Per Garmin, 3.97 miles/433 vertical feet.
Parking: Almost no one at Sky Country parking lot this afternoon. Lot has port-a-potty.
Trail: AMAZING; dry, leaf-scattered trails; yellow and orange leaves against a cloudless blue sky; swells of warm autumn air buffeting you as you climb. You've got to come enjoy this before the weather turns. (On the hike map, ignore my adventure down one of the Clay Pit mine roads; there is nothing interesting down there.)
WTA Work: I must have just missed the WTA crew doing water mitigation work on Mine Shaft Trail; the excavated dirt was still damp. The WTA has radically change the wet season hiking experience on Cougar Mountain. Five years ago every trail was a puddle/stream strewn muddy wasteland. Really, I just can't thank WTA enough for opening up these trails to winter hiking by people not wearing fishing waders.
Wildlife: Big gardener snake, birds chirping, frogs croaking. Also, the trails are crazy with awesome mushrooms. Look for Stropharia ambigua (shiny yellow caps fringed with a cottony veil remnant and PURPLE gills underneath) and Hypholoma fasciculare (densely packed yellowish mushrooms clustered on decomposing wood).
Caution: Blind corners and drivers disregarding traffic directionality create Sky Country parking lot hazards. Every stretch of the figure-8-shaped lot is a one-way (see the attached picture). Directionality is indicated with traffic signs and pavement arrows. However, people frequently drive against the one-ways. We’ve all disregarded parking lot traffic signs, but the lot has blind corners that are only safe when directionality is followed. I have seen people charging excitedly into the parking lot and around blind corners with the confidence they have the right-of-way to the whole lane. I have also seen people in a hurry to get home drive furiously around the same blind corners the wrong way. At some point, people will collide. So, do not be one of those people; recognize that, once you are in the parking lot, Mad Max rules apply and drive cautiously around every corner assuming someone could be hurtling against the one-way toward you.
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