Iverson Railroad Trail, Tiger Mountain Trail & Middle Tiger — Friday, Jan. 28, 2022

Since it looked like another rare clear January day, I decided to hike from the East Tiger Mountain trailhead back to Mirrormont with my 2 dogs.  I hadn't hiked this in 3 years so I wasn't 100% certain with all the logging re-routes what the trail statuses were, but with an old Green Trails Map and fully charged smartphone, I figured the chances of getting lost were infinitesimal. 

My husband dropped us off at the East Tiger Mountain trailhead at 8:22 a.m. and we started off on the Iverson RR Trail. The trail was in great condition with only a couple small muddy spots, although lots of blown down branches on the sides.  While the newly logged (2021) areas to the south are disappointing, the one upside is it opens up a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier.

At about 1.25 miles, we took a right onto the recently opened Side Hustle (Lower) trail.  It's a one-way, downhill trail for mountain bikers, but 2-way for hikers, meandering through 15-yr old new growth before heading into mature growth with bridges over several creek crossing (i.e. lots of doggy drinking fountains).  Just past the long bridge, the trail forks with a hiker-only trail diverting left.   This trail climbs a bit and then, at about the 2 mile mark, dumps you out onto an old logging spur (which you can take left to return to the West Side Rd and circle back to the Iverson RR Trail).  Directly ahead is the TMT Connector trail.

I soon discovered this was a significant re-route.  Previously, the TMT Connector connected with the TMT, curling around the south & west side of Kevin's Point between Zeig's Zag and Karl's Gap.  Now, the Connector heads north and re-connects to the TMT just shy of the Middle Tiger Trail intersection (about the 3 mile mark, so somewhat shorter & more direct with a high point of 2180 ft).  Beyond this junction, the TMT looks less traveled, but I was heading left down the Middle Tiger Trail anyway.

While it's only 1 mile down the Middle Tiger to get to the Road 1000 logging road, it's a little over 1000 ft. elevation loss.  I used to hike it frequently, but gave up after arthritis starting making coming down a knee screamer.  The trail hasn't changed at all, but fortunately a trail crew had recently trimmed the brush back so the footing was good.  Thank you to whoever worked on this!!  

After that it was an uneventful trek down the logging road (Road 1000) and surface streets back to home.   All of the trails were well-signed and in great shape and it wasn't until the last bit on the logging road that I saw anyone else so it felt like I had the mountain to myself.