Red Town Meadow & Trails, Cave Hole, Coal Creek Falls, Quarry, Fred's Railroad, Shy Bear, Far Country & Wildside Connector — Monday, Dec. 20, 2021

We completed a 5.5 mile counterclockwise loop on Cougar Mtn from Redtown TH.  There were only 2 cars in the lot when we pulled in at 9:15 and it was a mix of snow and rain.  We followed Red Town, Cave Hole, Coal Creek Falls, Quarry, Fred’s Railroad, Shy Bear, Far Country, Indian and Wildside trails to make our loop back to Redtown.  All the trails are saturated, but mostly well drained with a few small muddy patches.  As we hiked up Cave Hole trail it started to be a winter wonderland with snow sticking on the ground.  A couple of the wooden bridges were slippery due to the snow accumulation.  Hiking poles were helpful.  Shy Bear and Far Country trails have a few new downed trees to climb over.  Trail traffic was super light, we saw less than 10 entires on our entire route.  Both Coal Creek and Far Country Falls were really flowing.  Bird species were out in force, we saw towhee, juncos, bush tits, creepers, sparrows and a lone shrew scampered across the trail.  Due to the weather we didn’t stop much and got back to our vehicles at 12:45.  Another fantastic day to be out in nature with friends.