The rumors are true. It is HOT and Dry on Tiger, at least it was yesterday. The new Swamp trail is great- very runnable, without slippery boardwalks. Section line appears untouched, while the Railroad Grade has a lot of down trees and a major slide that has taken out about 100 yards of trail and requiring a "vegetable belay". The slide also damaged one of the footbridges on TMT. The work crews were out, and everywhere they have been looks great- but they have not started on those areas yet.

Tiger Mountain Trail - mudslide took out 60' x 100' of the hillside, trail included. 0.1 miles east of TMT/W Tiger RR Grade junction, elev ~1940' near Upper TMT crossing of High Point Ck.

I did a 6 mile loop hike around Tiger (Talus, unmaintained, #3, TMT, K-3, TMT) today. There are trees down and branches on the trails as expected after the snow and rain, but no more than other storms. Snow on the top and I met a very nonchalant deer. The real reason for this post is to report damage to one of the foot bridges on the TMT. This is on the NE side of the mountain just past Anschell Allee on the way up. This is the smaller of the 2 bridges. There was a landslide 50 yards above the bridge. The creek was so high that you can see from the mud patterns that the water was actually over the bridge!

Parked at Hwy 18 Summit TH. Hiked Iverson RR Grade to West Side Rd. and then south on TMT. South Tiger Traverse Trai is closed for logging. Tread in excellent condition. A few mosquitoes in the shade. Needs serious brushing in sections with the nettles being the worst. Think about long pants for this hike. Poor or no signs where TMT crosses the South Tiger Powerline Trail (really a road). Found TMT by going west on the Powerline Trail just before steep section of road. Almost completely overgrown and no sign. Once in the woods the trail is OK again. At Hobart Gap the trails did not match our Green Trails map. This last section of the TMT was the most scenic of the southern sections we hiked. There is parking at the southern TH for about 10 cars on the shoulder. Stats were 11 miles, 1,900' and 6.5 hours (incl. 1/2 hour of route finding at the Powerline.)

I did an enjoyable hike on various Tiger trails, starting from Tiger Summit off SR 18. After parking at the trailhead, I first walked the West Side Road two miles to the Tiger Mountain Trail. Then I followed the TMT up a short ways to Ziegs Zag. This section of the TMT was in good condition, showing signs of recent maintenance work. However, rampant illegal mountain bike use remains a problem. At Zieg's Zag, I left the TMT and followed the Artifacts Trail to the train wreck site and beyond. The lower section of this trail was a gem. It followed old logging railroad grades that gradually climbsed through a beautiful forest and wetlands. Disturbingly, there were fresh mountain bike tracks, deep ruts in the mud and torn up moss. Possibly this is the first time that bikes have gotten in here--not good news for this trail as the bikers are doubtless going to bring their friends next time. The upper part of the Artifacts Trail left the railroad grade and climbed steeply up toward Middle Tiger Mountain. This part of the trail was poorly laid out, with steep and muddy sections that won't stand up to much hiker use, let alone bikes. Logs had been removed and the trail was generally easy to follow. Instead of visiting the viewless summit of Middle Tiger, I did a cross-country shortcut over to a spur road that in turn led me to Road 4000. Followed that road to the bike-friendly Preston RR Grade Trail. The upper section of that trail goes through a lovely forest and is worth hiking, at least on weekdays (weekend are like rush hour on I-5 with all the bikes). The bike clubs have done a nice job of maintaining this heavily used trail. From a hiker's standpoint, this trail was oddly constructed, with frequent unnecessary dips and climbs that tax one's energy--but maximize the fun for bikers. I then followed the East Tiger Trail up to the summit road. This trail is poor quality, steep, and frequently abused by bikes. It's main virtue is that it gets you up to East Tiger fast. Since the day was foggy, I skipped hiking to the top of the mountain and instead headed east and downhill to the Crossover Road. A few snowbanks remained along the roadside, reminders of an incredible winter. Some of those snowbanks will make it to June, which on Tiger must set some kind of record! I followed the Crossover Road a short stretch to it's high point by a gate, then veered off on a faint trail to Sally's Summit, a 2786' ridge located a half mile east of Main Tiger. There's a nice growth of silver fir up there, but no views. After a brief rest on the summit, I continued hiking the unmapped, little-known trail that descended the ridgeline south of Sally's Summit. Tiger Mountain's crack teams of trail maintainers hadn't reached this trail, and blowdowns were frequent. After a roller coaster descent, the Sally's Summit trail finally popped out onto the Main Tiger Mountain Road at about 2100' elevation. Walked the road back down to the trailhead to finish the hike. ****forward this info to the DNR Note to the DNR: Mountain bike misuse of the TMT and the East Tiger Trail is getting out of hand. Fences and warning signs are not working. You might set up a camera trap on the TMT to determine when the bikes are using the trail. That data would allow rangers to do a more efficient ""stake-out"" of the trail.