Another cool cloudy day in a mild winter season, another hike to Tiger Mt. Our group started out at the Issaquah HS Trailhead off 2nd Street. We walked up the HS Trail to the intersection at the Gas Line with the Poo Poo Pt. Trail. This trail is an old truck road which climbs steadily up towards the West Tiger RR Grade. It crosses some attractive creeks through the Many Creek Valley and continues up more steeply until intersecting the RR Grade and the beginning of the One View Trail. We took the Poo Poo Point Trail, continuing along the remainder of the RR Grade until it drops down sharply through thick forest to intersect another old road. Then we walked up to the Point to admire views of Lake Sam, Lake Washington, nearby Squauk and Cougar, I-90, the Lake Sammamish Plateau and off towards distant Mt. Pilchuck, half buried in cloud cover. We had lunch perched on the take-off point for hang-gliders and paragliders. There were none there at the time. And we admired someone's handiwork, a carved flying tiger resting under the trees. Does any other reporters know this story' After a break, we were getting cold and headed off back up to the RR Grade, running it until coming to the intersection with the Section Line Trail. The RR Grade is not maintained as well as some trails on Tiger, but was passable. There were a few blow-downs and mud-holes to dodge and I was slapped by more than one springy salmonberry cane. The trail is not completely level, but goes up and down through several tiny creek gullies, the precusors of the larger creeks crossed by the Poo Poo Point Trail below. Keep a sharp lookout for intersections, especially the Seattle View Trail, which is unmarked. Connections and other loops are possible. Didn't I just climb up the Section Line a week ago' Well, it was down it this time. Approach with caution, especially when damp as the roots on this trail are greasy underfoot and treacherous. There were no mishaps and we enjoyed walking the lower portion of the Section Line which brought us back to the intersection with the Poo Poo Point and High School Trails at the Gas Line. We had warmish weather (for February) and no rain. The buds are swelling on the branches and I kept looking for early flowers. Birds were singing in their multitudes and we heard the distinctive croak of two ravens through the woods. A great day in the suburbs.

Began hike from High Point parking lot following Around the Lake trail. Then following up the pipeline trail I started up the Poo Poo Point trail. At about 1500' I began encountering snow on the trail which increased to 8"" just above the vista. For a return I elected to loop via the West Tiger Railroad Grade thinking ""Railroad Grade"" would be easy. What a mistake. As the elevation climbed the snow depth increased to 12"" and the blow down became intense. I lost the trail several times but with compass and map I was able to happily find it again. Their were no other footprints or signs of other hikers so apparently I was the only fool to hike this route in these conditions. The return on the steeper slope of Nook trail was also covered with snow which turned me into a downhill racer. Recommendation: Don't do what I did.

This is a good trip for anyone tired of the crowds on West Tiger 3. The trail climbs steadily up to intersect with the Railroad Grade and One View Trails. Then it drops down through a section of hemlock woods until reaching an old road. Following the road up a gentle hill, you come to a parking lot and the grassy platform where the hanggliders and paragliders take off. We hiked this trail on a cloudy day, but it's a good workout. The trail was slightly overgrown in the Many Streams Valley area, with very vigorous salmonberry. A few mudholes and one downed tree. The forest was green and lush with lots of little (and some large)flowers blooming. We also startled a doe near the powerline trail.

After years of hiking up to Poo Poo Point on the High School trail, we decided to try the new trail from the hang-glider field on the Issaquah-Hobart road. The trail begins across the grassy field from the parking lot (which is on the east side of the road). It turned out to be quite a good trail, beautifully constructed. The trail goes up steeply with long switchbacks to the lower hanglider site in about two miles. We stopped for a snack there and enjoyed the panoramic view. It's too bad it was so cloudy, because if Mount Rainier had been visible, it would have been spectacular. We continued up the trail to the upper site (about a quarter of a mile further). Then we continued from Poo Poo Point up the trail, along the railroad grade to a junction (at 2000 feet) with the high school trail(left) and the One View trail (right). The One View trail goes one mile and intersects the Tiger Mountain Trail. We turned left on the TMT and continued about 1.2 miles to Manning's Reach, our destination, where we had lunch. Luckily, the sun came out just as we sat down and we had a pleasant rest with a fine view out to the Lakes and even the Olympics mistily in the distance. The TMT south of Manning's Reach certainly doesn't get much traffic. The trail is rough in spots (quite muddy in places too), and we had to climb over several trees. We only saw one person at Manning's Reach and later, one more on the One View trail. Aside from these, we had total isolation from Poo Poo Point onwards. And this on a Saturday!

Getting there: Drive to the high point trailhead and park at the gate, exit 20. The trip: It was my initial intent to try and do the enitre TMT and back but difficult conditions (deep snow, hard to find trails etc.), made this impossible to do starting a little before 1:00 pm with no head lamp. The day began rain-free with some blue sky and a bit of clearing. I hit snow almost right away but it didn't get real deep until somwhere between 1,500 and 2,000 ft. There were no fresh foot prints on this enitre section until the TMT's crossing of the West Tiger 2 and 3 saddle, where there was a serious set of tracks heading up towards W. Tiger 2. From here I continued on the TMT to Manning's Reach in some serious deep powder for jogging shoes. I continued on the TMT until coming to the intersection of the trail to the Middle Tiger summit, I went a bit further to the five mile marker coming from hwy. 18 and then back tracked to the middle Tiger junction, it was getting late and I obviously wasn't going to make the entire traverse this day. So from this junction I descended down to the West Side Road and followed it some 3.5 miles up to Poo Poo Point (this road gets fairly steep after crossing the Grand Canyon trailhead). Once at Poo Poo the sun was beginning to set and I was freezing cold but it was nice to finally be on familiar trail! I now put on my wool hat, gloves and parka excited about the downhill. Even though it was dark I made great time to the Adventure trail where I followed it to the Brink trail and finally the Swamp trail for the final leg of my journey back to the gate around 6:30 pm after some 5.5 hours of running, snowshoeing, routefinding, freezing and plodding ever so slowly along! Take Care! See ya on the trail, Pilar.