Just a quick 4 miles before work to start my Hike-a-thon. I also grabbed some geocaches on the way. Only saw a few people and some deer. I was told by a fellow hiker that she saw a bear with her cubs last week in the Watershed. The trails are very well maintained and once you are far enough into the watershed it is hard to believe it's in the middle of Redmond.

This is a great "back-pocket" hike for a quick wilderness fix. Went this morning with a bunch of friends and all our wee ones (seven kids aged 2.5-4 years), and everyone comfortably hiked a 2.5 mile loop. Millions of ripe red huckleberries to keep morale and energy high among the kidlet set. Plenty of banana slugs for little eyes to peer at and gingerly step over. Some mosquitos. Lush forest, beautiful as always.

I arrived at the trail around 4:20pm, and there were only two other cars in the park lot. In fact, I didn't see any other hikers as I made a wide loop around the preserve, just a couple trail runners and once I got to the east side of the preserve, several horses and cyclists. The trail is well-maintained and mostly flat. There were no muddy spots, and I didn't see much wildlife (certainly no bears or cougars). However, the preserve offers gorgeous foliage, and it's a lovely place for a peaceful walk. I started headed north on the Trillium Trail, went east on the Collin Creek Trail, south on Siler's Mill Trail to the Pipeline Regional Trail for a 4.6 mile loop that took one hour, 55 minutes.

Walked the big exterior loop at the Redmond Watershed Preserve in today's rainy weather starting at the northern parking lot off NE 133rd St. The total distance including a side trip to the northern pond is 4.7 miles with relatively little gross vertical. We had been down in the Phoenix area this past week - what a difference from 106 in the shade to 60 degrees and rain dripping from every single bright green leaf, (as side note, if you ever get the opportunity to do some hiking around the Sedona area don't pass it up - the place is absolutely spectacular.) The trails are in great shape. One large multiple tree blowdown had been completely cleaned up already along the old logging railroad grade trail the runs up the eastern edge of the watershed. The pipeline right of way that runs through the Preserve has been "maintained" recently so it looks quite a bit less natural now. Not much wildlife out today save for some Robins, Chickadees, annoyed brown squirrels and one big Heron that quickly took off from the pond hearing footsteps. No sign of the bear that has been seen in the area recently. The only other folks seen were some very wet trailrunners towards the south end of the park. A nice place for a beautiful walk in the rain.

Beautiful hike and trails. Feels secluded even though close to civilization. There were a lot of mosquitos. Lots of beautiful native plants to see on this trail.