I thought there would be snow on West Tiger 1, but I could have done this entire hike in trail runners today. There was a temperature inversion and the top of the mountain was a solid 10 degrees warmer than the bottom.
Today I started at the High Point Trailhead and took the Lingering Trail. This is one of the prettiest trails on Tiger Mountain with open forest and mature second growth. Today there were about 4 blowdowns on the trail, all of which were easy to get past.
I linked to the Tiger Mountain Trail, which was in great shape and had surprisingly little mud. From there I cut over on the RR Grade to the Preston Trail.
They've been doing a lot of work at the top of the Preston Trail smoothing it out after last year's bomb cyclone. Right now there are several new blowdowns that have fallen at an angle over the trail. Fortunately they're not an obstacle - see the 4th pic here.
There was no snow, but there were a couple of spots with lingering ice from the recent storms on the north sides of W Tiger 1 and W Tiger 2 in the open areas where the "tree harvest" was. It's nothing you'd need spikes for. I did see some beard ice lower down, which is always fun (2nd pic).
The view was super clear today and you could see all the mountains and volcanoes. I only encountered a half dozen people on this route.
The route down was K-3 to the Tiger Mt Trail, over Murat's Bridge and down the High Point Trail.
A funny side note: if you've been hiking Tiger Mountain longer than five years, read the trail description for "West Tiger 1 via Fred's Corner." As of today, it hasn't been updated since well before the tree harvest and is a little snapshot of what this route used to be. Anyone remember the really dark forest on the north side of W Tiger 1?
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