West Tiger 3, Tiger Mountain Trail, West Tiger Railroad Grade & High Point Trail — Saturday, Dec. 6, 2003

Issaquah Alps > Tiger Mountain

Decided Sunday was a nice day for a trail run. The upper parking lot showed evidence of storm damage, but had been cleared. We knew we were in for an adventure with the first few blowdowns near the trailhead. We went up TMT and took the spur up to West Tiger 2. The lower part of the TMT - up to where it crosses the trail that goes straight up to WT3 - was a mess with numerous blowdowns. There were only a few blowdowns on the switchbacks up to Anschell's Alley, and a few along that pine-needle covered part of the trail. After that the trail was runnable all the way to where the TMT splits to the left from the West Tiger RR Grade. From there to West Tiger 2, there were numerous blowdowns - including almost one whole hillside adjacent to the trail. One of the small antennas on West Tiger 2 had been bent in half by the windstorm. Since all of the climbing over and under and through downed trees had added about 30 minutes to the run, we decided to head back to High Point via West Tiger 3. As others have reported, the upper portion of the WT3 trail is a true trail-finding adventure.