I took advantage of the fantastic weather today and hiked a loop on the Cougar trails starting from Talus. Trails followed were Talus Bridge -> Bear Ridge -> West Tibbetts -> Mine Shaft -> East Fork -> Quarry -> Coal Creek Falls -> Cave Hole -> Nike Horse -> Old Man’s -> Coyote Creek -> Lost Beagle -> Shangri La.
Conditions on trail are mostly great. Below 1200 feet of elevation the snow is gone everywhere but the deepest hollows. The trails have mostly drained well and long sections are dry and in great shape. All the snow-laden branches have returned to their normal positions and a bunch of the blowdowns from the recent storms have been cleared and encroaching branches cut out. The only sections worth calling out are:
- West Tibbetts still has some compact snow and mud in a few sections and one long section where the trail itself is basically a creek, and a couple branches requiring some ducking to get by. The bridge is very slippery and has ice on one end. There is one spot on the trail where a large branch broke off from higher up and is barely hanging just above the trail supported by some other small branches - it’s worth not lingering here as this looks like it will come down soon.
- Mine Shaft and East Fork have a few long sections of compact snow on the trail and some water running down the trail in places.
- Coyote Creek has a few longer muddy sections in the area that runs beside Klondike Swamp
- Shangri La has compact snow on the whole trail for the first quarter mile east from the Harvey Manning TH, and a few blowdowns in this same section though none are too difficult to pass.
The trails I hiked were mostly uncrowded with only one or two parties encountered on most sections other than the Quarry trail where I passed at least half a dozen, and then the whole section between Coal Creek Falls and the Sky Country TH where there were dozens of parties. The Sky Country TH was packed when I passed through around 1:30pm.
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