03-07-24
We
had a mostly sunny day for our last headlamp hike before daylight
savings time starts. I arrived early to see the new wooden troll in
Issaquah. It is only a few blocks from the Sunset Trailhead. The hike
from the parking lot was a lot shorter than I thought. It took me only
two minutes. I took some photos and headed back to the car. I arrived
at the Sunset Trailhead almost 20 minute early. John and Gary arrived
15 minutes later and we were on our way at 2:27 pm. The first good
snowfall in quite a while was just before my trip over Tiger 2 and 3
last Saturday. Some more snow fell early in the week. We did not know
how much. I wore my high top leather hiking boots with gaiter and
microspikes in my pack. I knew the others had microspikes. We were
going up the steep Section Line Trail so I brought poles as well. We
quickly climbed up to the Tradition Plateau and onto the Adventure
Trail. This route adds another 100'+ of elevation gain as we had to
drop down to the High School Trail. That quickly led to the Section
Line Trail. The lower trail is on an old road and so is not all that
steep. With no snow and a moderate grade we continued to set a good
pace. We did stop for some trail maintenance. A tree fell across most
of the trail. John had a short saw. He did the cutting while we tossed
the tree and the many branches removed to clear the trail. It is fine
shape now. Back on our way, the road ended and the trail gets steeper.
We crossed the Trillium Bridge and just before reaching the trail to
the Talus Rocks we had snow on the trail.
The trail above the junction gets much steeper. We stopped to put on microspikes. Very quickly the trail was completely snow covered. The spikes worked great. With the steep trail on snow our pace dropped substantially. We did see some hikers coming down the Section Line. This trail is not among my favorites on Tiger but it is a very good workout. The GPS says from the Talus Rocks junction to the Railroad Grade we gained 800' in .60 miles. Add in the snow cover and it was a big chore getting up it. We took a break at the grade at 1950'. We were 500' below the summit of Tiger 3. There was a continuing track up the snowy trail to the summit. Doing the known packed trail had no adventure factor. We chose to hike the Railroad Grade Trail south to the Seattle View Trail (SVT). I was a little surprised to see the snow was packed down on the grade. The grade is not a very popular trail. That boded well for a packed trench up the Seattle View Trail. The top of the SVT was clearcut along with the tops of Tiger 3, 2, and 1. I only noticed the unsigned at the upper junction route a few months ago. There is no bottom sign, just a mark on a tree.
We arrived at the junction to find that there was no track up the SVT. There was just unconsolidated new snow. That was not part of the plan. I put on my gaiters and found that Gary & John had not brought them. Hiking on packed trails we did not need them. That meant that I would be breaking trail 500 vertical feet up the SVT. The route was mostly obvious with narrow open spaces and some cut logs. I missed one short switchback but picked up the trail again. The snow was about 6-12 inches deep in the forest. Sinking a foot down in snow with many steps is tiring. The real fun began when we reached the clearcut. Now the snow was one to two feet deep. I sank to above my knees on many steps and I have long legs. This was really tiring. Staying on trail was more challenging too. I ventured into buried slash in places with voids that were much deeper than the snow. We had an adventure after all. Above the forest we had a view of part of Mt. Rainier as well. Higher up we could see most of Squak Mountain behind us. I was really glad to see a sign above us. I aimed for it. It turns out that a trail sign is now in place. It is beyond and out of sight of the trail between Tiger 3 & 2. There were footprints at the sign. Nobody tried going down the snowy trail. At least we had footsteps to follow back to the main trail.
From there it was a short climb, drop, and climb to the top of Tiger 3. We had blue sky overhead. We reached the top of Tiger 3 at 5:04 pm. It took us 2:37 to hike 3.6 mile with about 2500' of elevation gain. That is a really slow pace. The conditions did not help. Views from northeast to southeast were excellent. The whole Cascade Front was very clear. Mts. Si and Teneriffe had a lot of new snow. To the west it was hazy. We could see Seattle and Bellevue but with a lot of haze. Thankfully, the wind was zero to light on top. We had time for a longer food and water break. I expected to see a lot more hikers on top than we did. I think we saw only three or four others. We headed down at 5:17 pm. We were not going to reach the cars before dark but would make it much of the way back in daylight.
Near the top the trees were heavily flocked with fresh snow. The trail was hard packed snow. It as nice and smooth and traction was great with microspikes. The flocked trees were largely green before long. We did see some neat icicles hanging from trees. I had not planned to do a trip report for Tiger 3 and had taken very few photos on the way up. The great summit views and snow cover were worthy of photos and I had just enough to do this trip report. On Saturday, snow on the trail turned to narrow slushy dirt tread below the Railroad Grade. Now it was solid packed snow much farther down. So much the better. Near the switchback left dropping to the Talus Rock Trail, the snow abruptly stopped. We took off our Spikes. Below the switchback we had thinner ice on the trail. I would have liked to put on the spikes again but we just went with boots. I had a few slips but stayed upright. The ice went away and we had dirt trail the rest of the way. It was well past sunset and getting dart at the High Point parking lot. We continued onto the Swamp Trail.
We crossed the gas line and powerlines and reached the Big Tree Trail. It was time for headlamps. The last mile or so was just hiking on nice trail in the dark. We reached the Sunset Trailhead at 7:10 pm. For the day/night we hiked 8.2 miles with about 2650' of gain. By that time of night the drive home was a breeze. With our 2:15 -2 :30 pm starts this year we have been finishing before 7:00 am. When we first started the headlamp hikes we were all working and our starting time was around 4:30 pm. We now have a lot less time with headlamps though most trips finish after dark. Our steep route on snow was challenging. The SVT section was even more so. The mostly clear sky and lack of wind were big pluses. Next Wednesday, sunset will be at 7:13 pm. We are likely done with headlamps until next fall. It was a fun day out with snow on Tiger after a lot of winter snow free trips.
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Trips - 2024
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The trail above the junction gets much steeper. We stopped to put on microspikes. Very quickly the trail was completely snow covered. The spikes worked great. With the steep trail on snow our pace dropped substantially. We did see some hikers coming down the Section Line. This trail is not among my favorites on Tiger but it is a very good workout. The GPS says from the Talus Rocks junction to the Railroad Grade we gained 800' in .60 miles. Add in the snow cover and it was a big chore getting up it. We took a break at the grade at 1950'. We were 500' below the summit of Tiger 3. There was a continuing track up the snowy trail to the summit. Doing the known packed trail had no adventure factor. We chose to hike the Railroad Grade Trail south to the Seattle View Trail (SVT). I was a little surprised to see the snow was packed down on the grade. The grade is not a very popular trail. That boded well for a packed trench up the Seattle View Trail. The top of the SVT was clearcut along with the tops of Tiger 3, 2, and 1. I only noticed the unsigned at the upper junction route a few months ago. There is no bottom sign, just a mark on a tree.
We arrived at the junction to find that there was no track up the SVT. There was just unconsolidated new snow. That was not part of the plan. I put on my gaiters and found that Gary & John had not brought them. Hiking on packed trails we did not need them. That meant that I would be breaking trail 500 vertical feet up the SVT. The route was mostly obvious with narrow open spaces and some cut logs. I missed one short switchback but picked up the trail again. The snow was about 6-12 inches deep in the forest. Sinking a foot down in snow with many steps is tiring. The real fun began when we reached the clearcut. Now the snow was one to two feet deep. I sank to above my knees on many steps and I have long legs. This was really tiring. Staying on trail was more challenging too. I ventured into buried slash in places with voids that were much deeper than the snow. We had an adventure after all. Above the forest we had a view of part of Mt. Rainier as well. Higher up we could see most of Squak Mountain behind us. I was really glad to see a sign above us. I aimed for it. It turns out that a trail sign is now in place. It is beyond and out of sight of the trail between Tiger 3 & 2. There were footprints at the sign. Nobody tried going down the snowy trail. At least we had footsteps to follow back to the main trail.
From there it was a short climb, drop, and climb to the top of Tiger 3. We had blue sky overhead. We reached the top of Tiger 3 at 5:04 pm. It took us 2:37 to hike 3.6 mile with about 2500' of elevation gain. That is a really slow pace. The conditions did not help. Views from northeast to southeast were excellent. The whole Cascade Front was very clear. Mts. Si and Teneriffe had a lot of new snow. To the west it was hazy. We could see Seattle and Bellevue but with a lot of haze. Thankfully, the wind was zero to light on top. We had time for a longer food and water break. I expected to see a lot more hikers on top than we did. I think we saw only three or four others. We headed down at 5:17 pm. We were not going to reach the cars before dark but would make it much of the way back in daylight.
Near the top the trees were heavily flocked with fresh snow. The trail was hard packed snow. It as nice and smooth and traction was great with microspikes. The flocked trees were largely green before long. We did see some neat icicles hanging from trees. I had not planned to do a trip report for Tiger 3 and had taken very few photos on the way up. The great summit views and snow cover were worthy of photos and I had just enough to do this trip report. On Saturday, snow on the trail turned to narrow slushy dirt tread below the Railroad Grade. Now it was solid packed snow much farther down. So much the better. Near the switchback left dropping to the Talus Rock Trail, the snow abruptly stopped. We took off our Spikes. Below the switchback we had thinner ice on the trail. I would have liked to put on the spikes again but we just went with boots. I had a few slips but stayed upright. The ice went away and we had dirt trail the rest of the way. It was well past sunset and getting dart at the High Point parking lot. We continued onto the Swamp Trail.
We crossed the gas line and powerlines and reached the Big Tree Trail. It was time for headlamps. The last mile or so was just hiking on nice trail in the dark. We reached the Sunset Trailhead at 7:10 pm. For the day/night we hiked 8.2 miles with about 2650' of gain. By that time of night the drive home was a breeze. With our 2:15 -2 :30 pm starts this year we have been finishing before 7:00 am. When we first started the headlamp hikes we were all working and our starting time was around 4:30 pm. We now have a lot less time with headlamps though most trips finish after dark. Our steep route on snow was challenging. The SVT section was even more so. The mostly clear sky and lack of wind were big pluses. Next Wednesday, sunset will be at 7:13 pm. We are likely done with headlamps until next fall. It was a fun day out with snow on Tiger after a lot of winter snow free trips.
 The Issaquah Troll |
 His Good Side |
 Troll From Behind |
 John Cutting Out Tree |
 Snowy Trillium Bridge |
 Snow But Bare Trail |
 Snow On RR Grade |
 No Tracks On SVT |
 Mt. Rainier |
 Deeper Snow In Clearcut |
 Tiger 2 Tower In Sight |
 Gary & John On SVT |
 Squak Mt. |
 Poo Poo Point |
 Nearing The Top Of SVT |
 SVT Sign |
 Tiger 2 Summit |
 Virtually A Highway |
 Mts. Si & Teneriffe |
 Cascade Front Peaks |
 Hazy Downtown Seattle |
 Mt. Rainier Again |
 Heading Down |
 Smooth Trail |
 Curving Icicle |
 Flocked Trees |
 Snowy Mossy Arches |
 Still Solid Snow |
 Setting Sun |
 11 Minutes After Sunset |
 Big Tree After Dark |
 Hikers After Dark |
Trips - 2024
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