Near 11:30 today, I parked at the Big Tree Ridge Trailhead and noted 5 cars, two of which left as I parked (see below, Tahoe arrived after I had begun hiking).  Weather was cloudy, misty, and the foliage and ground were damp.  The facility is clean, the signage is excellent, and the trail is in good condition with occasional very recent improvements in the bed and drainage off the trail.  Just before the Big Tree Ridge Trail reaches its upper junction, there was a considerable improvement and the formation of a new trail around the root-wad of a winter up-rooted large Douglas-fir tree that took the old trail bed with it. 

I made a series of figure eights as I wandered from the trailhead to the top and back -- I really enjoy the extraordinary vigor of the understory plants with Pacific waterleaf being the shortest, then Siberian miner's lettuce, leaves of colt's foot (vying with devil's club and bigleaf maple for having the largest leaf), and bleeding heart, then fragrant fringecup and piggy-back plant, then bracken, lady, and sword ferns, then stinging nettles (some reaching 6 feet), red currant, and salmonberry, then devil's club, and finally elderberry, hazelnut, vine maple -- so thick, lush, and green. There many other plants!

The streams are drying up.  The dog with me was able to find both running water and deep enough pools to drink from at three different points stretched and nicely spaced along our 7.82 mile hike.  We did something we should not have as we walked the connector trail between the Harvey Manning Park at Talus and the Big Tree trail on our descent (involved some ascent).  There is a lot of work to do on this trail before it will be open. For me, what was truly discouraging were the number of very old and large Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and especially large western red cedar that were blown down in early December.  If we examine our suburban and urban parks, they are really postage stamps on the original envelope of forests, meadows, and grasslands that made up the landscape of the Pacific Northwest.  Loss of these time and size monarchs from an already diminished pool is discouraging.

There is an interesting experiment occurring in the first part of the Big Tree Ridge Trail.  The first couple of hundred feet of vertical were previously spent in a relatively young and very dense second growth stand of red alder, bitter cherry, black cottonwood and bigleaf maple (originated mostly from stump sprouts).  Previous attempts (as well as natural occurrences) to increase the coverage by evergreen species (e.g., western redcedar) mostly failed as inadequate light and heavy herbivory killed them.  This winter the stand was thinned by at least 50% removal.  There is an amazing amount of down, but well-organized wood and woody debris.  I am interested to see how this treatment plays out (it would have been an excellent silvicultural exercise for UW students in SEFS, but they were not contacted).

The well organized wood from the silvicultural treatment and even the spot-wise and scattered, but much more impressive, the downed wood, branches, and needles from the wind-storm form an interesting threat.  These disturbances have potentially provided considerable fuel for a fire.  As the summer progresses and these and other fuels dry, a fire would start easily and with strong winds move rapidly.  I have not seen much discussion of this potential for the wind-stormed damaged forests of the Puget Sound Area.

For a plant nerd, this hike rivals subalpine and alpine and eastside hikes.  However, context makes the others win almost every time.

Ps: A Tahoe with California plates had two of its right side windows broken completely.  No other cars had damage in the trailhead lot.

April 3, 2025: Update: All down logs/trees have been dealt with.  Other than some mud, the trails are in excellent condition.  Flowers of colt's foot are in their prime as are yellow violets; June plum, miner's lettuce, and salmon berry are beginning to flower.The replanting has begun near the trailhead.

March 25: I have enjoyed this trail complex three times this late winter/early spring (March 7, 14, and 25).  Between March 14 and 25, I was surprised to find three very large trees down and across the trail at about 0.85 miles in the Big Tree Ridge trail (last switchback before the flat section before the junction with the Precipice trail) (see Figure 1).  It was not until I got above this obstacle that I was able to unravel how it happened and why there was such a complex of stems and branches at the point in the switchback where I first encountered this new and recent tree fall.  A very large Douglas-fir on the east side of the trail along the relatively flat ridge top had gone over and taken two large western hemlock trees, situated on the west side and down slope, including their root wads over so that three robust sections of each tree's crown was now embracing this section of the trail.  As I had a large dog on a leash, I opted to bushwack up the steep hillside rather than have dog, leash, and me fighting the stems and branches.  Raised the old heart rate!  I had assumed that all the big tree damage, done during the bomb cyclone, was in the past (see Figure 2).  It wasn't.

In spite of these obstacles (nothing kills a walking rhythm liked down trees or high water flows in streams), it was a great hike on a very warm spring day with lots of flowers emerging (especially Colt's Foot and June Plum).

The other interesting change that has occurred and that I first witnessed on my March 7 hike (previous last hike had been on November 15, 2024) is all the deciduous tree thinning that has occurred in the bottom 0.3 miles of the trail.  The obvious reason is the endeavor to add species and structural diversity to this relatively young, dense red alder -- bigleaf maple forest (with some black cottonwood and bitter cherry).  I wish that they had not cut down the robust bitter cherry tree (these are becoming scarcer without fire or clearcuts) and I think they are going to find that when the remaining hardwoods leaf out that there is more shade that they had hoped for (see Figure 3).  Some suggestions to deal with the shade, plant western hemlock, grand fir, and in the most humid places, but not in constant water, Sitka spruce or if you going to stay with just Douglas-fir (big mistake if you are seeking species diversity), cut more hardwoods down.  You could also girdle trees that would prevent leaf retention and result in wood that came down at a later time (3 to 10 years).  However, there is a surprising amount of carbon on the forest floor now -- as it decomposes, the decomposers will be very strong competitors with the newly planted trees for nitrogen.

Family member and I decided to attempt to do some trail running today. We knew we had to be very careful, assess trail and tree conditions, and constantly be prepared for something falling after the recent storms. Kind of hard to bring myself to get out with all the craziness with power outages, but I think the only reason I’ve been able to persevere is my bucket gets filled regularly with my outdoor hikes. We decided to head to the Harvey Manning trailhead for a run from there and ended up doing quite a mishmash of various trails. Not sure I can call what we did as a run with all the obstacles we ended up having to go over, through, and under. Our route went in a counter-clockwise direction that had us ending on Shangri La Trail. The worst sections we encountered were on Precipice Top, Red Cedars, and Surprise Creek trails. The only creaking/moaning tree we heard was on the Precipice Top trail and the only large blowdown we had to go under was on the Red Cedars trail. On our way out on Shangri La not far from the trailhead parking we saw this large blowdown that someone’s chainsaw lost a battle to. My thanks goes to anyone and everyone who helps clear trails. On W. Tibbetts Creek Trail I attempted to pull a large hanging branch over the trail with eye level poking bits off of another tree and could only get it to fall on the side of the trail, making me wonder if that was really any better. I hope this trip report is helpful for anyone who services these trails. I also hope WTA puts together a new list of upcoming work parties to help clear trails from cyclone damage and gets the word out as I’d love to come help when and where I can!

I was part of a WTA work party improving the Precipice Bottom Trail. This section of trail is temporarily CLOSED due to a bridge washout. We saw some trail runners here despite the clearly marked closure.

The trail from Big Tree Ridge parking lot is steep, with 7-8 switchbacks covering about 300 feet of elevation gain over seven-tenths of a mile. The trail is made of clay and is very slippery when wet, especially in the unmaintained switchbacks. Once the Precipice Trail diverges from Big Tree Ridge trail, it winds steeply downhill. The switchbacks have been recently improved by WTA crews, and there are new drains to redirect water. There are two wrought-iron benches about two-tenths of a mile down the trail on a flat stretch — a great place for a snack.

We noticed quite a few mosquitoes while we were working. There were also some trillium flowers in bloom.

This is a series of trails harboring many surprises (Figure 2). There are big trees (but the biggest are a long ways from the trail), there is a precipice (sort of), there are red cedars (there are lots of other species), there was a lost Beagle (was it found?), Surprise Creek (the U.S.G.S. map does not show or even have contours where it might be. In contrast, the Green Trails map has found some contours for it from the U.S.G.S. map, but then puts it in the wrong place.  Even the powerline right-of-way, relative to the trails, or the trails themselves, appear to be in the wrong place. Perhaps, this explains why the beagle got lost or were the owners lost?), Military Ridge (until you know the history of the summit area, this seems a strange name), and then when you are convinced that the those naming the trails have had no problem find a name up to now, but suddenly you are confronted with a "No-Name Trail!"  Fortunately, the condition and the signage associated with all these trails and the numerous junctions are outstanding.  King County Parks has done an excellent job and they are currently greatly improving the drainage on the Shangri La Trail.

As much as I make fun of the names and locations of these trails, they and the entire Cougar Mountain complex of trails and trailheads are an outstanding and a wonderful resource for folks located in King County.  This is a great time of the year to enjoy these trails (I was hoping for much more snow).  Their frozen status (thawing is beginning) and the 1/8 to 1/4 inch of snow meant dry, clean hiking shoes.  There was some ice on short sections or parts of the trail, but there was always an ice free by-pass. 

When I first reached the trailhead, I was surprised by how cold it was (at the same time, it was -2oF at Snoqualmie Pass) and how many cars were already in the designated parking spots (no permits required).  Several cars left as I was getting ready and several other cars left when I left two hours later.  Lots of turn-over. This relatively new trailhead is getting good use (https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2023-12-10.2610533860).  It is in a great location.

I have described this trail systems in detail in two other reports (1: Dec. 10, 2023: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2023-12-10.2610533860 and 2: Nov 6, 2022: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2022-11-06.3627036611 ).  I will not repeat the detail found in those earlier reports.  However, I will say that this very intense cold period has resulted in some very interesting ice formations: first (seen in Figure 3) are the vertical crystals that have shoved rocks and soil upward. These formations are prevalent on the exposed parts of the trail and often, because of trail use, they collapse. You can see where parts of the trail that have been lifted and are undermined by ice crystals and are ready to collapse.  Both the already collapsed sections and the sections not yet collapsed force you to be more observant.  In some cases, the water crystals appear like almost transparent solids extruded through square or rectangular openings.  In other cases, they appear like basalt flows (see Figure 3). 

Water was flowing in the small streams including Surprise Creek.  However, any obstacle encountered resulted in splash and ice formation (see Figure 4).  This photograph was taken where one is on the Military Ridge trail just above the Harvey Manning Park at Talus and near where I and the trail crossed from Surprise Creek from its north- to the south-side. For the rest of the trip down, Surprise Creek is always to your left.  Surprise Creek flows under SE Newport Way about 5 feet NW of where the return trail reaches the road.  In other words, considerably SE of the relatively new trailhead.  Back to the mysteries surrounding Surprise Creek.