Nice early morning hike up Cable Line up to West Tiger 3, over to West Tiger 2, then over to the hikers hut at West Tiger 1. Behind the hikers hut, I took the Bypass trail over to where the Poo Top trail comes up to the road at West Tiger 1 summit proper. Once at the road and the sign for West Tiger 1 and the gate for the radio towers, I took a left and went down the road to the open area that has a nice view of the Cascades. Got a great view of Baker and could even see Glacier Peak. It is well worth heading over here if you are at the hikers hut. Trails were all in great shape. Was back at car at 8:16 am

Overview

Back to Tiger again for more exercise and ramping up the distance/vertical... Today was a counter-clockwise loop of Cable/High Point Connector -> Nook Trail -> Talus Rock Trail -> WT3 Trail -> WT2 -> WT1 -> Bypass Trail -> Preston Trail -> RR Grade -> TMT -> Cable Line, for a total of 8.8 miles and 3,290 vertical feet. Map of route below.

Trailhead

Arrived at just after 10am. There were less than 10 cars at the High Point gate end of the road and maybe 20 at the Cable Line TH. When I passed through the main lot at 10:20am, there were 3-4 spots free.

Trail Conditions

The whole loop was in great condition overall. No blowdowns from the recent storm apart from one slightly encroaching on the TMT a bit west of Anschell's Allee - not sure if they were removed already or just that none of these sections had any. The mud has mostly dried up on this route with the exceptions being the saddle between WT3 and WT2 and a longish section of the TMT just south of where the TMT and Lingering Trail meet - but even those sections are much better than 2 days back, the mud has thickened up and can be walked on fairly easily.

The crowd was surprisingly sparse today. Even on the WT3 trail I didn't encounter too many people and there was just one family at the WT3 overlook when I passed through there. I had the WT1/Hiker's Hut overlook to myself for a few minutes before the next party arrived.

There were bugs out today, mostly on the TMT stretch for Murat's Bridge to the Cable Line. They weren't too bad while moving, but a bit of a nuisance when stopped.

Overview

Did a counter-clockwise loop of Cable Line (bottom section) -> TMT -> K3 -> TMT -> WT2 -> WT1/Hiker's Hut -> Bypass Trail -> Preston Trail -> West Tiger RR Grade -> TMT (did I mention the TMT?) -> Lingering Trail -> High Point Trail. This loop came to 6.9 miles and about 2910 feet of elevation gain. It's a great option for an exercise hike when done in this direction as the whole descent is mostly on loamy, forgiving surface that is easy on the joints.

Trailhead

I arrived at 7:40am. There were about 20 cars parked near the High Point end of the frontage road and maybe 15 in total around the Cable Line trailhead. When I got down around 10:30am, there were at least double at both locations.

Trail

The recent rains have definitely made things soggier compared to last week. The bottom section of the Cable Line is a bit slippery but not too bad - definitely not as bad as it is prone to getting. There are a couple of muddy sections on the TMT between Cable Line and K3. K3 is in great shape, as are the TMT section above it, the road walk from WT2 to WT3, and the Bypass trail all the way to the Preston junction.

The Preston trail has some longer muddy sections on the upper portion. The West Tiger RR grade is in great shape for the short section between the Preston junction and where the TMT splits off. The TMT below here has some sustained and quite impressive mud pits - I was glad to be in boots today so I could just plow on through instead of trying to pick my through in trail runners. The High Point trail is mostly dry and is the firmest section of trail on this route.

Despite the great holiday weekend weather, the trail didn't feel too crowded. I passed probably 2-4 parties per mile of trail and there were 4 or 5 parties at the Hiker's Hut overlook. 

Pack trained up Cable Line.  Even in snow free conditions I find poles helpful for the rooty, uneven terrain, especially for the way down.  It is like doing half of Mailbox Old Trail, with less driving.  It gets the job done!  The nicest view is 300 vertical feet from the top, a little pull-off, climbers right.  You can see Mount Si and the other peaks of North Bend and Snoqualmie.

Saw 5 other hikers on a Tuesday morning

3.5 miles and 2000 ft gain