Our group of five senior hikers met at the Sky Country Trailhead at 9:00 AM to begin our figure eight hike using several trails on this foggy day. We hiked up to the Fred's RR trail where we saw a few fallen trees had been cut out from the big windstorm back in November. At the junction with the Shy Bear Trail, we saw a new trail junction sign. There were several new signs on our trip today. Shy Bear and the Deceiver Trails had several large fallen trees that had been cut out by King County Parks crews. At Shy Bear Marsh some of the bridges had been rebuilt and had antiskid material placed on top to prevent slipping.

Up on the Deceiver Trail we took the short trail down to the viewpoint for Doughty Falls. King County Parks has been building new steps and a safety railing for this trail. They had a big pile of timbers to construct more steps. After checking out the falls we headed back up to the main trail and met two King County Parks Trail Maintenace workers. We then crossed over Cabbage Creek above the falls on a new bridge that replaced the old log one. This new one is a steel girder with a metal deck and wood lower railings. We then went up the steeper section of the Deceiver Trail before getting to the junctions with the Long View Peak Trail and the Ring Road Trails. After arriving at Shy Bear Pass, we continued on the Shy Bear Trail to get back to Fred's RR Trail.

We took the East Fork Trail off Fred's RR and found some fallen trees for a lunch time bench. As were eating it started sprinkling, but no heavy rain. There was one huge Cottonwood tree that had blown over and is now cut out. After passing by Jerry's Duck Pond, we hiked the Mine Shaft Trail out to the Clay Pit Road. Before getting to the Clay Pit Road, we passed by the old air shaft used by the coal miners during the coal mining days on Cougar Mtn. where coal was mined for 100 years from 1863 to 1963. We walked the Clay Pit Road back to the parking lot with stop at the beaver pond on the North Fork of Coal Creek. They have a really big dam over the creek to see.

We only saw a few other hikers out on this foggy day, but no wildlife. Back at the parking lot the sun tried to come out and it had stopped raining. George

As you are hiking through the forest, remember this advice from a tree:

1. Stand tall and proud.

2. Go out on a limb.

3. Remember your roots.

4. Drink plenty of water.

5. Be content with your natural beauty.

6. Enjoy the view.

good conditions. nice day. lake is a nice spot past the mine shaft too

A Sunny brisk Sunday in the middle of December was the perfect day for a hike in the Issaquah Alps. The goal of the hike was two fold; assess the condition of the trails on Cougar Mountain about a month after the Bomb Cyclone windstorm and to see progress on the new steps & view landing at Doughty falls and the new bridge that was constructed this Fall.  The hike started at the Big Tree trailhead up to Harvey Manning Trail Head via the the Red Cedars and No Name and Shangri La trails .  There were numerous down trees all logged out and the trails were very passable and generally in good shape. There were a few areas where minor trail repairs damaged by the uprooting of trees. Million Dollar view was amazing. South on the Coyote Creek trail, a short stent on Freds RR trail over to the Shy Bear trail.  There was one down tree that had been logged on Fred's RR that impacted the trail and was a bit tricky but passable.  From Shy Bear, took the Deceiver Trail over to the Doughty Falls trail. The new steps and and rebuilt view point were very impressive and very well built. The most impressive trail improvement was the new low height bridge!!!.  It was amazing and a wonder how the metal decking and structure was transported to the site which is not near a road.  It also involves a hike down a steep trail  a challenge to transport all of the materials to the work site.  After admiring the new trail work, the hike continued back to the Shy Bear Trail, a quick stint up the Wilderness peak trail and then headed back to the Big Tree Trail head via Freds RR, East Fork Tibbets Marsh, Protector and Surprise Creek connecting back up to the Red Cedars trail.  Overall there were many down trees and significant log out work enabling all trails to be open and passable  

Main lot was full at 8:15 am, but there were still spots in the horse trailer lot and along the road. Slightly muggy but generally nice conditions in the morning for a trail run. All trails were in pretty good shape. Saw many kinds of wildflowers, an almost completely unfazed deer, and a couple of little black snakes (slithered away too fast for a certain ID). Quite a few folks out; love to see it!

This WED 08Feb2023 ~08:00, i arrived at the Harvey Manning Trailhead for a ~2 hrs, ~4.6 miles of CW_Loop walk: (M) Million Dollar View > Shangri-La Tr > Tibbetts Marsh Tr > Clay Pit Road > Mine Shaft Tr > East Fork Tr > Fred Railroad Tr > Klondike Swamp Tr > Coyote Creek Tr > Shangri-La Tr > (M)

Saw a family of happy ~10 Mallards in Jerry's Duckpond (beside the Mine Shaft Tr - East Fork Tr) 😄 And 1 chipmunk. Saw no other wildlife ..

The Trails were well-maintained, in good condition and had a few muddy spots - passable though.

Didn't see any one until when i got back to the parking at ~10:00; when a SUV followed by Light-Truck came. And so i had the woods - peace and quiet - all to myself for ~2 hrs .. such sweet solitude 👍😊

Happy Trails Everyone 😄