Had an unusually rewarding hike on Tiger Mountain. There was just enough snow today to be really beautiful, but not enough to be an obstacle. The waterfall on the Talus Rock Trail was also running as high as I've ever seen it. The price of admission was muddy trails.
I started up West Tiger 3 to avoid the mud on the lower Cable Trail. I linked over to Cable at the first connector and followed that up. The flat parts of the Cable Trail were pretty muddy, but the rest wasn't too bad.
Snow started around 1400' but mostly was off the trail, so everything was white and pretty, but the trail was grippy and clear.
The top of West Tiger 3 was just slightly below the cloud line, so you could see all the way to Seattle (pic 3), but West Tiger 2 and everything above it were in the clouds. There were high winds which I really noticed after getting out of the trees.
I headed back down Section Line, which has a little bit more snow than Cable. Then I cut over on the West Tiger Railroad Grade. This trail has a couple of sections where there's water over the trail that's tricky to get around (pic 1). It's a little overgrown too, but I got lucky and someone had been down the trail before me and knocked all the snow off the ferns overhanging the trail.
From here I headed down West Tiger 3 to the Talus Rock Trail. It's worth going on this trail right now just to see the waterfall. It's got some pretty high flow this week.
I took Nook Trail down from the Talus Rocks. Nook is pretty muddy and slick above Pipsee's View right now.
There were very few people out today. Total mileage on this route was 6.5 miles and total elevation was 2100'.
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