South Tiger Traverse, Tiger Mountain Trail — Tuesday, Apr. 23, 2013

Issaquah Alps > Tiger Mountain

We had a great day with sun and mild temperatures to do our first conditioning hike of the season. The plan was to hike the loop and 'summit' South Tiger where the trail goes off by the smiling face stump. Our plans were altered by a change in roads due to recent logging in the area. Instead of doing South Tiger we walked up to a previously unvisited look out point with benches and a fire pit (2000 ft peak just north of South Tiger on the map). This proved to be a excellent view point for lunch with views of the Tiger Range, Squak Mt. and Cougar Mt. the Olympics and Cascades. This site can be found by following the road past the junction to the normal lunch sport toward the obvious hill. Where the road ends, a short steep trail to the viewing area (thanks to the recent logging) can be found. After lunch we headed back to the normal Traverse trail which now goes through some of the logged area before entering trees and then down to the powerline trail and back via the TMT to our cars. A great hike with no snow but lots of mud holes due to the recent rain and the fact the entire route is used and I believe maintained in part by the horse riding community. The lower trail had lots of trillium in bloom.