Our group of five senior hikers met at the Red Town parking lot at Cougar Mtn. Park for a 6-mile loop hike. We started on the Wild Side Trail with a stop at the Ford Slope coal mine entrance. The bottom of the mine shaft is below sea level. There is a kiosk here with some photos and history of the mine. Coal was mined under Cougar Mtn. for one hundred years from 1863 to 1963. During that time 11 million tons of coal came out of the ground.
We continued on the Wild Side Trail, then took the Marshall's Hill Trail that went up and down to reach the paved service road that goes to a large water storage tank in the woods. Along this trail are several blown down large trees. Some have already been cut out, while others you need to climb over or crawl under. So, more tree cutting for the King County Parks crews. After crossing the service road, we got to the junction with the East Cross Town trail and the De Leo Wall Trail. We headed up the De Leo Wall Trail where we found more fallen trees to get over. Going back downhill with several switchbacks we came to the junction with the De Leo Wall Viewpoint Trail. We stayed on the main trail to get down to the Indian Trail. Going south on the Indian Trail we took the Shy Bear Trail up to the Far Country Viewpoint for lunch at the bench. There were a few fallen trees on this trail to get around. The fog had dissipated so we had a view west to Seattle. The Olympic Mountains were still covered in clouds.
After eating we headed back down the Shy Bear Trail and hiked the Indian Trail back to the Red Town Meadow area. This was the site of the former coal mine baseball team's baseball field. We then followed the Red Town Trail on the old road back to the parking lot. Made for a nice loop hike on a sunny day. On our trip we met a few dog walkers, hikers and runners. Some of the trails we hiked had a lot of fallen limbs, so we use our trekking poles to get some of them off. While hiking on the Wild Side Trail we spotted a large basket filled with fruit and corn, a bottle of wine and some candles. George
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