Trip Report
Big Tree Ridge, Precipice Top Trail & No Name — Thursday, Jun. 16, 2016
Issaquah Alps > Cougar Mountain
Type of Hike
Day hikeTrail Conditions
Trail in good conditionRoad
Road suitable for all vehiclesBugs
No bugsSnow
Snow free
Just a quick report to say that some of the open areas where you cross under the powerlines on the NE corner of Cougar are getting brushy! Trails are otherwise in good condition other than some typical mud here and there. Just need a machete and a few minutes and the plant life will not be so prickly on your legs :)
The Skid Row Trail, which follows an old road from the Park in Talus to Newport Way just east of the Big Tree TH has been logged out (thanks!) but you can see development encroaching- surveying flags abound and some sort of big vehicle has driven part of the way down, obliterating some of the trail. Sad to see this lovely part of the woods will be houses :( Hopefully Precipice Bottom trail won't get destroyed too, it's one of the prettiest trails on Cougar.
Comments
tractor happy
The tractor incursion is from the impending Bergsma development which will take out the top end of the trail, but presumably substitute sidewalks or a narrow trail corridor between houses. The flags are wetland markers. The developers have no need and no right to run a bulldozer through a flagged wetland that will not be part of the development. Bergsma reportedly has no interest in developing the section across the creek containing Precipice Bottom, and if the interest of King County Parks can be aroused, there's a good chance this land would be given to them as part of the density mitigation. But KC Parks can be very slow to act even when offered free land.
Posted by:
scottsemans on Oct 18, 2016 09:04 AM