Got up to Tiger a little after 6:00 this morning. There were about 6 cars ahead of me taking the exit and I thought the parking lot might be a zoo so I parked on the road and headed out to do what I call the Murat's Bridge loop. Down the road to the High Point Trail, up that to the bridge and the TMT and then follow that back to the West Tiger 3 trail and back down to the road to complete the loop.
I was just starting up the High Point trail when I saw a hiker in front of me. I thought they were taking photos and then I realized they were looking at their phone. Not wanting to scare them I called out good morning and she stopped me and asked me how to get to trail 1. It took me a minute to realize she meant West Tiger 1. She was trying to show me her map on her phone but it was too small for these old eyes and I couldn't see it very well.
I was trying to explain how to get up there via K3 or via the Preston trail and she just kept studying her map. I didn't want her to get lost and suggested it might be better if she went back to the parking lot and took West Tiger 3 up to the summit and then over to West Tiger 2 and 1 but she didn't want to do that. I tried. I told her to keep her map handy and continued on my way. I saw a number of people this morning and stopped all of them and told them about her and said to keep an eye out for her. Hopefully she made it up there ok.
Both the High Point trail and TMT are in great shape. No mud and very little running water. High Point creek is flowing but it's very diminished. Not surprising given the weather we've had this year. There is only one tree down approaching the first of the two wood bridges but it is an easy stepover.
No signs or notes at Murat's Bridge from his family this time. I ended up seeing 9 people total (7 hikers and 2 runners) before I got back to the overflowing parking lot around 8:30. There were a number of cars parked illegally around the turn up there and at least 20 or more down the road including some in front of a no parking sign. Things were kind of tight with people parked like that. When I got out to the road I did see a King County Sheriff heading up that way so hopefully people got tickets or warnings for parking illegally.
Cars were parked along the road about halfway back to the freeway exit. As I was walking along I heard someone calling my name and waving at me. I was like who the heck is that....then I realized it was one of our neighbors Matt. I haven't seen him in months and he's grown a giant black beard. I told him that was my reason (excuse) for not recognizing him. LOL!
Stay safe everyone, don't park illegally and we'll see you on the trail. SR
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