It seems when North Bend and Snoqualmie have rain, that Cougar Mt doesn't. We had a great time on a loop trail starting at Antiaircraft TH. We were the only car there at the start and only saw about 6 people on the trails. There was a little mud but most of the trails were covered in pretty fall leaves. It is good to have a map although most intersections were well labeled. Maps can be printed off the King Co Parks website. We started at the Anti-aircraft TH, Shangra La, Coyote creek, By Pass, Fred's RR, East fork, Mine Shaft (lunch here at bench by grated shaft) Cougar Pass, Klondike Swamp, and Lost Beagle. Just over 5 miles.

I did the mine shaft trail as part of a 4 mile hike originating from sky country trail head. Mine shaft trail is nice and gets you into the deeper part of the park than others. I ended up doing this at about 8 pm in late August so it got a bit dark on the trail. No bear or cougar sightings but I did see a sign to be on the lookout for them in this part (this is one of the closest trails to the protected area so it's a legitimate warning). All in all it was a nice hike in the evening.

I decided to do the Anti Aircraft Peak trail but realized that the instructions are incorrect in the write up. So I decided to do a large loop connecting my own set of trails in the Cougar Mountain Park. Overall the trails are in awesome condition and I didn't run into many bugs. I actually didn't notice any until I started on the E Fork Trail. Unfortunately it was cloudy so million dollar view as only about 500K today but hey it was still cool. I am marking up a trail map for what I did that others can use. I ended up trail running most of it and let me tell you, Protector trail is AWESOME to trailrun. Feels like you are on an obstacle course. Also Anti Aircraft ridge is pretty fun. The rest of the trails are pretty well groomed/wide/gravel. At the end it came out to a total of 6.2 miles.

Great choice for a couple of novice hikers. It's a tranquil spot to walk through plentiful foliage and listen to the beautiful sounds of nature. Birds chirping, deer munching on greens, wind rustling through the trees. A very nice hike. Short and sweet. We chose to follow By Pass Trail to Clay Pit Road instead of following the one way trail to the mine shaft. It's shorter, but still very beautiful. The pictures of the mine shaft don't do it justice. It is very impressive! Highly recommend this trail.

This was a five or so mile loop starting from "Sky Country" parking area in Cougar Mt. Regional Park. The trails are all dry and in some places damp but no mud or other problems often found in the area most of the year. The creeks are dry or only a trickle so this area is much drier than typical. No real views other than "Jerry's Pond?" at the end of the Mine Shaft Trail. Trip has modest elevation gain (maybe 300 feet) and is fairly easy walking. Most of the loop may now be known as the "Bear Loop" but I know I missed some of the loop. On Sunday there were a fair number of folks walking, running and enjoying the sun. Trail is very well shaded (thus no views) and a nice walk on a hot day.