Went for an afternoon exercise hike, a lollipop loop starting/ending at the Talus end of Shangri La trail: Shangri La->Protector->Tibbetts Marsh->Cougar Pass->Fred's Railroad->Shy Bear->Far Country->Indian->Red Town->Cave Hole->Coal Creek Falls->Quarry->Fred's Railroad->Clay Pit Road->Tibbetts Marsh->Protector->Shangri La. This came to about 9.6 miles and 1800 feet of gain. Started around 1:45pm, finished shortly after 5. Weather turned out better than forecast, being mostly sunny the whole time with some nice low angle light coming in through the trees. I passed one or two parties on each of the mentioned sections of trail (two parties repeatedly due to looping in opposite directions), except for Protector, Fred's Railroad and Red Town where I encountered no one.

Trails are in great condition the whole way with the exception of two extended mud sections on Cougar Pass Trail on both sides of the pass itself. There is one easy-to-negotiate blowdown on Shy Bear.

A friend and I completed an 8.5 mile waterfall tour of Cougar Mtn on Sunday! We hit up Coal Creek Falls (classic waterfall), Far Country Falls (a longtime goal of mine) and Doughty Falls (sort of boring tbh).

We did a loop, accessing the route via the Jim Whittaker TH. Over 8.5 miles we did about 2700 feet of elevation gain. It was the first big hike for us of the year and we are both a little sore today, but felt great to get some substantial miles in.

It rained all day, varying between a mist and actual raindrops, which made for a muddy trail that was slippery in spots but not terrible. The interpretive signs along the way were a great distraction and added to the hike, and the signs from King County do help, though some are a little faded and hard to read. We supplemented our navigation with my GAIA gps app.

At one point on Shy Bear Ridge, I heard some rustling and what sounded like a breaking stick off trail. Was it the shy bear? I hope so.

One thing of note, We saw probably 20-25 other people yesterday and the vast majority were trail runners. It seemed like so many more than I usually see on a hike... I'd love to know why Cougar is such a popular trail running destination!

Quick post here. Never got around to writing this report but want to post it for my own hike-logging sake.

Had to take a long hiatus from hiking. I injured my hamstring 5 miles into the Loowit Trail in August, then proceeded to hike through it for 85 more miles over the next two months before shutting it down after Maple Pass in October. I figured I'd let it heal over the fall/winter, but I didn't think it would take this long. It has been slowly on the mend and I was finally able to get back out there. Feels good to be back in nature after a long dark winter so far.

Hiked in the above order of trails. I parked at Red Town Trailhead and hiked up Military Road before turning South on Fred's RR trail. On that very brielfy before a brief stint on Shy Bear going over the pass and then climbing up to Wilderness Peak. Peak is forested and not too noteworthy besides a nice bench. I then returned to the car via Quarry Trail and Coal Creek Falls Trail. The falls were very nice but crowded. Running pretty steadily.

Nice first hike back in months. Hamstring and calf were tight, had to stop to stretch them out every mile or so.

5.85 miles

1000' ascent

GPS attached below

Saw some blue sky so sneaked out for a quick afternoon hike. It turned out to be overcast for about half the hike but then had some nice sunshine through the trees for the second half.

Did a figure-8-ish loop: Talus->Bear Ridge->West Tibbett's->Cougar Pass->Fred's Railroad->Whittaker Wilderness->Deceiver/Long View->Shy Bear->Fred's Railroad->Protector->Shangri La.

Trails are in great condition, very few muddy section which are not too bad to negotiate. There were a few people out this afternoon, mostly near Shangri La and Fred's Railroad. Didn't see anyone else on the whole Whittaker/Deceiver/Shy Bear portion.

Part of the Long View loop. 99% of other people were trail runners. Don’t really have anything against that except that it was notable how many of them there were. We were constantly stepping to the side. 0% mask usage. People weren’t keeping dogs leashed. Scenery was unimpressive without the foliage (see picture). Pleasant walk to clear the mind but can’t say I felt like it was much of an escape.