Our small party of three humans and two dogs headed up to Tiger 1 for lunch on a very sunny Monday. About 8.5 miles with 2,700' of gain - 5 hours including lunch.
We elected to go via the Preston Trail and the Bootleg Trail, starting all the way at the bottom trailhead on SE Preston Way. This adds some distance over other routes, but you're almost guaranteed not to see any people. In fact, the only people we saw on the entire hike were two hikers at the very top of Tiger 1, and one hiker on the road at the bottom of the Preston Trail. We saw almost as many cars as hikers, as two trucks drove up to the summit while we were there. One of the trucks had three workers who climbed one of the central towers for some maintenance work.
PRESTON TRAIL: The trailhead is a bit hard to spot, but starts just east of a DOT facility on SE Preston Way. It's just a short spur through the woods, then you have to walk a bit over 1/2 mile on the powerline road. This road is not as rocky as it used to be, so the walking is reasonable. It's easy to miss where the trail heads south onto the mountain - look for a gravel pullout on your left, and an old horse barrier that you can now just walk around!
No real issues on the Preston Trail, though we only hiked the bottom part. I find that the trail just to the east (marked "West Tiger 1 Trail" on some maps) is more pleasant.
BOOTLEG TRAIL: This takes off south from the Preston Trail at a signed junction near 1600'. Overall, I think the Bootleg Trail is the nicest way up to Tiger 1. It mixes lovely big tree forest with an assortment of other vegetation - there are nice woodland flowers here in the spring. There is one big creek to cross and a few small ones, and the grade is steady, but never steep, up to the east radio towers on Tiger 1. When you reach a junction near the top, you can stay straight ahead and veer slight left to reach the Tiger Mountain Road and the east radio towers. Alternately, you can turn right at the junction to connect over to the Preston Trail to reach the summit. The former option gets you views earlier, and it's kind of cool to see all the radio equipment and walk by the towers. The latter option avoids the road entirely.
I counted six or seven blowdowns on this trail. None are hard to get past, but a couple are in the 14-16" range, so will need a big saw to clear. Just after the big creek crossing, there is one spot on the trail that is always a mud hole. It's only about 50' long, but there is not really a good way through the mud, nor around it since the surrounding area is covered in dense, prickly brush. I probably wouldn't bring waterproof boots just for this section, but expect your shoes to get a bit muddy!
At the aforementioned big creek (1650'), the crossing is a bit tricky. It looks like the December storms moved a bunch of rocks around and eroded one of the banks. It's nothing too serious, but the rocks are slippery, as is the mud on the eroded bank. Poles probably help, but I handled it OK without them. A couple people with some tools could probably restore this to a gentler crossing with an hour or so of work.
TIGER 1: The summit area was spectacular on this bluebird day. The best views on the mountain (IMO) are on the road to the east of the highest summit, right where the Preston Trail crosses the road. You can see in almost every direction - views of Rainier, Baker, Seattle, Bellevue, The Olympics, etc. We had lunch right at the middle radio towers a bit to the east, where there are some huge concrete blocks that are perfect for benches.The alders are growing up fast here, though, so the views at this spot are starting to disappear.
For a short loop, you can go back down the Preston Trail from the top. Or for a longer loop, go over to Tiger 2 and down the TMT back to the Preston Trail via Dwight's Way. We liked the gentle and quiet forest of the Bootleg Trail, so went back the same way we came up.
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