Coal Creek Trail, Cave Hole, Cougar Pass, Tibbett's Marsh, West Tibbett's Creek Trail (#COUGAR-E10) & Shangri La — Tuesday, Mar. 6, 2012

Issaquah Alps > Cougar Mountain

Today I did a long one-way hike up the Coal Creek Trail, over the top of Cougar Mountain, and down to Issaquah Transit Center. This was a bus-assisted hike - I parked at Eastgate Park & Ride and took the Metro 240 bus to the start of the lower Coal Creek Trail on 119th Ave SE. More info on the route of this hike can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/seattlemetrobushiking/main-page/hikes-in-the-issaquah-alps/cougar-mountain-grand-traverse The Lower Coal Creek Trail has been greatly improved since I hiked it last. The City of Bellevue has their own distinct style of trail maintenance, which involves extensive use of curb logs to support the downhill side of the tread, and liberal use of bark dust on the tread. Bellevue also likes to build wide tread that they can drive motorized carts on. They have a certain blithe disregard for trail grade - some of their trails are remarkably steep. Most trail construction guides recommend removing as much organic matter from the trail tread as possible, while Bellevue loves to dump more on! Well, whatever...there was little mud on the Lower Coal Creek Trail and it was a pleasure to hike on. No blowdowns either - in fact there was little problem with blowdown anywhere on this hike. The upper end of the Lower Coal Creek Trail has been relocated to the intersection of Coal Creek Parkway and Forest Drive. There is a stoplight here which makes the crossing of the parkway easier - no more scary, run-for-your-life jaywalking through 50 mile per hour traffic. I continued hiking on the main Coal Creek Trail upstream of Coal Creek Parkway. This is a beautiful stretch of trail that closely follows the rushing waters of Coal Creek. The trail here has also been upgraded and is in lovely shape, until it approaches the creek crossing. The Bellevue beauty bark treatment ends abruptly here, and the trail becomes muddy and steep until it climbs to the old railroad grade that once went toward the Newcastle mines. Beauty bark and good maintenance resumes here, and the hiking is easy all the way to Red Town Trailhead. From Redtown Trailhead, I followed the Cave Hole trail/road uphill. This trail was in good shape of course, but above the turnoff to Coal Creek Falls there were some drain dips that needed repair. A thin layer of snow covered the trees and open ground here, as well as other high parts of Cougar Mountain, but not much was sticking to the trails. I took the Bypass Trail (in good shape) to Fred's RR Trail. Followed that north a short distance to the Clay Pit Road. From there, I hiked the Klondike Swamp Trail (in good shape) to Cougar Pass Trail. Followed that trail (horrible clay mud, needs a tread treatment of some sort like gravel) to Tibbetts Marsh Trail. Followed the TMT (very muddy, needs work) to Tibbetts Creek Trail (muddy), then followed that path down to Bear Ridge Trail. Went left on the BRT to Shangri-La Trail. Followed the SLT down to the Talus development. I walked the streets of Talus to James Bush Road, then followed that quiet lane down to SR 900. A short hike north the highway brought me to the Issaquah Park and Ride, where I caught a Sound Transit 554 bus that quickly took me back to Eastgate, where my car was stashed. All in all, a nice 9 mile day of hiking on a crisp early March day.