Trails E15-E12-E2-E13-E15 In Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park.
Cougar Mountain Trails Map

Quick workout hike up from the trailhead on Newport Way to the Shangri La Trail then looping back down. (Personal best of 72 minutes round trip.)

Only two other cars at the trailhead. Saw about half a dozen other hikers. Trail was clear and relatively dry given the overnight rain. Lots of small birds and a few small critters. 

Our small crew of 8 headed out to do a rapid response crew on Cougar Mountain to help hikers and trail runners by not having to step over fallen trees. We split into two smaller saw teams to cover more ground, and get as many trees out of the trail as we could.

We started our day at the Harvey Manning trail head and worked our way down the Shangri La trail removing some downed trees, getting the cut pieces out of the trail, disusing the cut pieces so they didn't look very fresh, and the moving on to find our next tree. Shangri to No Name is now clear of trees across the trail.

Our next trail to tackle was the Surpise Creek Trail, this one didn't have as many downed trees, but enough to keep us busy until lunch time. After lunch our crew went on a nice hike to find out next area of trail that needed some TLC, we found a turnpike on the Red Cedars Trail that had some 'ankle breakers' and a small area that we becoming over grown with salmon berries. It was an all hands on tools team for a little bit getting the trail back opened, and the ankle breakers filled in with rocks and dirt before we were proud of our work and continued on to find the downed trees to cut out of the trail.

Our big trees had been already moved by the county by the time we found them. But out detour Precipice Top trail was worth while, we were able to remove one small tree out of the trail for others to enjoy. On our way back we could not tell if Goodies Corner was an actual trail, or just a social path due to two downed trees at the very start of it. This was our last project area of the trail. We cleared all of the downed trees along this small .2 mile trail and opened the trail back up for hikers to enjoy.

All in all it was a great day out on the trail, the rain held off for us, and we were able to get a lot accomplished with such a knowledgeable crew working together.

Until next time- happy trails!

Large cedar tree is blocking intersection of Surprise Creek and Precipice Top trails.

I took advantage of the sunshine to explore the northern portion of Cougar Mountain. Even though it was noon, the winter sun seemed low creating long shadows. Towards the intersection of Surprise Creek and Precipice Top trails a fallen cedar tree blocks both trails. It's still manageable to cross by walking over branches and trunks.

Trails were wet and Surprise creek had some uneven terrain where it crosses the creek. Chickadees, Robins, Kinglets and Pacific Wrens were constant companions, probably just as happy as us hikers that the rain took a break.

King County has signs up at the trailhead mentioning a possible 40 car lot built in this area. It's a lovely hiking area and close to the freeway, as well as walkable from public transit at the Issaquah Transit Center. Right now there is room for quite a few cars at the mostly unsigned trailhead, marked by a white gate approximately 1/4-1/2 mile west of SR 900. You'll see condo construction directly across the street. 

This is one of my favorite local hikes. There are loop options so you can hike a loop as short as ~1.5 miles/550 gain if you use some unmaintained/user trails. You can hike as long and far as you want as you'll enter the Cougar Mountain trail system once up on the ridge. 

For the short hike, continue uphill on the trail for just under 1/2 mile. You'll see an unmarked trail on the left at a switchback corner. Continue on this trail, which will go up and down a bit while it winds around the mountain. You'll come out of the forest at Harvey Manning Park at Talus. There's a restroom here, although it does seem to be locked sometimes in the winter. Enjoy the park if you like, but the route continues downhill, parallel to the park (You can also go uphill and reach the top of the Big Tree Ridge trail at the Red Cedars/precipice top junction from here). After a short distance downhill reach another unmarked junction. Straight continues and ends at some sort of city water treatment facility. I recommend turning left, which is the unmarked Skid Road trail. There is one junction on this trail, stay left. Right heads into the Bergsma parcel, which Issaquah/King County/Greenway Trust are in talks to acquire and add to the Parklands rather than build nearly 50 million dollar homes after clearcutting the forest and filling in the wetlands. The Skid Road trail follows an old roadbed above a stream. You do need to climb over/under a couple of blowdowns near the end of the trail, which is at a pile of boulders about 100 yards east of the trailhead.