. I had seen both ends of this trail on previous hikes and learned that it is the connector between GC15 and the Hobart-Middle Tiger Railroad Grade. This trail took maybe ¾ mile to reach the RR grade, then we took a left (north). After maybe a mile on that we saw the little sign indicating Tiger Mountain Trail ¼ mile and headed uphill on that, encountering the only blow-down of the day and the route was marked with flagging. Left on the TMT for another mile or so a short bit past Custer’s Bridge to the well marked intersection of the 15 Mile RR Grade. Less than a ¼ mile north on this brings you to a gravel road at “15 mile Pass” and a flat area where the 2014 Green Trails shows a picnic table (there is none anymore) and another trail report mentions an outhouse (also not there).

We were looking for the Paw Print Connector, and heading straight across the road through the flat area, we found that a rough unmarked road seemed to go the right way. Sure enough it turned more to trail after a bit. We passed the well marked East Tiger trail coming in from the east and shortly thereafter the multi-trail intersection with the Bootleg Trail and the sign indicating that left will take you to Tiger NO.1. This was our high point at 2200 feet. Took a right downhill on Middle Bootleg and after a bit we came to what seemed to be a T-intersection. Not sure how it matched the map we took a right. This was a mistake and after maybe ¼ mile, crossing a big ravine and starting to head downhill we realized it must be an unmarked connector to Road 7500 heading east and retraced our steps back to the “T”. I put branches across the incorrect trail to discourage others from the same error. Then it was down the Bootleg to the Preston-formerly-known-as W. Tiger 1 Trail, left on Dwight’s Way, right on Lingering (a very pleasant trail), High Point trail, and back to our car parked near the High Point Gate.

All in all a fun day of connecting more trails for a nice one-way through Tiger Mtn.  All trails were in good condition with some much appreciated recent tree clearing work on Dwight’s Way and Lingering Trail.

We saw no one at all until the descent on the Preston Trail, then a total of 3 other hikers.  

I brought my backpacking gear out for a training hike. Routed a loop around west tiger with a pitstop at poo-poo point, which I had never been to before. Weather was beautiful after the morning clouds/haze cleared up. Started at the trailhead around 9:30 am. Finished at 3 pm. Hiked ~14 miles with about 3,200 ft. elevation gain.

Some snow (mostly 2-3", max ~6") in shaded and higher elevation (~1,500 ft.+) areas. Most snow was compacted for effortless route following and ease of hiking. 15 Mile RR Grade trail was least compacted, only had individual footprints. I did just fine in trail runners and didn't end up putting on my microspikes. I had damp socks/feet though from some muddy/slushy spots and overtime from the snow.

Other than the section along the poo-poo point trail and a bit at the end on Preston Trail/Dwight's Way/TMT, the route was very quiet especially given the overflowing parking areas.

See Gaia link for details on my route.