We had originally planned to hike up Margaret's Way hike, but we arrived at 9am and there were no parking spots available with people parking on the side of the road, so we decided to go down the street and try the Wilderness Peak Loop. Despite it being Super Bowl Sunday, the parking lots (both at Margaret's Way and Wilderness Peak) were both full (we lucked out) so go early if you plan to hike on the weekend!
We decided to attempt to extend our hike with the additional loop suggested in the Wilderness Peak hike description, but I think we may have missed a path as the website says that the extended loop would bring us to 8 miles and we completed the loop making it back to the parking lot with 6 miles. Regardless it was a great hike! The trail was well maintained and we passed many other hikers and trail runners all with masks.
The first part of the hike was a decent amount of incline (my watch said 1602 elevation gain for the whole hike and it felt like a lot of that was just the first two miles of the hike), but once we got to Shy Bear Pass, everything leveled out a bit with some rolling inclines. It was a cool and beautiful day for a hike and was a close getaway to be in the ferns and moss. Will definitely be back to try some of the other trails in the Issaquah Alps - but will attempt to get out of bed earlier to beat the crowds.
Comments