Beautiful warm evening hike; bugs not that bad now that things are drying up.  Sometimes people complain that Cougar Mountain doesn't have any blockbuster views, but I always find the trails themselves lovely.

Caution: Blind corners and drivers disregarding traffic directionality create Sky Country parking lot hazards.  Every stretch of the figure-8-shaped lot is a one-way (see the attached picture).  Directionality is indicated with traffic signs and pavement arrows.  However, people frequently drive against the one-ways.  We’ve all disregarded parking lot traffic signs, but the lot has blind corners that are only safe when directionality is followed.  I have seen people charging excitedly into the parking lot and around blind corners with the confidence they have the right-of-way to the whole lane.  I have also seen people in a hurry to get home drive furiously around the same blind corners the wrong way.  At some point, people will collide.  So, do not be one of those people; recognize that, once you are in the parking lot, Mad Max rules apply and drive cautiously around every corner assuming someone could be hurtling against the one-way toward you.

Personal best 13 trails in one day!

I did a loop from the Sky Country trailhead over to the east side & back to the west.  I was expecting an 8mi hike, but it ended up being 9.6.  Got to trailhead around 8:30, lot was maybe 1/3 full.  Seemed to mostly be trail runners.

Options - Tons of choices in this park for making your loop as long or as short as you want.

Signs - Every major fork in the trail that I crossed had great signs pointing you in the right direction.  But note that there are a LOT of trails in this park.

Views - I don’t recall how many waterfalls I saw on this hike…4 or 5 maybe?  A few required short side treks (like .2mi) off the main trail.  But otherwise, not much in the way of views, just some unique trees. 

Trail Conditions – There were trees down on almost every one of these trails.  The vast majority of them look like they’d been down for years, but seemed like a few fresh ones too.  Some of them are rather large or are up off the trail, but they weren’t too difficult to get around/under.

Wet -  Shouldn’t be a surprise, since it’s been raining so heavily the past few weeks (though there wasn't a drop of rain for the bulk of my hike today).  Again, on every trail, there was some standing water that you would definitely have to step into to get across.  Can’t recall if it was the Indian Trail or Coal Creek Falls Trail, but there was basically a river that crossed the trail that was 6-8ft wide.  For the most part, they aren’t deep, but I did have to cross a few where the water covered my toes.  I’m about 5’11”…if you are shorter, likely that you’re going to have to step through more water.  On one of the other trails (think it was coming up the Whittaker fork of the Wilderness Peak trail), I thought maybe I’d missed a turn because the “trail” in front of me was now all water rushing downhill.  That didn’t even cover the toes, and it was a pretty short section and I eventually found the trail again when I got past it.  Just a head's up to warn you that you're probably not lost.

Wilderness Peak Loop: Choose Wisely – You have a choice of which way you want to go up or down.  I happened to take the Gombu trail down & the Whittaker trail up, and I felt I made the best choice 😊  Both had a moderate/steep grade, but Gombu seemed worse (or better, depending on your POV).

A beautiful day around a lush green forest. The loop  was 5 miles on the map but our GPS said 6.9 miles.  The elevation gain was 1100 feet. We only saw a few flowers: Swamp lanterns (in low lands), rare yellow pioneer violets, pink salmon berries, trillium. I found very little litter to pick up EXCEPT many dog poop bags.  I don't have a dog but did pick up 5 bags on the last half mile to the car.  The trails had good signage and only a little mud.

A few weeks ago I completed my first traverse of Cougar, Squak and Tiger Mountains from my home in Issaquah.  Unfortunately I was too lazy afterwards to write up a trip report.  I did have such a great time that I decided it was time for a double loop of these three mountains from my home.  I believe I have gotten on the trails listed on this report but have included a track of my trip in the section below.

I started the first loop counterclockwise hitting Cougar Mountain first.  All trails were in great conditions with no snow.  Squak trails listed had a couple of small blowdowns and a couple of patchy ice sections but these were all easily gotten around.  For Tiger, Poo Poo Point Trail was snow free.  West Tiger RR grade still had snow covering significant portions of the trail but never deeper than  four or five inches.  Once on West Tiger 3, the trail above West Tiger RR grade was a sheet of ice, but below it was pretty clear.  The remaining trails were in fantastic shape.

Once I was back at home, I reloaded with food, turned around a retraced my steps.  Eleven hours on a glorious spring like day, covering 50 miles. Very fortunate to have these trails located so close to home!   Apologies for the lack of pictures but I was concentrating on just being in the moment. :)