Saturday June 28, 2003: Tiger Mountain (Poo Poo Point)
It had been a while since I'd hit the trail, between vacation and my social life, so today it was long past time to go out for a hike.
I decided to go to Poo Poo Point.
Sterling volunteered to go with me, so I picked her up at a bit before eight this morning and we set off.
Tiger mountain is close to Seattle and incredibly easy to find. The Tradition Plateau trailhead has lots of parking, a bathroom, and a maze of small trails (spider alert in that picture!) around it.
Map and compass in hand, we set off...
...and proceeded almost immediately to get lost.
My orienteering skills aren't quite up to snuff, really. Heh.
Instead of finding the Bus Trail, which we were going to use to get to the Power Line Trail and then to the Poo Poo Point trail, we ended up on the Around the Lake trail, which dumped us out onto yet another power line trail, which we had no idea wasn't the trail we wanted. We didn't figure this out until after about a half hour, when we discovered that the body of water we were wandering around was Round Lake and we were actually finally headed in the correct direction.
Even with a map, it's really easy to get lost in the Tradition Lake area. It was a spot that would be fun for day hikes and general rambling around, however. Note that very few junctions on Tiger Mountain are marked. A map and a compass are essential equipment here.
So once we found the right trail and the Poo Poo Point trailhead, we started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. I was definitely feeling not having hiked for a few weeks, and Sterling was feeling not having hiked in a long time, so we took it slow, stopping often for water, snacks, and catching our breath.
There was a place where it flattened out for about a half mile, but otherwise it's a pretty much uphill climb for 3.2 miles. The salmonberries are ambitious this year--we were literally wading through bushes at one point, feeling for the trail with our feet and pushing aside the vegetation. The last 3/4 of a mile before the junction is an pretty brutal--lots of switchbacks and other steepness.
We did make it to the junction, turned left, and hiked the final .6 mile to Poo Poo Point. The trail goes downhill somewhat steeply for a bit and also turns in the wrong direction for a little ways, but it *does* get there.
There was a bathroom, which was a godsend after three hours on the trail and a liter of water each. And oh, the view...the view was worth it. A panoramic view of the Issaquah plateau laid itself out in front of us.
We sat on one of the several benches, ate, drank, and rested. Poo Poo Point is a hanglider launch point, though we didn't see any hang gliders today. We did see a group of horse riders--it appears that someone runs trail rides on Tiger Mountain. (none of the riders except the leader had boots. This is a tipoff that the people riding the horses don't own them.)
We decided to head down, and to make things more interesting we decided to take the long way down--the Tiger Mountain Railroad Grade, which promised, if nothing else, to be less steep that the Poo Poo Point trail.
The RR Grade trail is a lot flatter than the Poo Poo Point trail, but it's less traveled and consequently difficult in spots. There were quite a few muddy spots and a couple of stream crossings where jumping across wasn't *quite* possible. The trail is also quite narrow for the most part.
However, it's splendidly quiet, and there was a lot of interesting vegetation beside the trail, and it wasn't killing our legs, which was a definite point in its favor. I'd favor this as an approach to Poo Poo Point rather than the main trail in the summer, but it may be pretty iffy in the fall and winter due to the narrowness of the trail and the fact that there are some bits that seem to be crumbling away a bit.
So we walked along the trail, and it was then I made the most grave navigation error of the afternoon.
We decided, instead of spending three and a half more miles to finish the hike on the RR Grade trail, we'd save ourselves a mile and hike down the Section Line Trail.
Famous last words: "Well, it looks steep on the map, but it can't be *that* steep..."
It was indeed that steep.
The first section took about a third of a mile to drop about 800 feet. The rest of the trail honestly wasn't much better. Not only was the trail steep, but for the first bit we were clinging to the side of the hill, a few handy trees, etcetera as the footing was loose gravel and dust, nearly scree. And the forest around us was quiet and bare--it was one of the spots where the trees have taken up enough sunlight that there is no ground cover.
That was a really unpleasant mile. By the time we reached a flatter bit, both of us had toes that were complaining about being squashed up against the toes of our boots.
It was another couple of miles back to the car, and for me another two hours back home, as I got caught in Mariner's traffic and 520 bridge closure traffic.
We went in at 8:25 and came out at 2:35, and I estimate our mileage at between 10 and 12 miles rather than the 8 miles I'd originally thought we'd do. Sterling was a true trouper, coming along with me. And I took 32,200 steps along the way.
This afternoon, my feet were killing me and I was utterly exhausted. Two liters of water, a shower, and most of a movie later, I'm feeling a bit more human, but i'll be sleeping until I bloody well can't sleep any more tomorrow morning, I think.
Overall, an excellent days and a more-than-excellent workout. And the company was lovely, as well.
I am going to be launching a Weblog soon. It's almost done except for some of the templates.
Watch this space. As usual.
I decided to go to Poo Poo Point.
Sterling volunteered to go with me, so I picked her up at a bit before eight this morning and we set off.
Tiger mountain is close to Seattle and incredibly easy to find. The Tradition Plateau trailhead has lots of parking, a bathroom, and a maze of small trails (spider alert in that picture!) around it.
Map and compass in hand, we set off...
...and proceeded almost immediately to get lost.
My orienteering skills aren't quite up to snuff, really. Heh.
Instead of finding the Bus Trail, which we were going to use to get to the Power Line Trail and then to the Poo Poo Point trail, we ended up on the Around the Lake trail, which dumped us out onto yet another power line trail, which we had no idea wasn't the trail we wanted. We didn't figure this out until after about a half hour, when we discovered that the body of water we were wandering around was Round Lake and we were actually finally headed in the correct direction.
Even with a map, it's really easy to get lost in the Tradition Lake area. It was a spot that would be fun for day hikes and general rambling around, however. Note that very few junctions on Tiger Mountain are marked. A map and a compass are essential equipment here.
So once we found the right trail and the Poo Poo Point trailhead, we started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. I was definitely feeling not having hiked for a few weeks, and Sterling was feeling not having hiked in a long time, so we took it slow, stopping often for water, snacks, and catching our breath.
There was a place where it flattened out for about a half mile, but otherwise it's a pretty much uphill climb for 3.2 miles. The salmonberries are ambitious this year--we were literally wading through bushes at one point, feeling for the trail with our feet and pushing aside the vegetation. The last 3/4 of a mile before the junction is an pretty brutal--lots of switchbacks and other steepness.
We did make it to the junction, turned left, and hiked the final .6 mile to Poo Poo Point. The trail goes downhill somewhat steeply for a bit and also turns in the wrong direction for a little ways, but it *does* get there.
There was a bathroom, which was a godsend after three hours on the trail and a liter of water each. And oh, the view...the view was worth it. A panoramic view of the Issaquah plateau laid itself out in front of us.
We sat on one of the several benches, ate, drank, and rested. Poo Poo Point is a hanglider launch point, though we didn't see any hang gliders today. We did see a group of horse riders--it appears that someone runs trail rides on Tiger Mountain. (none of the riders except the leader had boots. This is a tipoff that the people riding the horses don't own them.)
We decided to head down, and to make things more interesting we decided to take the long way down--the Tiger Mountain Railroad Grade, which promised, if nothing else, to be less steep that the Poo Poo Point trail.
The RR Grade trail is a lot flatter than the Poo Poo Point trail, but it's less traveled and consequently difficult in spots. There were quite a few muddy spots and a couple of stream crossings where jumping across wasn't *quite* possible. The trail is also quite narrow for the most part.
However, it's splendidly quiet, and there was a lot of interesting vegetation beside the trail, and it wasn't killing our legs, which was a definite point in its favor. I'd favor this as an approach to Poo Poo Point rather than the main trail in the summer, but it may be pretty iffy in the fall and winter due to the narrowness of the trail and the fact that there are some bits that seem to be crumbling away a bit.
So we walked along the trail, and it was then I made the most grave navigation error of the afternoon.
We decided, instead of spending three and a half more miles to finish the hike on the RR Grade trail, we'd save ourselves a mile and hike down the Section Line Trail.
Famous last words: "Well, it looks steep on the map, but it can't be *that* steep..."
It was indeed that steep.
The first section took about a third of a mile to drop about 800 feet. The rest of the trail honestly wasn't much better. Not only was the trail steep, but for the first bit we were clinging to the side of the hill, a few handy trees, etcetera as the footing was loose gravel and dust, nearly scree. And the forest around us was quiet and bare--it was one of the spots where the trees have taken up enough sunlight that there is no ground cover.
That was a really unpleasant mile. By the time we reached a flatter bit, both of us had toes that were complaining about being squashed up against the toes of our boots.
It was another couple of miles back to the car, and for me another two hours back home, as I got caught in Mariner's traffic and 520 bridge closure traffic.
We went in at 8:25 and came out at 2:35, and I estimate our mileage at between 10 and 12 miles rather than the 8 miles I'd originally thought we'd do. Sterling was a true trouper, coming along with me. And I took 32,200 steps along the way.
This afternoon, my feet were killing me and I was utterly exhausted. Two liters of water, a shower, and most of a movie later, I'm feeling a bit more human, but i'll be sleeping until I bloody well can't sleep any more tomorrow morning, I think.
Overall, an excellent days and a more-than-excellent workout. And the company was lovely, as well.
I am going to be launching a Weblog soon. It's almost done except for some of the templates.
Watch this space. As usual.
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