Today was a fine day to roam about King County's Taylor Mountain Forest. Starting from a less used access point on the south side of the park, I first rambled up the Elk Ridge Trail, which like most trails in the park gets a lot of use by horses, not so much by hikers. This trail had seen a fair amount of recent work, and was not too muddy or churned up by the horse traffic. Some beautiful old second growth forest here with large trees. The upper part of the trail was completely rerouted/ reconstructed by the WTA and is in even better shape, although horse damage (churned up mud) is apparent in a few spots. I noticed quite a few new trail signs marking the trails, which is quite a help in navigating the complex network of trails here. The Elk Ridge Trail eventually ends at one of the park service roads (Road H, I think). I followed this road/trail upward toward Taylor Mountain. The road, like most in the park, is rarely used by vehicles and is a pleasant walk, free of mud, with plenty of nice warm sun beaming through the leafless trees. Increasing amounts of snow appeared along the road as I climbed. At length I left the service road and followed the "Boundary Trail", marked by a nice user-made sign. This trail allows one to connect with the vast road network in the Raging River Forest, which used to be private lumber company land but is now owned by the DNR and protected from development (yay!). Unfortunately this trail, an old route created by equestrians, was a brushy, gloppy mess of hoof-churned snow and mud. Classic Taylor Mountain. The only thing good about this trail, apart from the handsome sign, is that it is short. Upon reaching a higher old logging road, I decided it was time to start descending. I followed the road downhill and eventually found the top end of the Knee Knocker Trail, which led me back to Taylor Forest lands. The Knee Knocker Trail was rebuilt by the WTA some years ago, but time and horse traffic has not treated it well. The trail features long stretches of hoof-churned glop , although nothing as bad as the Boundary Trail. To fix this trail, It would be good to lay down large amounts of gravel in the worst spots, possibly contained with turnpike structures. This trail eventually connects with an old road bed that is in much better shape. The road/trail makes a long level traverse, eventually connecting with Road H. I turned off on the Hermit Trail, which descends down an old road bed to connect with Road H at a lower level. The Hermit Trail has a hard tread surface and is in good shape. From the lower end of Hermit, I reconnected with Elk Ridge and followed that trail back to the car. All in all a pleasant day, despite the mud. The trails on Taylor Mountain, the Forgotten Issaquah Alp, tend to be very uncrowded especially on weekdays. If you can figure out the maze of horse trails and logging roads, there are some nice viewpoints in recent clearcuts to be found higher on the mountain. If you have a Garmin GPS, loading it with the free Northwest Topo map file that contains Northwest Trails Project data (see http://www.switchbacks.com/nwtrails/) can be a big help in finding your way around. Many of the Taylor Mountain trails have been mapped and included in the map data.
Type of Hike
Day hikeTrail Conditions
Obstacles on trail:Trees down across trail,
Muddy or wet trail.
Comments