[polarbear]

I had never hiked up Tiger Mountain and wasn't planning to, but Friday a guy I worked with stopped by my desk and asked if I wanted to join him and another for an after work hike. I had never gone hiking after work, but it being a nice hot day, an evening hike seemed fitting. There were few cars when we arrived in the parking lot (maybe 6:30) and I was surprised there weren't more people taking advantage of the nice weather. I expected to see the typical bulging parking lot that you see when you drive by on I-90. We saw maybe 15 people on the way up the trail. There are many miles of trails that crisscross the mountain, and I can't really remember which one of them we chose, but I was surprised that it was steeper than I thought it would be. Though there was a bit of a haze, the views from the top were nice--Rainier to the south, Lake Washington, Puget Sound, Seattle, Mt. Si, and a paraglider that was in the air pretty much the whole time we were up there. There were about 7 other hikers at the top. We ate some strange exotic trial mix, er I mean trail mix, that my friend had brought along and shared some with a blue jay, and took some pictures of the surrounding area. We were the only people at the top when we left at about 9:00, after having watched the sun set, and having had the top to ourselves for about a half hour. It was nice to have a flashlight for a few stretches at the bottom. It was strangely coincidental and poignant late that night to read about Ira Spring's death the day prior. The first hike book I ever looked at was the 100 Hikes in Western Washington that he and Bob Spring had authored in the sixties. I think I first started looking at my parent's copy when I was seven or eight and the first hike in it was Tiger Mountain, and I remember the picture with the twinkling city lights in the distance that was part of the hike description. We never did the hike as a family, and later, the hike didn't interest me alot, and I really had no plans to ever do it, so it was a little eerie to end up finally doing this hike that day and then learning of Ira's passing that evening. Many thanks to Ira, Bob, and Harvey for all the books they have written and pictures they have taken over the past decades and for the service they have done for the hiking community in helping to preserve wilderness areas.

[Backpacker Joe]

When I was a kid we used to hike up and spend the night on Tiger. One 4th of July there was ole Harvey and Ira watching the fireworks. You could see them all around you. Each of those ole buggers had a half rack of Rainier ale with them. They were chugging away! TB

[Dean]

Great stories Polarbear and BPJ. My first 100 Hike from the original book was Mt. Pete, outside of Enumclaw. My goal was to do every hike in that book. What a great thing that book was when it first came out. Thanks Ira and Harvey, I owe you big time.