High School Trail, Poo Poo Point — Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025

I met my hiking buddy Jeno at the High School trailhead a little before 6:00 AM this morning.   The High School trailhead and parking lot only has room for 7 cars and there are no facilities there.  If the lot is full there is some limited street parking.  You might also consider parking around the back of Issaquah High School. About one block north of the HS on 2nd Avenue turn right on Evans Street and that will take you back by the Sportsmen's Club where additional parking is available.   

At our early departure time there were two cars parked ahead of us which were not there when we came back down. We never saw anyone on the trail ahead of us so we wondered if they were local residents?   It was a cool and foggy 36 degrees when we headed out onto the High School trail.   Jeno and I are all-season, all-weather hikers and I am hard pressed to remember a hike as foggy as this one.  It was pea-soup thick. My headlamp wasn't doing me much good pointing off into the fog so I turned it down to my feet which limited my vision to a circle about 6' around me which worked out ok.

We cleared the fog not too far from the large bridge at Many Creeks Valley.   Both the High School and Poo Poo Point trail were clear of trees but you can see some areas took some big hits last fall.  Probably the worst one is in the switchbacks coming up the Poo Poo Point trail where it intersects with the One View trail.  Lots of trees and debris down through out that area.  Thanks to all the hard workers who got things cleared up!

Speaking of One View, last month there were trail closed signs and it was blocked off at that intersection.  Everything has been removed so we will assume that trail has been cleared as well.

We got out to Poo Poo Point at 7:40 and were treated to an interesting sight.  Squak Mt surrounded by fog.  I told Jeno it looks like an island in the ocean (see photo 1).  It was socked in all over at lower elevations so there were no views of downtown Issaquah today.

We didn't see anyone during our stay at the top and after a short break we headed back down.  The kiosk/sign where the Chirico Trail comes up is still damaged with parts laying on the ground.  The bathrooms were very clean but had no TP so don't forgot to bring you own.   

When we hike this trail, with as early as we start and going on a weekday we rarely see many hikers.  That was not the case this morning. We saw our first group between Poo Poo and the One View trail and saw a continual number of people heading up.  Given the cool, foggy conditions we were a bit surprised but happy to see everyone out on the trail this morning.  The Steve and Jeno hiker count was 21 total all on our way down.

We got back to the full parking lot around 9:15.  The house on the north side of the parking lot had a lot of damage from the storm.   I hope the people who live there are doing ok.

Stay safe everyone.  See you on the trail.  SR