Did what ended up being a triple-loop trail (map below) starting from the French cafe at Talus, up via Bear Ridge->West Tibbett's->Mine Shaft->East Fork->Fred's->Quarry->Shy Bear->Fred's->Cougar Pass->West Tibbett's->Protector->Shangri La. Including the sidewalk section it added up to 9.5 miles and just over 2K feet of gain. Weather was great, just over 60F, and started out partly cloudy but ended up being mostly sunny in the end.

The trails have some moist sections from the recent rains but nothing terrible. Bear Ridge has some creek-running-down-the-trail for a short bit, West Tibbett's has a few mud pits and soggy sections, Shy Bear has a good number of soggy bits and the westernmost section of Cougar Pass has quite a bit of mud. All were passable in trail runners with some careful stepping. Bugs were not too bad today as long as you kept moving, but there were a few sections where the background buzzing was constant.

The wildflowers are getting past prime, but there's still a few nice sections here and there. The foliage throughout is very full and lush, so in a few sections the trails feel narrower than even a few weeks back.

Not much crowd today, I passed about one party on each of the longer trail sections.

Beautiful afternoon for a ~5 mile day hike! Almost no mud on the trail and not crowded at all; arrived around 1:30 p.m. and parked at the Sky Country trailhead. A nice, easy low-elevation trek to get the season started. The falls were lovely and the mossy trees on the swamp stretch were especially interesting.

Began my exploratory hike from the Sky Country Trailhead. While hiking the Old Man's Trail I saw the King County Parks had put in new fence posts and railings at the old mine shaft openings and where the trail comes out to the road. Once up to the Fred's Railroad Trail, I turned left and hiked up the Clay Pit Road. At the pit I turned right by the wood bench and followed the trail up an old roadbed that is south of the former clay pit. Parts of this trail are wet and muddy. After getting to a grassy area, I took the trail along the ridge line and hiked out to a viewpoint high above the old pit. I could see over to Issaquah, and if it were a clear day, you could see some mountains, but not today. I was looking for the start of the old Blackwater Trail that ran south to Wilderness Peak. Did not see anything here, so backtracked down the trail, then took the connector trail over to the West Fork Trail by Jerry's Duck Pond. This trail comes out by the "Keep Wildlife Wild" sign, I saw one male mallard duck in the green Algy pond with some frogs croaking. Hiking south down the West Fork Trail I came to an unsigned side trail heading off uphill to the left. This was the old connector trail that hooked into the Blackwater Trail. This trail has been brushed out in some areas and there are a few fallen trees to step over. About 50 yards up the trail is an old King County parks "Horses Prohibited" sign on an Alder tree. A little further along the trail leaves the old roadbed and turns left continuing uphill through a mixed stand of trees. It then turns right as it heads toward Wilderness Peak. This was now the Blackwater Trail. It made a big curve to the left and then back right where I came out to the Wilderness Peak Trail about 0.1 miles from the summit. I turned left off the Blackwater Trail and passed the now closed former Whittiker Trail that has been rebuilt in a new location. The old Whittaker Trail is covered in logs and brush, so you have to use the new one.

I hiked up to the summit of Wilderness Peak that has a fairly new bench and had a snack break. I then hiked down the Wilderness Peak Trail to Shy Bear Pass and saw some of the new sections of the Whittaker Trail. From the pass I hiked the Shy Bear Trail to where it meets the Fred's Railroad Trail. I took Fred's back to the West Fork Trail, then past Jerry's Duck Pond (the mallard duck was now asleep on a log in the pond) and down the Mine Shaft Trail to the bench by the old air shaft covered in rebar since it is 1,200 feet deep. After lunch I hiked back to the trailhead to complete my hike.

I had read about the Blackwater Trail in the book, "Hiking and Strolling Trails of Cougar Mountain" by Harvey Manning & Ralph Owen from 1995. Harvey had first hiked the Blackwater Trail back in 1976. There is a large fold out map with the book that shows the Blackwater Trail. Today's Green Trails and All Trails maps do not show this trail. I had a fun time exploring this old trail. This trail is not for everyone, as some people might get lost. George

Walked a messy clockwise loop from the Redtown Trailhead hitting four of the major waterfalls, (Coal Creek, Doughty, Far Country and North Fork) on Cougar this morning.  Only 10 or so vehicles in the lot at 7:30 but completely overflowing by 11 with folks waiting for spots.  No pass required.  There are two well used but functional sanicans.  Trails were generally in excellent shape - a bit of mud but honestly much less than I was expecting given all the recent rain.  Quite a bit of recent trail work done, especially with upgrading drainage and it really shows - kudos to the crews that worked those.  

Our route was as follows - Military Road to Cave Hole to Coal Creek Falls trail to the falls, left on Quarry, right on Fred’s RR and another quick right onto Shy Bear, out and back on Deceiver to Doughty Falls, down Far Country trail to the lookout and then Far Country Falls then back along Indian and Redtown trails with a quick hop across Lakemont Blvd to catch the final falls, North Fork Falls then back to the parking lot.  Total distance came out at about 6.2 miles with about 1240’ gross vertical.  Some early spring birds out and an occasional douglas squirrel sounding the alarm.  Spring buds are starting to open, nettles, bleeding hearts and skunk cabbage is up but didn’t see any trillium yet.  One neat additional surprise this morning - the Newcastle Historical Society had a pop up booth with folks and a bunch of items found at the site - super cool.  A nice, relatively easy loop to see four separate waterfalls.  

Link to King County trail map - https://aqua.kingcounty.gov/gis/web/VMC/recreation/BCT_CougarMtn_brochure.pdf

Link to Newcastle Historical Society - https://www.newcastlewahistory.org/

My entire hiking group met for the first time since covid started to check out the new Wilderness Peak trail reroute on Cougar Mtn.  Twenty hikers showed up so we split up into 2 smaller groups. We started from the Sky Country TH where there was ample parking space at 9:30.  It was 40 degrees with overcast skies. Our out and back lollipop loop hike followed the Old Man’s trail, Fred’s Railroad, Shy Bear, the New Wilderness Peak Trail, Gombu and Wilderness / Whittaker trails then back to Shy Bear where we retraced our steps back to Sky Country for a 7 mile outing.  The entire trail was well drained and it was evident in many sections where recent trail work groups worked to improve the drainage and water run off.  Thank you to all the WTA Trail work volunteers your work is much appreciated. One of the days highlights was a flock of 50 our more chickadees, flittering in the deciduous canopy near Wilderness Peak.  At first our group was trying to decide what the noise was and where it was coming from.  Personally, I have never seen that many birds anywhere on Cougar Mtn.  After stopping for a lunch /rest break on the Gombu trail we got back to the TH just before 2:30.  Another fantastic day to be out in nature with friends.