Tiger 3, 2, 1, Lost Poo Poo - Feb. 16, 2012

Red "Tradition Plateau" sign right off of exit 18.

After a few weeks of exploring Tiger Mountain with Michael, we wanted to show Daniel a good, hard run on his return to the mountain.  We had wanted to run West Tiger 3, 2 and 1, in that progression, since our first run up West Tiger.  We decided this was the week to do it.  Starting our run from Peter's place (even without Peter, his place has become our unofficial official starting point for most of our runs), we headed into the cold, wet mountain via the red Tradition Plateau sign next to the off-ramp of exit 18. 

We ran up West Tiger 3 the same way we had the first time: Puget Power, Wetlands, Bonneville, Section Line, Talus Rocks, and West Tiger 3.  With each switchback on West Tiger 3 Trail, the snow/ice under our feet increased and our strides shortened so as not to slip.  We came out of the forest and onto the bald summit in a complete icy mist/fog, not able to see much farther than 20 feet.  We quickly headed down West #3 and back up to #2 so we wouldn't get too cold hanging around.  We did the same from #2 to #1, this connection being a little longer and more difficult because of the steep incline on the slippery snow and ice. 

It was a great feeling getting to the top (almost..the very top is the radio towers on private property) of West Tiger 1, surrounded in a surreal white realm of whirling wind and flying snow.  We were only 2,900 feet above sea level, but to me, it felt like we could have been on the side of Rainier, fighting the elements for survival.  Lucky for us, we had the hiker's hut to hang out in and refueled/relaxed for a few minutes.

Hiker's Hut on top of West Tiger 1; far tower behind is high point of summit.

Coming out of the peaceful cover and back into the nasty winter weather stunned me for a quick second, causing me to rise too quickly under the doorway as I hit my head hard on the overhang.  I stumbled to one of the wood benches in the shelter, dazed but not confused.  Mikey and Daniel, after making sure I was ok, laughed at the clanging gong sound that my head made against the old metal hut.  After a minute or so of laughing, we charged back out into the nasty weather, going down the same steep, slick road we came up.  We took a left at the bottom of the hill on the old Main Tiger Mountain Road, wanting to descend the mountain a different way than we came up.

Once again, I was smart enough to bring a map for the second week in a row.  Once again however, we got lost.  I wanted to come down the mountain via the Poo Poo Point Trail, ending up with an easy finishing jog from Issaquah High School to Peter's house.  We took the correct right-hand turn onto Poo Top Trail, but when we came to Larry's Crossing, we accidentally went straight onto Hidden Forest Trail instead of taking a right onto One View Trail...oops!

For those of you who haven't checked out Hidden Forest Trail, it's a dandy.  It doesn't seem to get much use, so this narrow trail still had a lot of debris from January's big storms.  It also descends quickly at places without the convenience of switchbacks.  I sound like I'm making an excuse for why I would bite the dust on this trail, but it really is a difficult trail to run down with any kind of speed or smooth cadence.  Once we got to a road, we knew we were a little off, but for some reason I recommended we take a left (now that I look at the map, I have no idea why?)

So we headed south on the mountain road (name unknown?) towards Paraglider's Secret.  After 10 or so minutes of fast downhill running (I, stupidly, was pushing the pace, thinking we were getting closer to our destination, when in reality we were running away from it), we got to the S part of the road.  We finally decided that we were going the wrong direction, so after consulting our ever increasingly wet map, we decided to bite the bullet, turn around, and run back up hill...ugh!

This is when I started feeling it.  I was dragging back up the hill, a bit demoralized for getting us lost...again.  Lucky for me I have great "peak a week" running partners, and every time we came to an intersection, Daniel and Michael waited for me before we continued on.  After about 20 minutes of running up this old logging road, we came upon a very large grassy area which looked like a big lookout.  However, it was so foggy and misty that we couldn't see farther than a stone throw away.  The weird thing about this trail was that it was a major intersection, with big and little trails branching off in all directions.  We tried locating our position on my map, but at this point it was waterlogged and tearing to pieces.  We decided to take the wisest route, downhill, and luckily ran into a couple of young hikers.  We asked them if they knew where we were.  They looked at us stupidly and answered, "Poo Poo Point!"

View right below Poo Poo point, in less foggy weather. 

Turns out, we were right under Poo Poo Point, heading down Chirico trail towards Issaquah Hobart Road.
We were happy that we were closer to our finish than we thought, laughing at what those girl hikers probably thought of our "stupid" question: 'darn green-horn runners, don't even know where/what Poo Poo Point is!'
Our three mile run back into town and chez Peter's on the road was painful and long, but it actually felt good those last few hundred meters, knowing that we had accomplished much and deserving of a wonderfully huge breakfast at the Issaquah Cafe. 

Run Stats:  Total Distance: ~16.5 miles   Time: 2:21 (running)   Elevation Gain: ~ 3,200 ft.    Pace: 8:32

Tiger Summit to West Tiger 1 - Feb. 9, 2012

After our disappointment from last week (our first fail at peakin'), Michael and I were back on Tiger Mountain this week to conquer West Tiger 1 from the south.  This time, we started out a bit closer to our goal - to hedge our bets - from Tiger Summit off of Highway 18.

Our starting point; south-east side of Tiger Mountain State Forest.  We started to the left, ended to the right.

We started our run by heading northwest on the access road that passes the bathrooms on the right side of the road.  We continued a few miles until we came to Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT) that crosses the road heading north and south.  We took the right onto TMT and headed north on the singletrack toward Fatal Train Wreck Site, not having to jump and climb over as many trees as the week before but still having to do so periodically.  Once we got to the Fatal Train Wreck Site however, things got interesting.  This area was torn up from January's heavy storms.  There were several large fir trees lying over the trail and it was so bad that it was hard to even see where the trail went.  If WTA can clear this part of the trail in under a year, I'll be super-impressed.  Because of the little detours involved in moving around and over the natural wreckage, we missed our intended trail, the TMT. Instead, we ended up on the Artifacts Trail, which is nice but it leads to a logging road that again led us to a dead-end - not again!

This week however, we were not going to be stopped from reaching our destination peak by a little dead-end in the road.  Instead of doubling back, we forged our way into the forest and headed uphill and north (I smartly brought a map with me this week), knowing that was the direction of West Tiger.  For about 30 minutes, Michael and I ran/walked through the forest which ended up being very fun.  We were able to actually get some good periods of running in, albeit slow, on the nice uber soft pine needle forest floor.  We were slowed a bit by having to cross a few swampy areas (Michael got a nice flesh wound on his hand) but somehow, we ended up coming out on the road that goes from East Tiger Summit to West Tiger Summit.  We were so happy to find a road (Main Tiger Mountain Road at that!) that in our hysteria we headed the wrong direction (toward East Tiger) when we continued.  Luckily, we quickly figured this out once we ran into Preston Railroad Trail (right below East Tiger Summit) and so doubled back to start the second part of our run: the climb to West Tiger 1.

A cool thing about Tiger is it's size.  Overall, there are 13,500 acres (55 km²) of designated conservation area with so many different trails and dirt/gravel roads that it's easy to get lost.  On this run, we discovered that there's a beautiful valley, Fiftteenmile Creek valley, between East and West Tiger.  We ran down into the valley, passed 15 Mile Railroad Grade rest area, then back up toward West Tiger 1.  When we turned right on the road that heads upward (a nice little sign on a tree points you the right direction), the run got VERY STEEP.  This was by far the most difficult part of the run.  The last mile to the summit is slow and tough.  Mikey and I put our heads down, stopped talking and focused on one step at a time (cliche I know, but it works).  After what seemed like forever (more like 10 minutes), we reached the top of West Tiger 1 and were rewarded with great views looking north: Lake Sammamish, Bellevue, Lake Washington and beyond.

Returning was nice because we got to go back a slightly different way which is always a bonus.  Not only that, but we ended up on the far west side of West Tiger 1 (hiker's hut) and got to take in the incredible views looking west towards Puget Sound and south toward Mt. Rainier.  We continued down the steep hill toward West Tiger 2, taking the sharp left before the gate (that heads up to #2) onto Main Tiger Mountain Road.  Once we were on this road, we took it down, back up and back down (you got to love the secluded Fifteen Mile Creek valley!) all the way back to the car and Tiger Summit Trailhead.  The last few miles coming down the old forest road were pretty steep (from East Tiger turnoff down) and fun.  Michael and I commented on how we looked forward to running UP this sucker instead of down it.  Once we got back to the Highway 18 parking lot, we decided to cool-down are downhill-tired legs with a little 5 min. out-and-back on the road we started our run on.

Michael's great mobile photo on top of West Tiger 1 - looking west toward SeaTac

Overall, this run was awesome considering we survived our off roading experience (not advised!) AND made it to our destination peak in one go.  My take: running south of the West Tiger peaks are great because there are loads of trails and old mountain roads without the crowds and hubbub of the other side of Tiger. 

For Directions to trailhead from Seattle:  http://g.co/maps/7d755

Run Stats:  Total Distance: ~16 miles   Time: 2:14:31 (running)   Elevation Gain: ~ 2,200 ft.    Pace: 8:25