Great little hike with not too much elevation gain. It took us just a bit over 2 hours to do this ~5mi hike. Going through Shy Bear Marsh was gorgeous. I loved the little boardwalk that was built over it. This was my first time hiking around Cougar Mountain, and I can't wait to come back and check out the other trails! We loved seeing all the old mining structures.

Did a 6 mile loop by connecting all the trails mentioned in the title. The trails are in excellent condition, though completely covered in leaves. A few muddy spots due to recent rain. The fall foliage is mostly gone. It was an easy hike with constantly changing gradients, good for a quick hike in a nature trail close to home. Mostly ran into locals working out or taking their dogs out for a walk.

The Licorice Fern Trail is like Cougar Mountain's secret back door - a winding little trail sneaking up to the mountain through a deep ravine. No doghair replant forest here - just what mother nature has deemed fit to let grow after the old growth cedars were logged years ago. It's been around since before Mr. Manning's Footsore 1, but just never garnered the popularity that some other trails have. Walked the trail early Sunday. Parking is on the right (east) side of SE 112th St just after making the sharp left hand turn with room for 8-10 cars. The trailhead is nicely planted on both sides by the local land owners - walk 50 yards due east along the access easement to find the official trail signage. The trails are in great shape. Caution when crossing SE Licorice Way is important as noted in previous reports as cars can come flying down the hill and there is limited sight distance. The trail starts back up on the other side of the guardrail a couple hundred yards west. We added a lollipop loop after reaching the end of Licorice Fern continuing along Indian Trail, right on Far Country then Shy bear, then right on Deceiver past Doughty Falls to Shy Bear Pass, back around on Shy Bear trail and retraced our steps back down Licorice Fern to the trail head. Total distance with the additional loop is just over 8 miles and about 900' net vertical, (though with quite a bit of up/down. )The views off both Far Country Lookout and Long View Peak are just about grown over but still worth taking a look at. Doughty Falls has a fair amount of water going over after the recent rain. The next time you want to wander around Cougar Mt and are tired of Red Town, try this instead.

It had been pouring rain for 12 hours. Sounded to me like an invitation to visit some local waterfalls in Cougar Mountain Park. I started at the Indian Trail trailhead in the Licorice Fern neighborhood. I made a 6 mi loop that included the Indian Tr, Far Country, Shy Bear, Deceiver, Shy Bear, Quarry, and back to Indian. I was able to visit all 3 Cougar mountain waterfalls. Coal Creek falls was the prettiest and had the most flow. Doughty falls is just OK. I was expecting more given the amount of rain that we had this weekend. The virgin forest just west of Doughty Falls on the Deceiver trail was wonderful as always. Most of the trees are in the 3-4 foot diameter range but still a wonderful place. Far Country is very mossy and interesting. There is also a short unmarked trail that takes you to the brink of the falls. It has an interesting perspective. Don't let a little rain stop you. Get out there in any weather. I saw 5 or 6 runners but no hikers. Rainy days are also great for unplugging clogged waterbars. Lots of plugged drainages an resulting puddles. The hand hoe came in handy (say that fast 3 times).

Great hike with many families and kids to stay active over the Christmas break. The waterfall was great and overall a very pleasant hike. We did a scavenger hunt and some geocaching… there are several geocaches on this trail and at the neighborhood about a mile in off the licorice fern trail