[ragman and rodman]

A nice loop hike on Tiger Mountain that avoids the crowds on the very popular West Tiger #3. For the three people on this forum that aren't familiar with Tiger Mountain, it provides 90 miles of trails (mostly treed) and is only a 30 minute drive from Seattle. While the trail signage has improved greatly over the last 10 years, it is still easy to get confused because of the multitude of trail junctions. If I remember correctly (and I may not), Harvey Manning or Ira Spring were rumored to have said something to the effect that they have never been as lost in the mountains as they were on Tiger Mountain. Long story short, it is a good idea to carry a map and/or GPS in this area unless you are very familiar it. I hadn't been to Tiger in two years... and I was very surprised to see a newly paved road (not a single pothole to be found) and parking lot that shares several trailheads... with the most popular being West Tiger #3. I used a combination of the West Tiger #3 Trail, Cable Line Trail, W. Tiger Railroad Grade, K-3 Trail, Tiger Mountain Trail (aka TMT) and Tom's Crossing to reach the summit (2757') of West Tiger #2... then followed a gravel road over to the Hiker's Hut (~2800')... where I took the Bypass Trail over to a junction with the Preston Trail... where I took a short detour path up to the summit (2948') of West Tiger #1... then returned to the Bypass/Preston junction and continued east on the Preston Trail... before it drops to ~2160 feet and connecting with the the W. Tiger Railroad Grade... which I followed to Fred's Corner (~1825')... then downhill on the TMT, passing through Ruth's Cove (~1565'), bypassing junctions with the Lingering Loop Trail and the High Point trail, crossing the 100 foot long Murat's Bridge, bypassing a junction with the K-3 Trail, crossing the Cable Line Trail and finally closing the loop portion of the trail as the TMT junctions with the W. Tiger #3 trail... leaving a short walk back to the parking lot. 9.3 miles roundtrip, gaining 3220 feet of elevation. The best views of the day were from the Hiker's Hut... Rainier, southern Olympics and Puget Sound area. No photos, but there is a link to my GPS track with waypoints on the CalTopo website. ..

[Jake Robinson]

Thanks for the writeup and info! That's an excellent little loop you designed. I wasn't aware that you could access WT1 from the Hikers Hut via the Bypass Trail (I guess I just assumed you had to hop the fence and then walk the road, ignoring the "radiation" warnings). Last week, I got about halfway down the Bypass Trail before I heard an explosion and then saw a tree come down about 20 feet off the trail, right in front of me. I got spooked and turned around, but now I'll have to go back that way sometime for WT1.

[JimK]

Roger, Murat's Bridge is actually 200' .75" long. Murat's Bridge Construction

[DIYSteve]

West Tiger trails are a great resource. 90% of the traffic is on 10% of the trails. My favorite ascent to WT#1 is up (from TMT) Hidden Forest trail, across the road, then continuing up Poo Top trail. I've never seen another party when we've done Poo Top. Bootleg trail is also fun. K3 is a nice way to cut the TMT corner when descending from Tom's Crossing or WT#2.

[puzzlr]

JimK - thanks for that big set of photos on the new bridge being built. I love seeing those.

[ragman and rodman]

[Jake Robinson]

[Malachai Constant]

Most of those trees were logged a couple years ago but not removed. They were across the trail for several hundred feet. After the trees were cut downslope trees fell in the wind. The trees over the trail were cut out by volunteers a year ago or so.

[Damian]