Tiger Mountain: West Tiger #3

West Tiger 3 - March 23rd, 2014
Mileage: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2100 feet
Issaquah Alps: I-90 Corridor
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Intermediate

As we began to hike Tiger Mountain we had many questions, most of which we initially kept to ourselves. It's hard to talk and breathe heavily at the same time... However after about 3/4 of a mile our muscles were warmed up and we could speak again. Why the hell is it called Tiger Mountain? There are no tigers, to my knowledge Tiger is not a Native American word, nor is it a popular surname. So why? The other two popular hiking areas in the Issaquah Alps (Soaring Eagle and Cougar Mountain) both have appropriate Pacific Northwest Names? So who fell down on the job with Tiger Mountain? What's more did they just suffer from the most stupendous lack of creativity ever? Not only did they give it some arbitrary animal name, but they actually named THREE mountains that! This is how I imagine the dialogue:

Nameless Bureaucrat #1: Hmmmm how about an animal?
Nameless Bureaucrat #2: Well you've already used Eagle, Cougar, Rattlesnake is just up the way a little bit, what animal do you propose?
Nameless Bureaucrat #1: Well my daughter likes tigers....
Nameless Bureaucrat #2: But sir there's actually 3 mountains!!
Nameless Bureaucrat #1: Damn it man! I'm an ideas guy! I'm not practical sort it out yourself!!
Door slams
Nameless Bureaucrat #2: Fuck it. I'll just number them.

And that is the completely realistic, definitely NOT completely fabricated story of the naming of Tiger Mountain!

Aside from the inane naming (say that 3 times fast!) we really enjoyed this hike. We had some later engagements so we did this hike pretty early in the day, which was nice for a couple of reasons. 1) Fewer people, by all accounts West Tiger 3 is pretty crowded, so I'm guessing (especially later in the season) do this hike early. 2) There is something awesome about summitting a mountain early (even if it's just a small one) you feel very accomplished and you've still got the rest of the day to gorge on nasty food! Hey you earned it!

Overall the trail itself is in very good condition. The grade isn't terribly steep, but it does pretty much start out going up with no real warm up (the virtues of which I've expounded on before). Maybe if you park at the lower parking lot that would help and then you could avoid the horrendous pot-holes on the road up to the upper parking area.

My biggest problem with West Tiger #3 is the lack of payoff. You do a fair amount of work 2100 ft of elevation gain in a little over two miles is no slouch. Despite what WTA says though, the soaring views of Issaquah, Lake Sammamish and paragliders off of Poo Poo Point just really aren't visible through the tree tops. You get glimpses and you keep thinking it'll open up, but it doesn't. For better views in the area I would say Mt. Si, Poo Poo Point, Rattlesnake ledge (if you can bear the crowds), are all better options.


Overall I think this is a pretty good hike as long as you are enjoying the hike itself and not looking for a reward. The grade is decent, the trail in nice condition and the interior pretty. But if you want views go elsewhere.

Thanks to our friend Daniel for the pictures. Our memory card got fried!

Tiger Mountain West

Tiger Mountain West - March 16th, 2014

Mileage: Various
Elevation Various
Issaquah Alps
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Various (mostly easy-med)

Tiger Mountain is similar to Soaring Eagle and Cougar Mountain in that there are a lot of well signed small individual trails that can be mixed and matched together depending on your own preference. Today for instance: We were all kind of hung over from our awesome St. Patrick's day dinner. So what we wanted was to be asleep. I actually told Chris on the way to Katie's that if she said anything about staying home and watching movies all day I would say "YES!!" I found out as we started our hike Katie had the exact same plan. Luckily neither of us said anything.

Out of the parks I mentioned above, this is by far my favorite. The trails are in pretty good condition. Bonneville trail has some small lake-sized puddles, but other than that it's all pretty nice. This would be an awesome park if you were into mountain biking or trail running. We did the Around the Lake trail, Bus Trail, Bonneville trail and High school trail. Around the Lake trail is something of a misnomer since it really only goes on one side of the lake, but it does provide you access to trail options if you do, in fact, want to go around the lake.  Which is basically what we did, with one important/terrifying extra. Which I'll get to later...

Around the Lake and Bus Trail are both in forested area, it's really pretty in here. Despite the fact that it was cold and wet, the weather gave a really nice ambiance to the surrounding forest. Then all of a sudden there's a freaking bus. What?! That's right, a bus. It's all rusted up, with bullet holes, and it's been totally gutted. It's creepy as hell. Katie and I are both convinced it's haunted by dead children. There's just something unsettling about gutted machinery in the middle of the woods. 

At first we thought we were going to go up Nook trail, but then when it started to climb uphill we decided that was for another day. So we went back down and back along Bus trail and found the connecting trail to Bonneville trail, which is mostly not terribly pretty as it runs under huge power lines, it is pretty when you're near the lake, but we didn't do that until later.

There aren't a lot of maps throughout the park and we weren't thinking terribly straight and we just sort of glanced at one on the way out. We figured we'd just keep making rights-ish. But we turned left onto Bonneville, but that's not where the trouble started. 

We got onto High school Trail. Katie and I wanted to take Adventure (Time) Trail. Chris didn't want to but we did stop for a photo op. By the way if you don't watch Adventure Time you should probably do that. NOW.

So we continued down and just planned on taking our next right. Then, suddenly, we heard a loud popping noise that sounded a lot like gunfire. Nah, must just be metal scraping metal or something and the trees are just filtering the sound. Then it happened again. And again. HOLY FUCK THERE IS SOMEBODY MURDERING PEOPLE!!! We heard a bunch of sirens and emergency vehicle noises headed in that direction and pretty much freaked out, not full blown panic though. Have you ever heard the phrase "They turned and fled?" Yuuuup. I was actually more scared when the shooting stopped because I figured the shooters were now on foot racing through the trees and they can't leave any witnesses!!! We met some people coming along the trail and freaked them out with our crazy tales of gunfire and sirens. A very nice old lady, who was now pretty concerned, told us that it was most likely just the gun range that was down there. So now we felt a lot less frightened, though perhaps a bit sheepish. While it was just a coincidence that the sirens happened at the same time it was enough to scare the bejeezus out of us. Why on earth there isn't a sign saying "Don't worry it's just a gun range!" is kind of beyond me.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful, we went back the way we had come, just going around the backside of the lake, which was quite lovely in a late winter kind of way. The viewing area that we took a picture of is going to be perfect for a class that Chris and I are going to give for our friends on survival, basic forest first aid etc. All in all, despite the ill effects of Irish whiskey, it was a good day. And it ended with some of the best Chinese food I've had (China Gourmet in Shoreline) I'd highly recommend this as a nice early season hike with a lot of options and variability.