Moderately interesting hike on the Saratoga Woods portion of this complex. Almost no signage, which hasn't encouraged me to try the rest of the system. Available maps don't quite match the actual trails. The best part about the trip is the giant glacial erratic midhike, but otherwise it's difficult to squeeze more than two miles out of this bad boy in a single loop. 

We made a 5.6 mile loop starting/ending at the parking lot on Lone Lake Road, hitting Canterberry, Coyote, Moss Valley, Pteronyms, Sleepy Hollow, North Leg, Fern Loop, South Leg, Tricholoma, Strix Varia, Spider Web, Edgewood, Frog Lane, Ross Road, Withering Heights, and back along the Trail of Wild Fells. Whew! Only ran into 3 other people in 3 hours. So peaceful and quiet along the trails. A few muddy spots, but never more than 20 feet or so of trail that was sodden. A great place to meander, get lost in thought, and relax.

We hiked around Putney Woods, then visited the Waterman Erratic in the Saratoga Woods.

We started from the Lone Lake parking lot, which had a picnic table and a portapotty, but no trash can. There was a large map posted, but they were out of paper maps. We walked counterclockwise, with the goal of doing the largest possible loop on the Putney Trails (without taking Pteromys or Spider Webb trails into the Metcalf Trails system). This method added up to a bit more than 4 miles. We had no trouble staying oriented. The trail was soft, dry, mostly flat, and clear. We saw only a handful of other folks. 

Then we moved the car to the Saratoga Woods parking lot and went to look for the Waterman Erratic. An erratic is a rock moved by a glacier from its original location, and the Waterman is reportedly the second largest glacial erratic in Washington. If you take any trail west from the Saratoga Woods lot to the Wood Landing Strip, then walk north on the landing strip almost to the end of the strip, you will see a trail to the west marked by a rock. The Waterman is a few hundred feet down the trail. Its coordinates are 48.060556,-122.463056.

It’s easy to see that this giant greenish rock doesn’t belong in its current location! The walk there and back was easy, about a mile total. The trails were easily passable, with a bit more elevation change than the Putney Woods trails. This was a pleasant walk with an interesting goal.

We entered from the Putney Woods access point and enjoyed such names as Trail of Two Kitties, Edgewood, Wile E. Coyote, Two Deer Lane, Moss Valley, and Blazing Saddles (with a broken sign). Many fresh berries, even a couple of horses on the trail to say hello to. This is a fun spot with a lot of trails covering many miles. It could be easy to get lost in here but there were often signs and full maps that were extremely accurate, available along the trail. Come for a quarter mile, stay for 10 :).

It rained last night, so the trail was very muddy and very buggy. Good system to spend an afternoon in though.