Like the June report, the storyboards ended without a conclusion. Trail was simple to follow and plenty of wildflowers were blooming all along. Plenty of ripe salmonberries on the trailside.

We arrived at the trailhead parking lot just before 3pm on a Saturday. There were a good number of cars parked on the side of the road coming in, but the main parking lot was only about 1/4 full. 

We hiked with a toddler and a dog. This trail doesn't have much elevation gain so it's an easy enough walk for little kids. The trail was a bit overgrown in spots, which isn't much of an issue for adults, but much of the overgrown brush was at about face-level for our toddler so if your child isn't ready to push away branches or leaves, I'd bring a hiking carrier just in case. I recommend long sleeves and pants for littles.

Plenty of bugs were out, and we did see quite a few mosquitos. Wear bug spray if you tend to get bitten. The forest is lush with ferns and mosses plus wildflowers blooming along the trail, and the tree cover provided good shade on a hot day. Our son enjoyed the storyboards, but there might be one or two missing at the end because the last storyboard we read was clearly not the end of the story, so that was a bit disappointing. 

We turned around at the end of the Swamp Trail at the sign for the Big Tree Trail. Out to that point and back was a little over a mile. All in all, it's a pleasant and gentle hike for families with small children, but be prepared to make up your own ending to the story of Zoe and the Swamp Monster due to the missing storyboards!

Tall Oregon grape and sitka willow are blooming and with the warm weather, the pollinators were out on Tradition Plateau. The 1st photo is almost a where's Waldo, they can be very small.

Our group of five senior hikers from 72 to 82 met at the High Point trailhead parking lot to do a loop hike on the lower slopes of Tiger Mtn. on this sunny day. We headed out on the Swamp Trail which has story boards along the way that children would enjoy reading about "Zoey and the Swamp Monster". The trail crosses some metal bridges over the swampy areas. When we got to the Brink Trail, we saw where many trees had blown down in last Novembers cyclone windstorm. Took a lot of work to cut out all of the fallen trees. Hiking on the Puget Power Trail (an old road) we got to the bench with a view of Issaquah and Lake Sammamish.

After some photos (we even saw two Garder snakes out enjoying the sun) we hiked the Park Point Connector Trail. It also had a lot of downed trees from the storm that are now cut out. We saw a few Trilums along the way. This trail goes up and down and comes out on to the High School Trail (another old roadbed). We headed up hill on it and met up with the Bonneville Trail (BPA power line road). We then turned off on to the Wetlands Trail and stopped for lunch at the benches at Round Lake. There were a couple of ducks in the lake. The lake was a former mill pond for a lumber mill during the logging days on Tiger Mtn.

When we finished with lunch, we hiked the Wetlands Trail out to the Puget Power Trail. We hiked it to get to the Around the Lake Trail which goes on the south side of Tradition Lake. When we arrived at the spot near the lake with several benches there was a large group of middle school students having an outdoor class put on by Mountain to Sound Greenway. Then it was back to the parking lot to finish our 5.2-mile loop hike.

Made for a nice hike on a sunny Spring Day with the temp up to 70. We only saw a few other hikers on our trip as most were probably going up West Tiger 3. When we got back to the parking lot it was full. There was even a large bus for the students we met. Cars were parked down the road for the Cable Line Trail and High Point Trail. George

Wanted to get outside and get some miles in for training on a pretty bad weather weekend. It was too windy to go out on Saturday, so Sunday it was. Decided to do a loop around West Tiger.

Trailhead: Got there about 10:30 am on a Sunday and the parking lot was full, but lots of turnover. A car pulled out to leave and I got a spot, but there was a lot of activity. Bathrooms didn't smell the best but were fully stocked. Parking lot was probably 2/3 full at 4:30 pm when I finished. 

The Trail: Started at the West Tiger 3 trailhead and went up the West Tiger 3 trail until I got to the West Tiger Railroad Grade. I took this off shoot. The snow started to cover the trail around here. This is a less traveled trail, so there were some downed trees and a tricky stream crossing with the snow, but nothing too bad. I connected to the K-3 trail and made my way straight up to West Tiger 2. It was not raining, but the snow was heavy enough in the trees and it was hot enough that it was very wet with lots of slushy snow and water falling overhead. Once I got out of the trees it was back to being dry, but traded that out for the wind. After getting up to West Tiger 2 I went down the backside to check out the Dramatic Erratic, I giant glacial boulder that had a label on the map, back through the trees between 2 and 3 where again snow and water were falling steadily from the trees, and then back up to West Tiger 3 where it was again very windy for lunch. Went down the Section Line trail all the way to its intersection with the high school trail and headed up to the swamp trail. This section was very wet with lots of running and standing water on trail. I clocked 8.5 miles and 2500 ft elevation gain.