Almost every New Years Eve I do a hike on Tiger Mountain. This tradition began in 1983, my second year of regular hiking. Since then I have only missed one New Years Eve hike. After two hikes the previous three days I was a bit tired. Gary came up with a challenging trip from the far south to the north side of Tiger. It visited three summits. With snow at higher elevations it would be tough to get in the full route in daylight. I signed on. I met Gary and John at High Point on the north side. We drove around to the south side. This would be a one way trip. Just a few minutes into the trip we passed a lone hiker. That was it for the next 8.5 hours. It had been ten years since Gary and I had been to the Grand Canyon of Fifteen Mile Creek. We each had an idea of the route on the unofficial boot path that goes up to the Hobart Railroad Grade. It was not how we remembered it. Our journey was off to an interesting beginning. The trail is in fine shape up the Grand Canyon. The canyon narrows greatly as we proceeded. Soon the tread was much worses than we recalled. A trail headed off uphill but it was not the one we had done before. We continued to where the narrow tread dropped to the creek. Into the creek. This was very different than ten years earlier. Our GPS maps showed the route going up the creek for a ways farther before heading uphill. We were not anxious to go knee deep wading up the creek at the start of a long hike. We backtracked. It is very steep to get out of the canyon. Several possibilities did not look promising. We ended back at the first trail we had seen. It quickly turns straight uphill. The lip of the canyon proved to be a real scramble but we made it up onto the ridge. No signs of a trail, or a boot path. Some brush, forest, and downed logs. The map showed that following the ridge up would bring us to the Hobart grade. Up we went. By this time we had spent nearly an hour and not gone far. The ridge was slow and tiring but not too bad. There are ribbons up there but no tread. We finally hit a trail. It was the old trail Gary and I have done several times before coming up from the creek. Our junction was just a few yards before the railroad grade. It was 9:50 when we reached the grade. It took us 1.5 hours to hike 2.3 miles. The route finding and off trail bushwhacking put us well behind schedule. We still had a long way to go. On the positive side, we were back on trail. Near the start we saw a strange bright white fungus of some type. It had many thin tendrils. Along the Hobart grade we saw much more of it. If I've seen it before I do not recall. The grade was much faster. A little muddy in places but no downed logs to crawl over. Now at 1575' we saw patches of snow. We were still more than 1400' below our intended high point. We allowed for the possibility of missing East Tiger Mountain if the snow was too soft and we ended up with a lot of deep post holing on the road sections where the snow would be deepest. Although our next destination Middle Tiger Mountain was right above us, the route took us far to the north then back to the south. Along the grade we noticed one old cable spanning a ravine. John showed us his high wire act, such as it was. From the Hobart grade we had .25 miles uphill to reach the Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT). At the TMT we turned to the right. The TMT is a fine trail but not as flat as the railroad grade. Lots of ups and downs. From the Hobart Grade on we saw footprints in most of the snow patches. I was surprised to see them in these lesser visited parts of Tiger. Especially in the winter. At the Middle Tiger junction we took a short break. Although we were at about 2150' it was a few degrees above freezing. Warmer than we had planned for. The half mile trail up Middle Tiger was mostly bare at the bottom but soon was fully snow covered. Not enough footprints to polish it to an icy surface. We had fine traction. We reached the Middle Tiger summit at 11:30 pm. Just about five miles into our day. five hours of daylight left but still a long way to go. We descended from Middle Tiger to the logging spur below. We knew that once out of the forest the snow would be deeper. Just how soft it would be would determine whether we could reach East Tiger or detour directly to West Tiger 1. At the bottom of the trail is a wooden gate to keep out bikes and horses. It is the narrowest one I have ever seen. I had to know if beanpole Gary could fit through. Much to my surprise he did though even he had to turn a little to fit. As expected the snow was now several feet deep. There were some post holes from a hiker who had passed through when the snow was much softer. For the most part it held our weight. John and I had more problems with sinking knee deep or more. It was tiring but not as bad as I feared. After the unexpected bushwhacking I did not need more extra tiring travel. If the main road was even softer that would probably rule out East Tiger for me. Soon enough we reached the road coming from Tiger Summit on Highway 18. There were tracks on it. Nicely compacted and firm tracks. This was a game changer. No more post holing. Much easier travel. Up we headed towards East Tiger Mountain. One can follow the road all the way around East Tiger and up to the summit. This is much longer than we had time for. Instead we left the road in the vicinity of the Preston Railroad Grade. We slogged up the steep slope directly towards the summit. The snow was much softer in the forest. Much deeper too. This was slow going but not a great distance. We were all pleased to reach the road just below the 3004' summit. In a short time we were on top. One great thing about the day was a total lack of wind. it was cold but not as bad as it might have been. Since my last visit the DNR folks have put up an information board with a full map of Tiger and all the trails. We had some of our lunch on Middle Tiger and more of it on East Tiger. It was 12:54 and we were 7 miles into our trip. We still had half the distance to cover and only 3.5 hours. It had take a little over 4.5 hours so far. On the positive side, we had gained 2700'. There was much less to gain the rest of the way. Now came the most important bit of navigating. The East Tiger Trail over to the Christmas Tree near Tiger 1 is a sketchy trail in the summer. It would be completely under snow this day. We used our GPS units extensively to find our way. It worked well as we reached the Preston Railroad Grade right at the junction with the East Tiger Trail. The snow was less deep now and we could see cut logs and figure the trail location much better. There are also a number of paint spots on trees to help with navigation. We continued to drop to the 2180' low point. A little climbing brought us to the junction with the Paw Print Trail. A few minutes later we were at the Christmas Tree. Just 12 days earlier we did a headlamp hike there in non stop rain. Much nicer this day. We picked up a filled balloon a few minutes earlier and added it to the Christmas Tree. It was now 2:48 pm. Just under two hours of daylight left. We could take the Bootleg Trail directly down as we did on the headlamp hike. We could continue another 1.2 miles uphill to the summit of 2948' West Tiger 1. I was beat . We chose to head up. We saw no footprints on the East Tiger Trail but we had them on the Bootleg. No need for GPS navigation. Climbing another 650' on snow was a pain. It was slow. Up we went. At the junction with the Preston Trail is became flatter. Just three days earlier I came up the Preston Trail and had to kick a trail in deep snow the last short way to the summit. This day there was a packed track. I turned around almost immediately and headed down. The others had another short food break. We met up again at the Preston Trail junction. this route was much more packed down than on Friday. It was a bit slick too. Might have stopped to but on traction devices but we chose to slide on down. I was surprise that nobody took a tumble. We made very good time downhill. The snow was getting thin at Fred's Corner and disappeared once off the old High Point Trail. Back on the smooth TMT in forest without snow we sped up more. The battle was on to see if we could make it out before darkness forced us to take out our headlamps. We just made it. On Saturday I finished hiking at Wallace Lake at 5:05. This day we reached the car at 5:08. Dark but not quite pitch black. I drove back to the south side of the mountain to Gary's car. This was probably the most ambitious and likely the most fun New Years Eve Tiger hike so far. It was definitely the most tiring. Per John's and my GPS units it looks like we hiked about 14 miles with 3800' of gain. Since we started higher than we finished we had over 4000' of descent. Lots of snow, a little unplanned bushwhacking, some careful navigation, good friends, led to a heck of a great New Years hike! I have posted 36 photos on my website located at: http://www.hikingnorthwest.com. Go to "Trips - 2012" on the left margin.

Did a long ramble from the trailhead at SR 18's Tiger Mountain Summit, first heading toward the Grand Canyon of Fifteen Mile Creek on the West Side Road, then returning via pieces of the Hobart-Middle Tiger RR Grade and Tiger Mountain Trail. The "Grand Canyon" is not as grandiose as the Arizona original but pretty impressive by Tiger Mountain standards. A pleasant wheel-chair accessible trail leads to the most scenic part of the canyon, where there is a waterfall tumbling over a ledge of sandstone, as well as relics from an extensive coal mining operation. I tried to follow the old trail that connects the upper end of the canyon with the Hobart RR grade trail, but floods and landslides have obliterated the route. I ended up taking an arduous cross-country route to get to the RR grade. Hello DNR...it would be nice to build a new version of the connector trail! The hiking was again easy on the Hobart RR grade, with only a few blowdowns and slumped sections on the trail to contend with. I love this trail--the valley of Fifteen Mile Creek must be the some of the most secluded and quiet country on Tiger Mountain. A short connector trail (steep, muddy, and poorly built) took me up from the end of the RR grade to the Tiger Mountain Trail near Hal's Cove. A four mile stretch of the Tiger Mountain Trail took me back to the West Side Road. This trail was in pretty good shape, but long sections of it were narrow and slumped--this will be a good treadwork project for some energetic young trail crew. Beyond Millan's Crossing, the trail condition gets better, although poaching by mountain bikes is a continuing problem. I was happy to see that a switchback that had been wrecked by the mountain bikes had been repaired. The old second growth forest along the TMT is magnificent and there are even some views.

For today's Tiger Mountain ramble, I hiked the spectacular Grand Canyon of Fifteen Mile Creek trail, the peaceful Hobart-Middle Tiger RR trail, and back on roads and trails over Middle Tiger Mountain. The weather started out gray and cold, and grew grayer as the day progressed. As I descended from Middle Tiger, the skies turned black and I was engulfed in an intense blizzard that dropped several inches of snow in a few minutes. The promised chill and snow of a La Nina winter is arriving as predicted. Here are the trail condition summaries: Grand Canyon of Fifteen Mile: If you think Tiger has nothing but boring forest trails, you need to check this place out. The trail is in good shape up to the waterfall vista. Looks like recent trail improvements has been done, and the formerly dreadful mud bogs are gone. Also gone is the sad vandalized outhouse at the trailhead; the DNR wisely decided to put it out of its misery. Beyond the waterfall (which is pretty impressive right now with all the rain), the trail deteriorates. There are blowdowns and a section of the trail has slid away into the creek. At the official end of the trail, look for an extremely rough path, marked by flagging, that climbs the hillside to connect with the Hobart-Middle Tiger RR trail. Hobart-Middle Tiger RR Grade: In good condition, a bit rough and muddy. This must be one of the most remote and quiet places on Tiger Mountain. The link trail that goes from the north end of the Hobart RR grade to the Tiger Mountain trail is also a bit sketchy but o.k.--the last time I was here, this trail had been almost destroyed by blowdown, so it's good to see it reopened. TMT from Hal's Cove to Custer's Bridge: In good shape, with mud being the main problem. Middle Tiger Trail: In good shape from north end to TMT. Overly steep in spots. Illegal use by mountain bikes is rampant. Wheels have remodeled the trail, turning the switchbacks into sweeping curves. From the TMT to Road 1000, the trail is rarely traveled, brushy, narrow, and generally in poor shape.

I enjoyed a short loop hike on Hobart-Middle Tiger RR Grade and Grand Canyon trails. The HMTRRG trail is one of the nicest examples of a logging railroad grade on Tiger. The grade makes a lot of impressive cuts through the hillsides, and some sections appear to be built wide enough to accomodate two tracks. This trail is little used, brushy, with a number of fallen logs on it. It could use some maintenance work, but that might detract from the wonderful wilderness feel of the trail as it gradually climbs deep into the remote valley of Fifteenmile Creek. Along the trail, signs of spring are beginning to appear, including triliums and salmonberry blooms. To get to the Grand Canyon of Fifteen Mile Creek from the HMTRRG, I followed a crude connector trail, not shown on the Green Trails map, that drops straight down the hillside to the end of the Grand Canyon Trail. The start of this trail is well marked with flagging. The final plunge to the bottom of the canyon is incredibly steep, requiring the use of ""vegitable belays"" to stay upright on the slick muddy slope. I then followed the Grand Canyon trail down the valley, along the way admiring the tall sandstone cliffs and waterfalls. ""Grand Canyon"" is a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one; this place is truly impressive in spots. The coal mining relicts are interesting to look at, too, The main waterfall is running strongly right now, quite a sight. However the short trail to the overlook is terribly muddy. In fact,most of the trail suffers from failed drainage features and mudholes. Don't bring your dress shoes here! The whole Grand Canyon trail has a delapidated air from lack of maintenance. The builders of this trail had put in a lot of work putting up interpretaive signs and making some of the trail wheelchair accessible. Now much of the trail is overgrown, and the trailhead facility is a wreck, pretty well destroyed by the local teenage hoodlums from Mirrormont. I used the Tiger Mountain Road trailhead, which makes access fast and easy to this area. There is just one big problem with this trailhead: by design, there is no legal parking anywhere nearby. All of the ""no parking"" signs do serve as markers that make finding the trailhead easy.

This is a short but interesting hike to an area that does not get much attention in terms of trail maintenance or hikers. I had been in the area once before, hiking the road from Highway 18 to the trail head which adds about 10 miles to a 2.5 mile hike. The road walk while ok by road standards, adds little to the hike. As others have reported, there is a shortcut off the Tiger Mt. Road just after a sign advertises the opposite. This trail leads to a road. A short walk down this road (to the west) drops you into a well signed trail head with a rest room to the ""Grand Canyon"" trail. I would advise not parking on Tiger Mt. Road as one of the area residents does not like the idea of people using this trail. There is parking for 4 to 8 vehicles in a neighborhood just south of the trail head. The trail is used by hang glider aficionados to get to ""POO POO"" point via a shuttle service. The trail was well set up for wheel chair access and would be great for trail for such use if access conditions could be improved. Maintenance is limited and parts of the upper trail have ""sloughed"" into 15 mile creek. Highlights of the trip included several side trips down to 15 mile creek and a view of an abandoned (sealed) coal mine.