I had last hiked this trail a year ago, and I was surprised today with the almost total lack of mud this time.  Typically this has been a fairly muddy trail in winter, but it looks as if some gravel may have been added, at least in the lower half.

It was a cool, sunny day, but I saw only a handful of other hikers and no horse riders.  I hiked up to the picnic table on the Knob but found it was in the shade, so I continued on, taking the left-hand trail off the road that leads to the other picnic table near the private land, which was catching the sun.  I looped back on Road K and Road A, for a total trip of 4.9 miles with 730 feet elevation gain.

Took a run on Taylor in hopes of finding some clear trails and it did not disappoint. There were a couple of larger trees on Elk Ridge that were not fully cleared but, overall, it was still clear enough that I could run the whole route

Horses
This is a very popular horse riding area. I feel like I'm sharing their trails. I try to be safe as they pass. Then there's poop. Horses are allowed on all of the trails. There's plenty of poop on the trail. Keep your eye on the trail to avoid it.
Road & TH
We used the SR 18 TH right off 276th Ave. There's a short gravel road to the gravel parking for cars. There's a separate parking area for horse trailers. It's all well maintained. Should be fine for most cars. We arrived at 7:45am on a Thursday morning. 1 car and 2 trucks with trailers were there. We returned at 2:15. The trucks and trailers were still there. We were the only car. The TH outhouse was locked before 8am, open in the afternoon. But there's a sanican in the trailer lot that was open early. Both are well stocked and cleaned.
The trails
Our route was a loop starting on Road A, Whiskey Still, Boot, Mountain Beaver trails. There we found Carey Creek is still closed due to washout. Back up Mountain Beaver, east on Boot to Road A to Road G. On Road G there's a kind of deep drainage ditch with a shallow small creek. Getting down the bank and up the other side is doable with care. Then up Elk Ridge. There's a spring crossing the trail about halfway up. It's easy to cross. Then the Shadow trail to Road A, Road K, Road I, Holder Knob to Road A and back to the TH. The south leg of Holder Knob is a bit overgrown including thistle and stinging nettle. Stinging nettle is generally plentiful on all of the trails. Most of the trails are in good shape with good footing. We covered about 10.3 miles and 1120 gain. Saw 4 hikers, 5 horses and riders and three dogs. Everyone was friendly. Lots of banana slugs. One was 6 inches long! Lots of flowers, sometimes in huge beautiful banks together. Buttercup, Herb Robert and Candy flower/ miner's lettuce. Also saw lush scour rush and pink and white Fox Glove.

This was my second time hiking at Taylor Mountain and I've been pleasantly surprised both times. All of the trails that I've been on have been nice and very well maintained. Lucked out and timed it pretty much perfectly for sun on the way up to Holder Knob, sunset views up in the clearcut and fading colors while running down. GPS track below.

Just a quick easy saunter through the woods to a summit with barely peekaboo views of Rainier and Tiger Mountain. Pretty fully shaded the whole way, and it's clear that it has been logged, although there are still a few impressive old trees. The main point was to tick a box: Taylor Mountain is the only one of the Issaquah Alps that I had not yet explored. It doesn't really have anything that Tiger or even Squak doesn't have more of, but now I've seen it. It does seem popular with horses, although I only saw... what they left behind. In fact, I didn't see a soul on the whole trail, just a slug and some butterflies.