We began our loop hike from the Sky Country Trailhead by the former US Army Nike missile base where they had Ajax missiles to protect the Puget Sound area from incoming USSR Bear Bombers during the Cold War. We headed out on the Old Miners Trail passing the A-frame building from former Army guard dog kennel. On the Bypass Trail we saw that the North Fork of Coal Creek was completely dry. We had never seen that before, as there was always water running in the creek on our past hikes. We went south on Fred's Railroad Trail to the junction with the East Fork Trail and took that one to get to Jerry's Duck Pond. When we got to the pond, it still had water in it with lots of Alge, but no ducks. After passing the coal mine air shaft, we got to the Clay Pit Road. We hiked east out to the clay pit and found a big rock for a lunch time seat in the sun. There were views east to the Cascade Mountains, plus "The Snows of Tiger Mountain". You might have read the book and seen the movie. It is snowier now after the Weyco clear cut done this year.
The clay pit was used by the Mutual Materials Company for 50 years in making bricks at the Newcastle Brick Works. The clay pit was last used in 2015 then the brick works closed down. During that time, they made over 900 million bricks at 25 million bricks per years. Their bricks were used in many buildings in the Puget Sound area, like Bellevue High School, at the U of W Kane Hall and Red Square, and at T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field). King County parks restored the clay pit and planted scrubs and trees.
After lunch we hiked down the Tibbets Marsh Trail, then took the Cougar Pass Trail out to the Klondike Swamp Trail. King County Parks has been doing some drainage work on the Cougar Pass Trail, so should help this trail when the heavy rains begin. We hiked the Klondike Marsh Trail north, then took the Coyote Creek Trail to the Clay Pit Road and back to the trailhead parking lot. Made for a nice loop hike.
We could see that King County Parks had been out with leaf blowers getting the leaves off the trails we hiked today. Any fallen trees had been cut out. We met a few other hikers on our trip and had a nice chat with two senior womans hikers at the Clay Pit. The only wildlife we saw were some gnats out enjoying the sun.
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