Beginning at Sky Country Trailhead, we pieced together about nine trails to make about a six mile loop in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park. The trails were all relatively easy, with very few steps.  Just beyond Anti-aircraft Peak there is a "Million Dollar View" of Lake Sammamish and the North Cascades.   From Shangri La we descended on Harvey Manning, then took Fred's Railroad, Quarry and Coal Creek Falls trails to Coal Creek Falls. 

There was light traffic on most of the trails, though the trails around the waterfall are favorite family trails, so we encountered several families with children and dogs near the falls.

Trails crisscross Cougar Mountain park so it is easy to make a loop of almost any length.  It is a favorite area for trail runners and dog walkers.

Volunteered with Washington Trails Assoication today along with about 30 other people. We worked on various trails in the park. The small group that I was working with worked on the Klondike Swamp Trail and Freds Railroad trail. Our focus was on drainage, clearing them out, and allowing them to function correctly with the water flowing off of the trail.

It was a short day, but a lot of fun.

Until next time,

 Happy Trails

Started my 7.5 mile loop hike from Red Town at Cougar Mtn. Hiked over Coal Creek to the Ford Slope Mine Shaft display. It is 2,000' down to the bottom of the coal mine. From there went over to the hoist house and saw mill locations used during the coal mining days on the W4 Trail. I then hiked the Wildside Trail over the hill to where it meets the De Leo Wall Trail and out a short distance to the Indian Trail. Far Country Falls didn't have much water as I past by. I hiked the Indian Trail all the way to it's end at a cul-da-sac by some houses. I then hiked back to the junction with the Shy Bear Trail. Hiked it up hill to the Far Country View Point where the view is getting smaller as the trees grow taller. The old log bench is in bad shape, as half of it has rotted away, so looks like King County Parks will need to replace it in the near future. After having a snack, I continued on the Shy Bear Trail as it goes up and down along the way to the junction with the Deceiver Trail. Past the junction the trail goes down into a wet area with metal grated bridges to walk on over the water. Back into the trees I found a spot for lunch with a fallen tree for a bench. The last time I hiked this section of the trail several years ago, a small Doug Fir had Christmas decorations on it, but not this time.

After eating I continued up, down and up again on the Shy Bear Trail, and came out on to the Fred's RR Trail. A short distance north I turned west and headed down the Quarry Trail. Part of this trail is on an old road bed. In a half mile I turned right and went down to the bridge across Coal Creek at Coal Creek Falls. Then is was back up hill to get to the Cave Hole Trail and down hill on another old road to the Red Town parking lot. The first time I did the loop part of my hike to day was twenty years ago. Still about the same.

Meet a few dog walkers, trail runners, four other hikers on the Indian Trail and more walkers near Red Town. No other hikers on the other trails I hiked. The further from Red Town you go, the fewer people you see. Made for a nice loop hike and even the sun came out. George

My dog, Miles, and I hiked from our apartment in the Talus development on the east of the Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park with the intention of hiking to Wilderness Peak and back before dinner.

We set out as usual via the Talus connector trail and up Bear Ridge past the Fantastic Erratic boulder. We then worked our way to the Clay Pit in about an hour for our first water break.  After a few minutes, we strolled down Clay Pit Road to Fred's Railroad Trail, onward through Shy Bear Pass, and up to Wilderness Peak. The trail was a little wet along the way with only a few puddles in the low areas. The top of Wilderness Peak is a small clearing in the forest with a nice, sturdy bench. We ran into some very friendly folks at the top and took some time to sign and read the guest book.

We took mostly the same route back with the exception of a diversion through Cougar Pass. We ran into a few groups that were lost and I helped them by referencing the map I keep in my backpack. It really is handy even with the well-marked intersections!

One thing I was curious about was the wood tower about 100 ft to the west of Fred's Railroad Trail. I'm sure it is connected to the mining history on Cougar Mountain, as it is in the vicinity of the covered mine shaft. It was probably just used for telephone or power lines, but it was interesting nonetheless. I was surprised to see it still standing.

Overall it was a fairly quiet day on Cougar Mountain. We logged about 6 miles in 3.5 hours with around 1000 ft in elevation change. I always enjoy hiking to landmarks in our "backyard"!

Started at Sky Country Trailhead at around 1pm. Parking lot was nearly full. Trail was in good condition. Muddy in spots but that was expected for an early spring hike. Trails have been cleared of fallen trees that were present a few weeks ago. Experienced a wide variety of weather including hail. Hiked a loop up to Anti Aircraft peak and were treated to a rainbow with the view at the top! Took Harvey Manning trail back. Returned to Sky Country Trailhead around 3:30pm.