On a beautiful, cool Sunday, Cougar Mountain pleasantly lacked the crowds of the more popular hikes. Right now, the edges of the trails are full of wildflowers, especially bleeding hearts. Enjoy them before they get mowed by King County Parks.

I joined a WTA work party at Cougar Mountain today. We started at the Harvey Manning Trailhead. I arrived around 8 AM and parking was plentiful. There are privies available and they are in decent shape. Our work for the day mostly involved improving drainage on the Lost Beagle Trail, with one group working on a problematic muddy area and the other securing a culvert with rocks and gravel. When the work party ended around 2 PM, the parking area was full. 

After the work party, I took advantage of the good weather and decided to hike a bit. From the parking area, my hike was a counterclockwise loop involving all of the trails named in the title of this trip report. All of the trails are in good shape and are mostly dry with no blocking obstacles of note. This route has a good variety of up and down with flat stretches of trail. It's worth noting that the Harvey Manning Trailhead is the highest trailhead on Cougar Mountain so pretty much everything is down from the trailhead and of course, everything is up on your return trip. My loop hike took about 2 hours and Strava noted the distance to be about 4.5 miles. I also noticed that the bugs were out in force today and were generally abundant whenever we stopped moving during the work party but were not bad while I was hiking. So I guess the key is to keep moving! 

All the trails are well signed but it's always good to have a map handy. There is a large map at the trailhead you can take a picture of to reference during your hike or you can download one at this link: 

https://aqua.kingcounty.gov/gis/web/VMC/recreation/BCT_CougarMtn_brochure.pdf

10 ish mile hike in the Cougar Mt area starting at Harvey Manning TH. Lots of slush and mud on the trail.

We did a “figure-8” loop starting at Harvey Manning to Fred’s Railroad to Shy Bear up to Wilderness Peak, then back tracked to Shy Bear and looped around to Doughty Falls, Far Country Falls, Coal Creek Falls and finally back to the TH via the Quarry trail. Whew!

Beautiful snowy morning with muddy, slushy trails. The new overlook at Doughty falls is lovely. There are a few trees down, but thanks to those who recently cleared all the big trees that would have passed a real problem.

The road up to the TH was a bit icy in the morning, but melted out by noon. Portapotties at TH open and clean.

Disclaimers

Quick-and-dirty version

Access: Bear Ridge Trailhead
Round Trip: 7.7 miles
Elevation Range: 200′-1489′
Essential Gear: none
Dog-Friendly: yes

The rain hasn't let up since the holiday. I started at 8 when it died down a bit. Then it was between drizzles and slight showers up until the time I left.

The Trails

The massive trail system on this mountain is generally well-maintained and signed at most forks. The few downed trees I encountered were likely from recent rainstorms. All bridges over creeks were covered in thin plastic (?) grating to keep from slipping. A++!

• Bear Ridge: two skinny downed trees; step over.
• Harvey Manning: two half-fallen trees south of Lost Beagle Trail fork; walk underneath.
• Shangri-La: two big logs between Surprise Creek and Tibbetts Marsh Trail forks; step over.

My Route

I started from Bear Ridge Trailhead, directly south of West Tibbetts Creek. The route took me through several trails with a stop at the Million Dollar View Pergola. The misty Lake Sammamish was visible through the small opening from the pergola. On the return, I exited southbound via Anti Aircraft Peak through more trails before coming out at Bear Ridge Trail to hike out.

Highlights

• View of Lake Sammamish from the only viewpoint along the route
• Glimpses of Tiger Mountain and the neighboring Squak Mountain through tree branches

Lowlights

• Non-stop rain from the get-go

Most of the official trails in Cougar Mountain have been cleared of windfall. Thank you to King Co Parks for that huge effort.  The Harvey Manning trail (aka Precipice Bottom trail) is officially closed due to a bridge outage at the east end of the trail.  The west end of the trail is officially closed but up until the windstorm was in perfectly good condition.  I use this trail to access a bootleg alternative (preferred) route on the lower section of the Big Tree Ridge Trail (see Alltrails tracing).  The Harvey Manning trail and the Big Tree alt route are heavily burdened with windfall.  They could use some serious help.  I will go back with a saw when I get a chance.  It's gonna take a few visits.  

There's also a nice unmarked alternate route on the mid/upper Big Tree Ridge Trail (see AllTrails) that also has lots of windfall that will also be a good winter project.

The largest windfall on the official Big Tree Ridge Tr (see photos) has recently been cut.  I counted 234 rings on this one!  Another cut windfall further up the trail was 140 years old by ring count.