Went for a trail run on the Tiger Mountain Tradition Plateau. These trails are great for trail running or just to get outdoors for a walk. They are ideal for younger kids. The trails are well maintained and the wooded views are beautiful. Parked at High Point along the paved road before the road turns into a gravel road heading into the park. Pass is not required if you park out on the paved road. Walked the trail from the paved road to the parking area to warm up. Started jogging at the restrooms on the West Tiger 3 trail, but instead of turning right to go up the mountain, turned left to the trail head for the Swamp Trail. The following trails connect and create a loop: Swamp Trail => Big Tree Trail => Adventure Trail => High School Trail => Bonneville Trail => Bus Trail => Connector Trail => Around The Lake Trail Map: http://issaquahalps.org/Portals/iatc/Docs/Tradition_Plateau_West_Tiger_Map_DNR_2012.pdf The loop takes about 45minutes at a comfortable jogging pace.

Sunshine in January! Quick, hop in the car, we are headed to High Point trailhead! Walked a loop from the High Point trailhead up West Tiger 3, right on Talus Rocks, down Nook Trail, left on Bus Trail, a quick side trip to Round Lake, right on High School Trail, right on Adventure Trail then back around on Brink Trail and Swamp Trails. The total distance of the loop is just a shade over 5 miles and vertical is something less than 800'. High Point was packed at 8:30 and W Tiger 3 was super busy as expected, but hardly anybody out on the other trails. The trails are in excellent shape - drainage looks to have been recently cleared and even though there is a bunch of recent blow down it has all been bucked up and out of the way. The Talus Rocks are neat - some very interesting geology and spooky caves/crevasses to peek into. Don't miss the fairly sizable waterfall just NE of the Talus Rocks. It is on one of the creeks that feeds Tradition Lake and is quite tall - I'd estimate 70-80' and is flowing heavily with all the recent rain. Round Lake is worth taking a quick side trip for - a beautiful little lake just west of Tradition Lake. A nice walk with some interesting things to see and it gets you off the more crowded trails on Tiger.

A lowland hike in the Tiger Mt. forest on a sunny, frosty day. Temperatures were below freezing for most of the hike between 28 and 30 F. if my thermometer was accurate. No mud but lots of frost on the trails and plants. The upper parking lot was full when we arrived but cleared out by our return (Seahawks game?). We started on the Around the Lake Trail then to the Bus Trail and then off to Round Lake and returned via the Wetlands and Swamp trails, 3.3 miles approximately but no real elevation gain. Don't know where most people were but we saw only a few other hikers on our loop.

We did a small loop today morning starting with swamp trail and going onto big tree trail, power line trail and then going around tradition lake back to the trail head. We reached the parking lot around 10.00 am and it was almost full, two or three slots were free from cars leaving just then. Trail conditions were pretty good along all these trails - some bugs at parts of the trail. But, the parts where trail goes onto brink trail and wet land trail was very overgrown. We initially started along the wetland trail loop, but decided to come back. The trail was flat along the entire route and shaded for most part (except for the stretch in power line trail).

A morning well spent with David Kappler of the Issaquah Alps Trails Club learning about the trees, plants, geology and history of the area around Tradition Lake on the North side of Tiger Mountain. An extremely informative 6 mile hike covering native and non-native plants and trees as well some perspective on historical logging, railroading, and mining on and around Tiger Mountain. Trails are all in very good condition and less than 1,000 feet of gain for this loop hike makes it family friendly. We saw hikers, runners, families and friendly dogs out enjoying the nice weather, but still not too crowded. This hike is part of a series of hikes sponsored by IATC, more info can be found on their website.