Bear Ridge, West Tibbett's Creek Trail (#COUGAR-E10) , Tibbett's Marsh, Clay Pit Road, Shy Bear, Deceiver, Quarry, Coal Creek Falls, Cave Hole, Klondike Swamp, Cougar Pass, Harvey Manning Trail & Shangri La — Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021

Wow, look how many trails I did today! Haha. I tried to mark them in the order I did them... But basically I came in Bear Ridge and out Shangri-La, looping all around the park and hitting up Doughty and Coal Creek Falls. I wish I had gotten Far Country Falls, too, but I didn't really plan too much before leaving this morning. Oh well, next time... According to Gaia, I did about 11 miles today.

When I woke up at 5 this morning there was only a dusting of snow around my place but in the next couple hours before sunrise it began to snow HEAVILY and Cougar ended up getting close to 6 inches in some of the more open areas. It was lovely to walk through all the light fresh powder... I have really good boots that kept my feet nice and dry, and it wasn't too slippery. However, the day was not without hazards. I kept hearing sharp cracks as the weight of heavy snow caused branches to come crashing down. There were some small trees and large branches down on trails across the park, nothing impossible to cross but it will take a little work clear the trails after the snow is gone. Also, there's a bridge crossing on Tibbett's Creek that was awkward to cross due to snow loaded branches hanging low over it. 

One cool thing I saw- there were many strands of spider webs hanging down that had caught individual snowflakes on them so they were just dangling threads of snowflakes. Unfortunately I am not a good enough photographer to capture something like that, but it was amazing!

Otherwise just a beautiful snowy day in the forest... I love living in Issaquah!