Did a loop hike going up West Tiger 3, over to West Tiger 2 and then down via connecting trail to TMT, and out via Lingering Loop Trail. The day was misty and chilly on the summits of West Tiger 3 & 2 with limited views. The big surprise however was that the Lingering Loop Trail vanished at Dwight's Way and I took an alternate route down after looking for the Lingering Loop Trail. The route was is good shape with no snow on the summits of W. Tiger 3 or 2. There is some blow down on the TMT but only minor. The blow down does not present any difficulties in navigation or hiking. On reaching the bottom near a pond, found the start of the Lingering Loop. The trail is unsigned and only identifiable from reading a Green Trails Map. Well on another day will take the trail heading up to the TMT to see if it still exists.

On the way in, I got stuck behind a lady driving an SUV who had to come to a full stop at every pothole. Why would one buy an SUV if they didn't intend to drive it like one - except maybe to prop up a fragile self-image? This is the last of four legs of the Tiger Mountain Trail. The Tiger Mountain Trail is mostly clear with snow patches above 900 feet elevation. The trail is mostly snow-covered above 1400 feet. The West Tiger Railroad Grade is mostly snow-covered and has some brushy spots. The Section Line Trail is mostly snow-covered above 1800 feet turning to snow patches above 1400 feet. There are a few logs across the Nook Trail. Bunny tracks and a mouse were seen. Sky was light overcast with mostly moderate temperatures.

Today is Texas Independence Day. On this date in 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. The slaughter at the Alamo would occur four days hence, and independence would not be won for six weeks. This is the second of four planned hikes to cover the entire length of the Tiger Mountain Trail. From the Tiger Mountain Summit Trailhead, the route included (in order) West Side Road, Tiger Mountain Trail, Fifteenmile Railroad Grade, Road 4000, Middle Tiger Trail, West Side Road. There is a large tree across the Tiger Mountain Trail 0.8 miles from the West Side Road and two large trees 0.1 miles past the upper junction with the Middle Tiger Railroad Grade. There is snow on the trail on northern exposures above 2000 feet. There is a light dusting of snow at Fifteenmile Pass. The Middle Tiger Trail has many logs across it and very brushy in spots. The Middle Tiger Trail is mostly clear between the summit and its junction with the Tiger Mountain Trail, then it has many logs across it and some brushy areas between the Tiger Mountain Trail and the West Side Road. The West Side Road is in excellent condition. Fox tracks were seen near Fifteenmile Pass and bunny tracks along the Middle Tiger Trail. Sky was clear with moderate temperatures.

Six Tigers minus one (Five Tigers). Met Eco Willy and Chicago Mary and a bunch of Mountaineers to walk over the Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT). Dropped a few cars at the High Point exist and drove around to Tiger Mountain Rd to hike the trail south to north. It is a good idea to have a current map to make this trip as the Tiger Mountains are laced with roads and trails. Eco Willy had a map that had been revised in 2002 (some sort of time machine revision) so we were set. Started out on the TMT at 7:30 and headed for South Tiger. Watch for a large stump that has two springboard cuts that look like eyes, it is a ¼ mile up the hill from the trail and there is a climbing register but no views. Then on to Middle Tiger, there are a series of roads and trails to get to this summit, still no views. Another series of trails and roads took us to a rest area with a toilet that is still open even though the roads are closed. From there, it was a trail to Tiger One and a huge array of communication towers. Before you reach Tiger One, you come across a small evergreen that some one had put Christmas decorations on (there must be a story to go along with this), we stopped and took a group picture and sang some Christmas carols. From Tiger One you are on the road until Tiger Two. There is an excellent view just down from Tiger One, less at Tiger Two. Then back to the trail to Tiger Three and a small rest before we headed down the hill. I sort of picked the trail down and I'm sure there were a few curse words thrown my way for the steepness of this un-maintained section of trail. But it drops you to the Nook Trail, which I think is prettier than the Tiger 3 trail. So we were back to the cars at about 3:00 pm. Not bad for about 13 miles of up and down. Good people, weather and hike.

Six Summits and a Point My point is not to poo poo the accomplishments of the other fine hikers who have hiked the six Tiger summits in a day. But, I think it is rather pointless to do the six highpoints and skip the other highpoint, Poo Poo Point. Early in the week I had emailed David and proposed the Six Summits Hike for our Saturday Hike. David replied with a counter proposal to do the Six Summits Hike and Poo Poo Point. So I thought, if we're going to go out and do a killer hike, why not do a good job and make sure we're really wiped out at day's end. I also conned Jim, who was interested in doing Six Summits, into the trip. Saturday was a great day for our big adventure with mostly sunny skies and cool temperatures. So Saturday morning found us eagerly tromping along the West Side Road towards Poo Poo Point. We reached Poo Poo Point a little after 9 and thought we had a good shot at doing the whole hike. After a brief water break we were hiking the Railroad Grade towards West Tiger 3. The Railroad Grade was in good shape with only one windfall that was easy to step over. The deciduous trees had not leafed out yet so we had views of W. Tiger 1 and 2 along the way. The Section Line Trail from the Railroad Grade up to Tiger 3 was our first steep grind, but mercifully short, gaining only 500 ft. Tiger 3 had a crowd of people enjoying the morning sunshine. The hike up Tiger 2 and 1 was straight forward. We saw a couple of people on the top of each. We proceeded on the Bootleg and East Tiger trails up East Tiger. Both trails were in good shape and lonely. The Christmas Tree which is located on the Bootleg Trail just before the junction with the Paw Print Connector Trail, still had most of its decorations. As luck would have it, we reached the top of East Tiger at half past 12 just in time for lunch at the picnic table. At 3004 ft elevation, E. Tiger was the high point of our hike. The hike was half over and we had reached five of our seven highpoints. The remaining two would take the rest of the day. After a pleasant half hour eating our lunch, we were on our way. We then descended the ""Hubcap Trail"". This route starts a couple hundred feet back down the road from the picnic table and hits the Preston Railroad Grade about 300 ft from the Tiger Mtn Road. As it turned out this was the most dangerous part of the trip. Just past the hubcap, David had grabbed a branch, it broke and he went for a tumble. Fortunately he only suffered a small cut on his hand. Farther down, Jim pushed on a small tree and it fell over almost hitting me. It was on the Hubcap Trail that we saw two garter snakes sunning themselves. It was then on to Middle Tiger mostly hiking on roads. The spur road heading up Middle Tiger had one of the best views of the trip. The view stretched from the Olympics to the Cascades with W. Tiger 1 in the center. This view made up for the tiny, 10 degree view from the top of Middle Tiger. We were surprised to run into another hiker on the top of Middle Tiger, being that this was a relatively deserted part of the Issaquah Alps. The steep 500 ft. descent to the TMT was hard on our tired legs. We trudged along the TMT towards South Tiger. We took the South Tiger Traverse and turned up South Tiger at the large stump with the two notches. At the completely forested summit we signed the register happy to have reached the seven highpoints. This was the only summit where we didn't see other hikers. At our moderate pace, it took us seven hours to reach highpoint number seven. Now all we had left to do was to backtrack to the W. Side Road and hike it back to our cars. The hike consisted of a 19 mile, 4400 ft gain loop by the peaks plus a short hike to and from the loop. This was a great time for a Tiger Mtn hike. There wasn't any snow on the trails and the deciduous trees did not yet have leaves to block views. We saw several trillium, salmonberry, skunk cabbage and yellow violets in bloom.