Clockwise loop starting at the Sky Country trailhead.

Access. Paved road and parking lot, portable toilets.

Conditions. Trails were all in good condition, only the Military Road trail had some mud pits.

Flora. Some salmonberry and skunk cabbage were starting to bloom.

Crowds. The parking lot was overflowing at 9am, incl more than a few trailer-less cars parked in the horse trailer parking area... Steady trickle of people running and/or walking their dogs, and even a WTA work party.

Hiked 2/20/22. Published 2/27/22.

6.2 miles

800' ascent

Late trip report. Hiked from the Sky Country TH in the order of trails listed above. Nothing too particular to note. Solo hike. Nice weather at first before rain then snow started for last 1/3 of hike. The mine shaft is kinda spooky. Felt like I was going to get "The Hills Have Eyes"-ed. The turnoff from Jerry's Duck Pond to the Clay Pit was hard to see and overgrown but easy to follow once on it. I turned right on the Clay Pit road (this section out of use and overgrown) to explore a bit. Climbed up the hill. Very muddy. There is a field at the top (you can see on satellite), this is basically a marsh at this time of the year. There is a bit of a small ridge to climber left of it. I scrambled up this dirt to see better down to the clay pit and discovered a bit of a climber's trail heading further. I followed this until the end where it terminates is probably the BEST lookout on Cougar Mountain (to my knowledge) looking to the NE looking out over Issaquah (see pic). Pretty cool "secret spot." I hiked back after enjoying the view a bit and entered the Clay Pit but didn't get far since it was so wet and I was wearing trail runners not waterproof boots. I then carried on towards Tibbett's Marsh - pretty cool single-handrail bridge here - then continued down West Tibbett's Creek and eventually down Bear Ridge Trial toward the Fantastic Erratic. I think erratics are really cool to had to pay this one a visit and it was well worth the extra work. Really big and you can stand on top! I returned after a bit and hiked onward on Bear Ridge Trial to Shangri La Trail, climbed on that a bit before taking Protector Trail back to Tibbitt's Marsh. I wanted to explore more in this area but the day was getting late (well past 4 pm) and the weather had turned, with rain starting and quickly turning into light snow. I carried on back to the Clay Pit road and back to the car. When passing the large Klondike Marsh on the road, I noticed the road is actually below the water level of the marsh. Pretty cool bit of engineering there. Some weird noises in the forest right after this marsh towards the South, but since there are so many trail in there I figured it was a dog making them.

Overall, a decent hike, but hamstring was pulling a decent amount, lateral hamstring tendon pulling then belly of hamstring before medial hamstring tendon pulling. I figured if it was moving around as opposed to the same ol' spot then that's a good thing. Calf quite tight today as well.

GPS: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=16.3/-122.1070/47.5307&pubLink=l9e4mhVemVvBSQYNwFvHpMWj&trackId=f85aaf36a88a99fa68272f7e333baa43

I took advantage of the fantastic weather today and hiked a loop on the Cougar trails starting from Talus. Trails followed were Talus Bridge -> Bear Ridge -> West Tibbetts -> Mine Shaft -> East Fork -> Quarry -> Coal Creek Falls -> Cave Hole -> Nike Horse -> Old Man’s -> Coyote Creek -> Lost Beagle -> Shangri La.

Conditions on trail are mostly great. Below 1200 feet of elevation the snow is gone everywhere but the deepest hollows. The trails have mostly drained well and long sections are dry and in great shape. All the snow-laden branches have returned to their normal positions and a bunch of the blowdowns from the recent storms have been cleared and encroaching branches cut out. The only sections worth calling out are:

• West Tibbetts still has some compact snow and mud in a few sections and one long section where the trail itself is basically a creek, and a couple branches requiring some ducking to get by. The bridge is very slippery and has ice on one end. There is one spot on the trail where a large branch broke off from higher up and is barely hanging just above the trail supported by some other small branches - it’s worth not lingering here as this looks like it will come down soon.
• Mine Shaft and East Fork have a few long sections of compact snow on the trail and some water running down the trail in places.
• Coyote Creek has a few longer muddy sections in the area that runs beside Klondike Swamp
• Shangri La has compact snow on the whole trail for the first quarter mile east from the Harvey Manning TH, and a few blowdowns in this same section though none are too difficult to pass.

The trails I hiked were mostly uncrowded with only one or two parties encountered on most sections other than the Quarry trail where I passed at least half a dozen, and then the whole section between Coal Creek Falls and the Sky Country TH where there were dozens of parties. The Sky Country TH was packed when I passed through around 1:30pm.

We arrived at Sky Country TH at 9 and were lucky to snag the last available parking spots.  There were a number of groups meeting up, so parking was more limited than usual.

Our first destination was the old mine shaft.  We started on Clay Pit and hiked to Fred's RR Trail, which is a ways down Clay Pit and will appear on the right.   We took Fred's RR to East Fork trail, which appears on the left.  That trail will become Mine Shaft trail and take you directly to the old mine shaft.  We threw small rocks down the shaft to see how long it would take to hit bottom.  Only one of us was able to heave our rock past the bank, however! 

We followed the signs to Harvey Mann TH to get to our second destination, Million Dollar view.  The clouds and fog hindered the view, but we were still able to enjoy a lovely territorial view of Lake Sammamish and surrounding areas.  

From there, we walked across the TH parking lot to the large field. which has two covered gazebos with picnic tables.  It was a perfect lunch spot and nice cover from the rains.  We then started our hike back to the TH.   We took Shangri La to Coyote Creek to Clay Pit, which took us directly to the TH.

The trails were all in great shape, especially for this rainy time of the year.  There were a few down trees to cross over, but all were very navigable.  Trail signage is very good throughout this large trail system. We logged 6 miles and 675' in elevation gain. It was a wonderful day in the woods with several great destination spots.

Rainy day but fun regardless. Trees and moss were gorgeous. Took some great pictures