Hiked counterclockwise. About 100 feet before the junction of the TMT and the road up to South Tiger from the north (near Holder Creek), there is a massive complex of blowdowns that completely obscures the trail. We were able to bushwhack up the slope to the road, but not without some painful encounters with a devil’s club. Unfortunately no photos - we were busy trying to find our way through - but the trail will be difficult if not impossible to navigate until cleared. (See attached screenshot of our route - I circled the location in red.)

The rest of the trail had lots of blowdowns from the recent windstorm which were generally passable by scrambling over or ducking under. We also avoided the newly constructed South Tiger summit trail in favor of the roads, since a fellow hiker also encountered massive blowdowns on the lower section.

Started on the south end of the Tiger Mountain Trail and only went as far north as the South Tiger Powerline Trail intersection before going west/southwest on the Powerline Trail and looping back to the TMT via the South Tiger Traverse Trail. This loop was a 5 mile hike with just under 1,000 ft elevation gain. The new connector trail for the TMT has been built on the north side of the Powerline Trail, so walking down the powerline path to get back to the TMT is no longer needed. There were 2 large tree branches on the TMT from the thunderstorm the previous night, which we were able to mostly clear from the trail. The blackberry and reed canarygrass along the TMT right before the Powerline Trail intersection has grown back in full force and the blackberry thorns may snag your clothes if you don't carefully avoid the canes.

Hiked from Tiger Mountain Road towards South Tiger, under power lines and then up the gravel road to marked trail on the right going through wooded area.  This part of the South Tiger Traverse is seriously overgrown, I had poles to help part the foliage and was glad to be wearing long pants. There was one downed tree across the trail, but it wasn't too big and easy to step over.  Hopefully the trail crews that take care of this trail can get out and do some serious brushing on this trail.

I hiked up to this area searching out the wild blackberries that grow on the ground they are very small but delicious.  Also many bushes of Thimbleberries (wild raspberry), the ripe ones are very sweet but fragile, they melt in your mouth.  Also lots of Huckleberries, they seemed tart to me however.  The foxgloves are at the very end of their bloom.  

It was cloudy which helped keep the temperature down and a few raindrops on my hike back to car.  Not enough moisture to do anything for the dry forest.  

A quick out and back up to the south tiger summit (south and north summits). Making our way up got some excellent looks at trilliums blooming. The weather proved to be a steady drizzle most of the way up. The first mile of trail off the road entrance can get pretty muddy in presence of rain so keep that in mind when choosing footwear.

Apparently there is a survey marker on the first summit but I was not able to locate it. Perhaps on a better weather day it may be easier to find with not being inside a cloud at that elevation. Continued to north summit which provides no view but a bench and fire pit that with better weather may be a fun place to stop. If only interested in lookout views then stick to the initial summit. The out and back using the service road to connect trails was about 6.2 miles. The service road section being the steepest part of the hike.

A beautiful spring day to climb up to South Tiger Summit. I started at Tiger Mountain Rd and headed up to the South Tiger Traverse. Several wildflowers are in bloom along the way.  I hadn't been on this route for 3-4 years and I was impressed by the new signage and the rerouting of the summit trail.   About a quarter mile past the Power Lines, I took the trail to the right off of the road. It was clearly marked as the Traverse.   This part of the trail proceeds on a fairly gentle grade up about halfway to the summit, where the Traverse trail turns left and the summit trail turns right.   The summit trail weaves its way up around 300 vertical feet, but the grade is quite easy.  I stopped at the first summit with a great view of Rainier.   I guess the official 'summit' is 11 feet higher, but I think it ends up in the trees, so I was very satisfied with my lunch stop. I saw very few people the entire 4 hours (with several breaks), covering about 6 miles and 1,600 vertical.