Hiked 2/20/22. Published 2/27/22.
6.2 miles
800' ascent
Late trip report. Hiked from the Sky Country TH in the order of trails listed above. Nothing too particular to note. Solo hike. Nice weather at first before rain then snow started for last 1/3 of hike. The mine shaft is kinda spooky. Felt like I was going to get "The Hills Have Eyes"-ed. The turnoff from Jerry's Duck Pond to the Clay Pit was hard to see and overgrown but easy to follow once on it. I turned right on the Clay Pit road (this section out of use and overgrown) to explore a bit. Climbed up the hill. Very muddy. There is a field at the top (you can see on satellite), this is basically a marsh at this time of the year. There is a bit of a small ridge to climber left of it. I scrambled up this dirt to see better down to the clay pit and discovered a bit of a climber's trail heading further. I followed this until the end where it terminates is probably the BEST lookout on Cougar Mountain (to my knowledge) looking to the NE looking out over Issaquah (see pic). Pretty cool "secret spot." I hiked back after enjoying the view a bit and entered the Clay Pit but didn't get far since it was so wet and I was wearing trail runners not waterproof boots. I then carried on towards Tibbett's Marsh - pretty cool single-handrail bridge here - then continued down West Tibbett's Creek and eventually down Bear Ridge Trial toward the Fantastic Erratic. I think erratics are really cool to had to pay this one a visit and it was well worth the extra work. Really big and you can stand on top! I returned after a bit and hiked onward on Bear Ridge Trial to Shangri La Trail, climbed on that a bit before taking Protector Trail back to Tibbitt's Marsh. I wanted to explore more in this area but the day was getting late (well past 4 pm) and the weather had turned, with rain starting and quickly turning into light snow. I carried on back to the Clay Pit road and back to the car. When passing the large Klondike Marsh on the road, I noticed the road is actually below the water level of the marsh. Pretty cool bit of engineering there. Some weird noises in the forest right after this marsh towards the South, but since there are so many trail in there I figured it was a dog making them.
Overall, a decent hike, but hamstring was pulling a decent amount, lateral hamstring tendon pulling then belly of hamstring before medial hamstring tendon pulling. I figured if it was moving around as opposed to the same ol' spot then that's a good thing. Calf quite tight today as well.
GPS: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=16.3/-122.1070/47.5307&pubLink=l9e4mhVemVvBSQYNwFvHpMWj&trackId=f85aaf36a88a99fa68272f7e333baa43
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