A few off-leash dogs, as usual, on Poo Poo Point trail / High School trail. After the junction with One View trail, I didn't see another person until Middle Tiger trail. The TMT closure sign is gone at the junction with TMT-Fifteen Mile, though there was an older Danger: Logging sign that someone left up along the TMT, just after the intersection with Hobart Grade.

TMT is quite overgrown in areas, a little challenging.

The clearcut along the TMT, before the Middle Tiger Trail, is brutal: sunny, exposed, dusty. Wild, but you can see South Tiger from the TMT now that it's all stumps. A work crew was repairing the TMT, thanks folks!

"East Tiger Connector" (which doesn't connect there anymore) between the road over Soderman Creek and Bootleg Trail was incredibly overgrown - no trail closure sign, but I really wouldn't recommend it - easier to go around the old Paw Print Connector way (Fifteenmile Creek / Bootleg).

Lots of ripe berries, still: huckleberry, salmonberry, a few thimbleberries. Flowers are dying back and bit, with some old vanilla leaf and bleeding heart, but foamflower and foxglove still looks fresh. There's a spot along TMT near W Tiger that has ghost pipe and coralroot, and between WT1-Middle Tiger there's some bog wintergreen along it too.

The whole way was runnable except for portions of TMT and that "East Tiger Connector"

Parked in the cul-de-sac below the gated entrance to West Side Road. The 2 questionable spots along Tiger mt Rd SE are now signed NO PARKING. Wanted to head up to see the logging activity - from the road the logged out portion of the mountain is evident. We headed up 15 Mile Creek Trail and after the first bridge, took the trail up. It's what I would best describe as a single-track downhill mountain bike trail. Anyway, a nice moderate climb avoiding the walk up Road 1000 and the likely closed entrance to Hobart Middle Tiger RR. ONly a couple overgrown spots along the 0.7 miles until we hit HMTRR. SIgnage at that  point indicated the trail back toward the trailhead was closed, so we proceeded to the left. It soon became clear how long it's been since people have used this as it was very overgrown in spots. We got to the bottom of a logged out area and wondered why this section was not closed off. We didn't hear or see any activity and there was minimal risk, in our opinion, of instability, so we carried on. The trail was well-defined here, so someone had been through here. We again came upon more overgrowth, and my poles were not the proper bushwhacking tools, so my shins suffered numerous lacerations from the salmonberry. We got near the north side of the mountain, just before the normally wet and overgrown area then turned back. We scouted the trail beyond the closure signs, but again turned back because of the overgrowth. A theme today!

We headed back down to West Side Road and up to Hidden Forest Trail. The road got quite steep. A Paraglider van passed us a couple times. We found some ripe salmonberries along the way - I tried one - neither sour, nor sweet, but I don't like seeds, so I fed it to the bugs. The road was mostly exposed and heat was reflecting back up into our faces, so it was quite toasty.

Got up onto Hidden Forest and climbed even steeper terrain until it leveled out. But then the trail was once again covered, so we turned back about 1/3 of the way to the junction with 15 Mile RR Grade. Apparently someone has been blocking the trail with branches and Steve isn't pleased about it. There's a hand written note to the unknown party from Steve asking to have a discussion about it. That was the most eventful thing on our trip as we saw no wildlife, save for a few slugs, butterflies and a centipede, and a few people walking the road.

Found another side biking trail named Johnny Suede. It looked like an alternative to going down the road, but we couldn't find it on a map, so we turned around and just did the road. 

Back at the road, the car that was parked in front of the no parking sign when we arrived, was gone, but another was parked right in front of the gate. Apparently a low risk proposition...

We parked at the East Tiger parking lot off of Hwy 18 and followed West Side Road west toward the TMT. We made a connection to a trail and moved up toward the road to Poo Poo Point, on our way up toward West Tiger #1. After about 5.5 miles, we stopped at a beautiful stream in the deep woods and picked that as our turnaround point.

The road is in great condition, as are the trails. There is evidence of a lot of blow downs, but they are all clear of the road and trails. About half of the road passes through previous clear cut. The clear-cut area afforded some expansive views to the south, although on this cloudy day the most memorable was the Cedar Hills Landfill which looks like green farmland from here. It was a relief to see a new forest growing up in another section.

This was a hike-a-bike affair, with biking on the roads until they were too steep to go up, and then stashing the bikes for some enjoyment on the trails. I think next time we'll take a more trail heavy route and leave the bikes at home. We only saw five people and four dogs today.

The day started with heavy rain and wind, but it quickly settled down and made us delighted that we picked today to get out in the woods.

Hiked up Middle Tiger Trail from Tiger Mt Rd then back down along 15 Mile Creek. The trail is a little grown over in spots but in good shape. The eclipse was cool to see from up there.

Put together a ~5/5.5 mile loop of these trails this afternoon. There is a short stretch of the Hobart Railroad Grade that seems like it is set to be the southern boundary of an upcoming logging operation. Otherwise, Hobart is in pretty good condition.

The Fifteen Mile Creek Railroad Grade portion of the loop is well on its way to becoming quite overgrown. Fresh growth is pushing in on the trail, so it could definitely use a pass with some clippers or even just some more traffic to help keep all that nature (temporarily) at bay. I think it's pretty neat coming across the most substantial bridge I've ever seen on what currently feels like a game trail. This stretch should have *a lot* of salmon berries in the near future, if that's what you're into.