RWHG had a great loop hike at Cougar Mountain Regional Park today. We pulled into the Redtown Th at 9:00 and were on the trail by 9:30. It was 28 degrees with clear blue skies. The parking lot was quite busy on Martin Luther King Day even though the trails didn’t seem all that crowded. We planned our route to take busier trails first and less crowded on our way back to the TH Lot. The Porta Potties at Red Town, Harvey Manning and Sky Country Th’s all were relatively clean with TP, seat covers and hand sanitizer.  Our 7.6 mile loop hike followed: Red Town, Cave Hole, Coal Creek Falls, Quarry, Fred’s Railroad, East Fork, Tibbett’s Marsh, Shangri La, Lost Beagle, Coyote Creek, Cave Hole, Old Man’s, Nike Horse, Military Road, Sky Country, Red Town Creek and back to the TH. All the trails were complete solid frost heaves in the early morning and shady areas all day long. After our lunch at the Million Dollar Pagoda some of the trails made your boots quite muddy. Wildlife sightings were limited to a few birds. We saw robins, juncos, creepers and bush tits. Hair icy was all along our route and a few mushrooms were still looking good despite the freeze. Redtown and Sky Country Th lots were jammed when we walked by and pulled of the lot just before 2:00. Another fantastic day out in nature with friends.

This is first time that I've hike this trail since the Nov 20th windstorm.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that there wasn't much wind damage on this part of Cougar Mountain.  There are just a few windfall to negotiate on the lower trail and the rest of the way has all been cleared by the excellent King Co crews.

Fantastic Erratic is looking pretty fantastic.  This is such a cool feature.  It was carried here on the huge Cordilleran ice sheet from somewhere deep in  Canada about 15,000 years ago.  On geologic scales, 15,000 years is just a blink of an eye.  It is mind boggling to imagine how Puget Sound would have looked as it was covered with a 2000 ft thick river of ice.  

5.8 miles 1300 ft

Disclaimers

Quick-and-dirty version

Access: Bear Ridge Trailhead
Round Trip: 7.7 miles
Elevation Range: 200′-1489′
Essential Gear: none
Dog-Friendly: yes

The rain hasn't let up since the holiday. I started at 8 when it died down a bit. Then it was between drizzles and slight showers up until the time I left.

The Trails

The massive trail system on this mountain is generally well-maintained and signed at most forks. The few downed trees I encountered were likely from recent rainstorms. All bridges over creeks were covered in thin plastic (?) grating to keep from slipping. A++!

• Bear Ridge: two skinny downed trees; step over.
• Harvey Manning: two half-fallen trees south of Lost Beagle Trail fork; walk underneath.
• Shangri-La: two big logs between Surprise Creek and Tibbetts Marsh Trail forks; step over.

My Route

I started from Bear Ridge Trailhead, directly south of West Tibbetts Creek. The route took me through several trails with a stop at the Million Dollar View Pergola. The misty Lake Sammamish was visible through the small opening from the pergola. On the return, I exited southbound via Anti Aircraft Peak through more trails before coming out at Bear Ridge Trail to hike out.

Highlights

• View of Lake Sammamish from the only viewpoint along the route
• Glimpses of Tiger Mountain and the neighboring Squak Mountain through tree branches

Lowlights

• Non-stop rain from the get-go

Jeno and I decided to check out the trails that head from Big Tree Ridge to the Million Dollar View this morning.   Since Maddy was up here on December 7th, all the trees that were down on the trails we took have been cleared out and cut up.  Thanks to the hard working King County crews who did that. (more on them later)

When we met at 6:00 AM the gate to the Big Tree Ridge trailhead off Newport Way was locked so we parked just down the road at a pullout that  holds about 4 cars.   While the trails are all clear there are two spots to watch out for in the first mile.   A large root ball has taken out part of the trail (see the photo of me measuring it) and the trail now goes to the left between the root ball and a previously downed tree which you can see in my photo.   Right past that is an area where something left a large crater in the trail and took out about half of it on the downslope side.   Both are easy to get around/through but just something to keep an eye on.

We got up to the Million Dollar View and enjoyed the lights.   While we were taking our break we saw a truck driving up the road to the park up there.  It was a King County worker who was opening things up and collecting trash.  We stopped and talked with him for a little bit before heading back down.

We only ran into two hikers this morning who wished us a Happy Solstice.  I am so used to saying Happy Holidays this time of year that their greeting threw me for a second before I figured things out and returned their greeting.  On our way down I told my buddy it would be funny if we ran into the King County worker in the Big Tree parking lot.  As we got down there sure enough he drove in to pick up trash and clean things up.  We talked to him and introduced ourselves and it turns out his name is Steve too (what a small world).  He told us he is responsible for 15 parks around the eastside getting them open, cleaned, taking trash, first thing in the morning.   Jeno and I want to say thanks to Steve and all the other hard working men and women from King County who do all those things so we can enjoy the trails.  We salute you and thank you.

I think our next hike will be after the holidays so to all the trip reporters and trip report readers Happy Holidays to all.  I hope Santa brings you everything you asked for.

Stay safe everyone.  See you on the trail.  SR

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