Two of us took advantage of dry sunny wintry conditions to enjoy Tiger Mountain from High Point Trail. It took one step out of my car to realize we'd need traction from the parking lot. There is a sign at the white pole saying "Discover Pass required" but I was under the impression that was only for the parking lot. Nonetheless, we left our parking passes visible.
Roads to Exit 20 were clear and dry, but 98% of the trails on the north side of Tiger are quite icy right now.
We heard 10 bird species on the day including Pacific wrens and five mallards. We only spotted 4 solo male hikers, two with three dogs. More people were headed for the Cable/West Tiger 3 lot.
We left the cars at 7:45 a.m. and returned from our loop at 10:55. Brief photo stops included 1. Murat's Bridge. 2. Tiger Mountain Trail. 3. Unmaintained K3. We got to within .5 miles of Tiger 2 and my partner had to turn around for a work call at 11, so we cut east to join up with the trail from Tiger 1 heading back down. All told we covered 6.7 miles and 1936 feet of elevation gain. It was a beautiful day, with no clouds. Chilly 28-32 degrees.
We strongly recommend taking traction devices, at least one pole, and gaiters. In some spots, we had a good 6+ inches of squeaky (dry) snow. The straps wore out on my microspikes which meant ordering new ones as soon as I got home.
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