Beautiful morning up on West Tiger 2 for the sunrise. I was one of a few early bird dawn patrol hikers up on WT2. There were already the three hikers who passed me going up Cable Line, and a trailrunner who was coming the other way, who said "It's a party", up at the summit of WT2 at 7:25am!!

Cable Line trail was in excellent shape. Very dry, with hardly any mud. I didn't even get my pants dirty. I guess I could of worn my Sunday's best today...even though its only Saturday!! lol

WTA stands for West Tiger Association, right? Great, looks like I'm in the right place then!

Since we seem to be nearing the end of the recent inversion and with the clouds a good 600-700 feet lower than when I went up on Monday, I decided to go check out sunrise from West Tiger while we still had the lowland cloud bank around.

I got to the Cable Line trailhead just before 6am at which point there were 4 cars already parked down there. Took Cable Line on the way up and the trail is the driest I have ever seen it outside of late summer - the two usual mud pits are still there, but even those have pretty much dried out right now, and with the cold night firming them up significantly there was no need to pick steps. Cable Line is a trail known more for exercise/suffering than enjoyment, but in the dark with frost on all the vegetation sparkling in the headlamp light and all the erosion less obvious than in daylight, it's almost enjoyable!

I arrived at the WT3 clearing (well, it's all clearing up there now, isn't it?) just before 7am, just in time to catch some of the city lights still glowing through the fog. It was quite windy and chilly up on WT3 and much more so at WT2. I'd regretted wearing a base layer under my hiking pants on the way up Cable Line, but was very glad to have it standing around on WT2 enjoying the sunrise.

I spent about an hour at WT2 enjoying the sunrise views, and thinking that it's quite funny that WT2, which had no view before the logging, now has the best views out of the three West Tiger peaks. I then went down and up to WT1 before coming back out via the West Tiger 3 trail. There are no trail conditions worth noting on the WT3 trail apart from that sections of it were a bit slippery due to frost - the trail is quite polished in places from the pitter patter of thousands of boots, so when frost settles on those sections, traction can be poor. As I was coming down the WT3 trail I was passing parties going up every few minutes. When I passed through the Highpoint trailhead around 10am, it was about 40% full.

Does the world need another Tiger Mountain trip report right now? Hmm... debatable. Am I going to give you one? Absolutely.

Did an 8ish mile loop today at Tiger Mountain. Started at Cable Line, went up to Tiger 3, felt pretty good so continued on to Tiger 2, then Tiger 1, down on Bootleg Trail to Preston Trail, then Dwight's Way and out High Point Trail, with a short road walk back to our cars. It was a beautiful day and a really fun hike! Nice to be out again. 

There have been a lot of Cable Line reports lately and I don't have much to add... it's steep, it's muddy (though not as bad as it gets.) We started in the fog then came out in the sun up above the clouds and enjoyed a nice snack at the top. 

The trail to Tiger 2 is a little hard to spot through the clear cut but not hard to follow once you're on it. I haven't been past Tiger 3 since the clear cut. Views were cool today with the clouds but I definitely want to come back and see it on a clear day too! 

We then took the road to Tiger 1/Hiker's Hut. Someone left a scented candle and a condom in the hut, in case anyone needs a little... "inspiration." Some of the former trails around the top of Tiger 1 are no longer, but the gate was open so we crossed over Tiger 1 and continued down the road... This section up around Tiger 1 also had a small amount of lingering snow (the only snow we saw all day), but it was not hard to cross. 

The trail down to Bootleg was quite hard to spot, because it was behind a building. Both Bootleg and Preston trails were the most challenging of the day due to a not insignificant amount of blow downs of various sizes. Some sections were actually a bit difficult to cross because of the amount of fallen trees, and also some significant mud. It's definitely doable if you're determined, but not the most pleasant. This area needs some SERIOUS love. 

Once we got on Dwight's Way we were back in the clouds and it was smooth sailing back to the High Point Trailhead. The forest on Dwight's Way is very beautiful, especially in the fog. We had an interesting conversation with a resident of the tent community near the High Point Trailhead. It looks like a nice set up there!

After gaining about 600 vertical feet I broke out of the fog.

Snow free. Not too much mud. 

Great to see the foothills above the fog. 

My dog Burt liked it! He’s getting older but only had to be carried 300 vertical feet. 

What a sunset tonight above the fog up on West Tiger 1,2, and 3!! Wow!! Just beautiful. It was cold coming up Cable Line, as it was in the fog when I started around 3 pm. Fog lifted at around 1400 ft, and then was clear skies after that. Such nice views all the way over to WT1 from WT3. I stuck around WT2 on the way back and caught a sensational sunset. Trail and road up top are now snow free. Remember to bring a headlamp if you are going to catch the sunset up here, as it gets dark fast coming down Cable Line!!