A nice figure 8 loop of sorts today, for our two hikers and two dogs. We started from the Bill Ramos Trailhead (still called East Sunset Way Trailhead on most maps), and ascended to West Tiger #2 for lunch.
No special gear required on Tiger now, as there was no snow and very minimal mud. Trail runners worked great. We clocked about 10.5 miles with around 2900' of elevation gain in 6 hours, including our chilly lunch stop.
Our route today was as follows:
- Up from the trailhead via the Tradition Plateau Trail, then to the Adventure Trail (we missed the turn for the Wetlands Trail). There are a lot of trails in this area, so it pays to bring a map!
- Section Line Trail - we did the lower and middle sections until we reached the West Tiger Railroad Grade. The lower part climbs steadily but is not steep. The middle part is very steep, though it's in nice form and has enough mini-switchbacks to make the grade manageable.
- West Tiger RR Grade - we followed this flat trail south (climber's right) until reaching the Seattle View Trail. This brief section is slightly brushy but overall pretty nice.
- Seattle View - followed this from bottom to top, where it arrives at the saddle between WT #3 and WT #2. Nice views in the top section, and great job by the trail crews clearing out the mess of blowdowns! It's quite steep, and the tread isn't the best everywhere, but should be no problem for most Tiger hikers. The top part of this trail in the clearcut is amazing when the foxglove are blooming.
- Tiger 2 summit - followed the trail up toward Tiger 2 and had lunch at the bench near the summit. Good views today, but there was a cold, biting wind that caused us to put on all our extra clothing to stay warm. After lunch, we continued on the road toward West Tiger #1, veering off at the saddle to join the TMT next to Dramatic Erratic.
- Tiger Mountain Trail -We took this south from Dramatic Erratic to the junction with the One View Trail. This is a lesser-used section of the TMT, so parts are somewhat narrow or brushy, or have poor tread, but the forest is pretty nice.
- One View Trail - We hiked the length of this on the way back, from the TMT below Tiger 1 all the way down to the Poo Poo Point Trail. The forest here is quite lovely and you'll not often run into many people on this lonely section. Unfortunately, it seems that this is one of the spots that will be affected by the upcoming Paranormal Timber Sale - see notes below.
- Poo Poo Point Trail - We followed this downhill back to the intersection with the High School Trail.
- High School Trail - we followed this down, but before reaching the high school proper, turned north to head into Park Pointe. This is a nice area that I hadn't been into before, with some gentle trails, some of which appear to be former road grades. We then dropped down right next to the gun range and took the Rainier Trail (really more of a road) back to our cars. The downside of this route back is it goes literally right next to the gun range, and there were some huge guns being fired off as we went past. Not something you want to do if you or your dog are sensitive to loud noises.
BLOWDOWNS: All the trails we used were free of blowdowns, with the exception of the TMT. There were 3 or maybe 4 medium-sized blowdowns between the Dramatic Erratic and the junction with the One View Trail. None are hard to get over or under.
SNOW: There isn't any, except for a miniscule patch off-trail just below the summit of Tiger 2.
TIMBER SALE: On the One View Trail, heading west from 15 Mile Gap, there is about a 1/4 mile section where a bunch of pink flags have been put up, along with signs all along a bunch of trees indicating a timber sale boundary. I am guessing this is for the upcoming Paranormal Timber Sale that IATC has mentioned, since that sale was supposed to be "near / above" Poo Poo Point. This part of the One View Trail is right on the boundary of the Tiger Mountain NRCA, so any cutting would be done to the south of the trail. It will be sad to see those trees go, as this is one of the nicer forests on Tiger, and always a pleasure to hike through. My guess from where the signs are is that the One View Trail in this area will end up right on the edge of a clear cut. This will afford great views to the south, but over a barren landscape like what we see now near the summits of West Tiger, or the south side of Middle Tiger. See my photo #4 for an example of where the signs are relative to the trail. They would probably clear cut everything left of the trail in that photo. Hopefully we should get more information soon about the full extent of the proposed sale and its impacts to the trail system.
Long story short - if you haven't hiked the One View Trail yet, you may want to do it soon, before the timber harvest happens - this is currently expected this summer. It's going to be a much different trail after the logging.
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