Iverson Railroad Trail, South Tiger Traverse, Tiger Mountain Trail, West Side Road & South Tiger Powerline — Saturday, Jul. 16, 2016

Issaquah Alps > Tiger Mountain

We started on the trail just before 2pm on Saturday. We parked at the main Hwy 18 trail head and it was nearly full! We walked up to the Iverson Railroad trail head and started there. Surprisingly with how packed the parking lot was, we only ran into 3-4 people during our whole hike. Iverson was in great condition! Dry, very few obstacles and easy to step over. When we got to West Side Rd, we turned right and went down to where the 3 forks in the road and turned left at the white security gate. Walked down the gravel path for about 0.2 miles and then came up to the S Tiger Traverse and Tiger Mt. Tr. fork. We took the hill up on S. Tiger Traverse first. It was steep but I am glad we did that one first because we got to go down the switch backs rather then up! Parts of the Traverse trail are really overgrown! We all got stung by stinging nettles so be sure to wear pants through that area! When we got to the power lines we were rewarded with wide views of the I-90 corridor. We turned left at the South Tiger Powerline Trail. We stopped at the little creek to eat and let the dogs have a drink of water. That portion of the trail is in full sun so wear sun block! We headed up, up and up only to take a steep decline to connect with the TMT. Tiger Mt. Tr. was great - flat and full shade. We made quick work of that stretch! Popped out back at the S Tiger Traverse/TMT fork and walked back to the main West side road. Took that back across the bridge and walked back to the car and arrived about 5:30. Total 8.2 miles! The weather was perfect and the trails were dry. Would do this hike again!