Did a 4.0 mile or so loop starting from the sky country trail head. Condition of the trail was very good overall. Was a little confused in the beginning of the trail where there is a lot of intersections between the clay pit road and old man's trail. Started hiking from the Old Man's trail and to Fred's Railroad trail - then on to the East fork trail. Saw the Mine shaft ventilation hole which was grate covered (this part of the trail was dense with trees and swamps around). You cross the clay pit road and then reach the cougar pass trail - you can see the huge clay pit at the end of this road. Then did a loop around Klondike Marsh - saw few joggers along the way. Again crossed the clay pit road to go to the cave hole trail - according to the map there was a cave hole (point of interest) in this route, which I somehow missed :( - looped back to the parking lot via the Nike horse trail.

This was a 3 mile loop though Cougar Mt. Park. Flowers were beginning to bloom including phlox, cinquefoil and lupine (on road to trail head). Forest is in full spring green and quite lovely to walk through. The trails are a bit muddy with heavy mud in some stretches but no real difficulties. The falls are running well with all the rain and saw a couple at the top of the falls with their dogs. Access was via a steep but short trail on the north side of the Coal Creek Falls. Some brief showers but otherwise a dry hike.

A warm and almost too hot day for a hike or even long walk. With temperatures in the 90's I opted for a shady walk in Cougar Mt. Park and was rewarded with taking a trail (boot path called the Wilderness Peak cut off) from the peak to the Wilderness Cliffs trail. There are some low land flowers still in bloom but the creeks are running low or are dry. Great news for people who hike the area in winter and encounter the mud and muck. No so great if you want to see Coal Creek Falls - not much water in the creek. Walk provided a moderate work out of about 5.5 miles plus 1000 feet of elevation gain/loss. Many people out on the trails but no one on the Wilderness Peak Cut Off Trail. This trail has a fair number of blow downs and steep to moderately steep sections. My guess is that the trail length is about 1/2 mile and drops about 300 to 400 feet from the peak. The trail is easy to follow with little trail finding skill required.

This was a 4.5 mile round trip with about 500 to 600 feet of elevation gain/loss. The trails are mostly dried out from the wet spring with very few mud holes that have not hardened. The spring rains did bring out flowers, phlox, trillium and bleeding heart were in evidence. The trees are all decked out with spring leaves and the scent of spring was in the air on this sunny day. It took about 1.75 hours to do the hike sans pack and with light hiking shoes. Saw several hikers on the trail to Wilderness Peak and one man resting on the bench at the summit. A great walk and a nice sunny day for a walk.

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.