Banner - 2o2o Contact Training DVD

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Hiking Tiger Mountain

Today we finally had a chance to hike Tiger Mountain. As the name suggests, it's a mountain, which means it's up-hill. Then there's more up-hill and have I mentioned steep up-hill?

The 'trail' is a series of old logging roads which, as we soon found out, are unmarked which meant there were a few critical decision making intersections. Our 4.5 mile (one-way) hike turned into a 6.5 mile (one-way) trek as we took the wrong path not once, not twice, but almost 3 times! This added a lot of extra mileage, but it was a beautiful day and the exercise was good.

Along the way there were a ton of butterflies and I was able to get the shot of the one pictured. Ru often liked the sporadic behavior of them and often ran to try to catch either them or their shadow - it was very cute to watch.

Once we hit the top, we were greeted to some great views, including the one of Mt. Rainier pictured here. We sat and let the dogs cool off in the shade and that's where I took the picture of Ru inspecting the Daisey's and of Burton falling asleep on Dan's backpack.

Now that we're home, I think Burton had the right idea and I'm ready for an early bedtime myself!

In total, we did at least 12 miles and had a ton of fun. Our friends Lisa and her husband and their dog Annie joined us, making for a ton of laughs and support like "We're almost there!" just as us some of us were starting to fade.

We're already planning our next hiking trip!

Zulu, Spot & Pinky stayed home. Zulu's too young for such an extreme 'walk', Pinky's in retirement and Spot's on the injured list (not sure what he did, but crate rest is doing him wonders).

Summers here in Washington are gorgeous and it's wonderful to get out and enjoy the trails and nature.

Oh, did I mention we saw a few piles of Bear scat & Cougar poo? Luckily these guys made their natural deposits and were out of site by the time we came across their remains. An NO, I didn't take a picture of it, although I'll admit I thought of it...

Any way, happy hiking everyone!

4 comments:

  1. One of these days we will do that hike. You sure had a GREAT day for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was just searching the internet to find out if dogs are allowed on Tiger Mountain and found your post. (I thought I'd heard/read/seen that they were not.) It's good to know that they actually are. Do you enter from highway 18?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Julie.

    I'm told there are 2 ways you can hike Tiger Mountain. There is one entry on the Issaquah side and the other (the one we did) off of Hwy 18.

    You may be able to find more information at the Washington Trails Association http://www.wta.org.

    Also, my husband tells me it's the NATIONAL parks that don't accept dogs. That includes any of the Mt. Rainier locals, Mt. St. Helens, etc. There are quite a few trails you can bring dogs. To name a few local ones, Flaming Gyser (sp?) in Auburnish, Rattle Snake Lake (a nice trail), Tiger Mountain & Cougar Mountain all allow you to bring your dogs.

    Hope that helps a little! Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cool blog. I dig your site outline and I plan on
    returning again! I just love finding blogs like this
    when I have the time.

    Jade Brown

    ReplyDelete