Sycamore Access Trail, East Ridge Trail, Phil's Creek, Old Griz, Central Peak & Summit Trail — Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023

I met my sidekick Jeno in Issaquah and followed him up to the Sycamore Access trailhead which is located in a neighborhood on the east side of Squak Mt.  We parked, booted up and took off heading up the Sycamore Access trail which follows Crystal Creek up the hillside before turning to the south and then resuming its climb up the east side of Squak Mt.

A little over a mile up the trail you reach an intersection with the East Ridge and Eastside trails.  We went left on the East Ridge trail and continued climbing eventually reaching the Phil's Creek trail.     

We wanted to do this hike for a number of reasons.  We enjoy the relative solitude on the east side of Squak and the variety of trails you can hike on.  We also wanted to check out a couple of things.  WTA trip reporter George and Sally mentioned all of the trees that were down on the Old Griz trail back in January.  We wanted to check out the trail conditions and see if they had been cut up.  We also wanted to scope out the old cabin that is located up there.  I believe George mentioned it in one of his previous trip reports so we had a general idea of where it was.  

I'm happy to say both of our goals were met this morning.  All of the trees have been cut up along Old Griz.  In fact all the trails we took were in great shape.  An occasional tree was down but they were easy to step over or duck under.    And thanks to my eagle-eyed friend JO we spotted the cabin or should I say what's left of it.    I'll be honest if Jeno had not been with me I would have missed it as I don't have his great eyesight.  Needless to say it must have been quite a project for someone to construct the cabin where it's located.   We talked about the job that must have been hauling the lumber and hardware up to that point.   It's quite a distance off trail and would require a lot of bushwhacking to get to it so we just admired it from afar before continuing on our way.

We ran into a runner on Old Griz who turned out to be the only person we'd see today.  We arrived at Central Peak and its array of radio towers at 7:40.   It was quite cool and foggy up there (see my photo) so we didn't stay long.  Someone has put a heart/Valentine's decoration on one of the fences up there.   Remember your Valentine next week!     :)

We decided to take the steep Summit trail back down to Phil's Creek.  It can be reached by heading down the road a short way past the radio tower and you'll see the sign for it.  As I mentioned it's steep in spots ala the Cable Line trail.   Once we hit Phil's Creek trail we went back the way we came.   The fog and low clouds lifted and we had some really nice views of Tiger Mt and Issaquah.   We were back at our cars at 9:00 on the nose.  I made the mistake of going over to I-90 via the road that passes Issaquah High School which was a big mistake.  School starts later on Wednesday so it took me nearly 20 minutes to get to I-90 with all the school traffic.  Live and learn.

Stay safe everyone.  See you on the trail.  SR