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