Winter Hikes 2021 - West Tiger Mountain Edition

West Tiger #3 - 5.4 miles, 2,100' gain

I have driven past Tiger Mountain hundreds of times without ever realizing it was a hiking destination. Fortunately, my ignorance ended while I was searching for quicker outings to introduce WA trails to a new neighbor from the East Coast. West Tiger was a good choice as it packs enough gain to highlight the difference between tired Appalachian hills (480 million years old, roughly) and the Cascades (5-7 million years old).  

After you put in the work to reach the summit, you find its hemmed in by trees and guarded by gray jays so take the time to enjoy the one outlook just before you reach the top. Fun gray jay fact - the reason they thrive above 3,000' even with feet of snow on the ground is that they have sticky spit. They spend the summer and fall stashing food inside bark and other crevices using their tacky saliva and then utilize these caches during the winter.

Poo Poo Point - 8.0 miles, 1,860' gain

A more civilized stroll through pleasant woods to atone for the vertical march of the previous week. The route passes through Many Creek Valley on its way to a popular spot for paragliders to slide off of the mountain. I had read that Squak Mountain (adjacent peak) had a couple paraglider fatalities but I didn't understand until I saw how busy this little stretch of astroturf was on a Wednesday morning in March. By the time we got back to the truck, there was a legitimate flock of nylon birds soaring over the park.

West Tiger Tour - 10.3 miles, 2,830' gain

Back on the solo tour but not quite ready to face the true alpine snowpack, I decided to hit the three West Tiger Mountain summits. A fresh snow highlighted that Oak and I had nobody in front of us for miles. In fact, besides about a mile of trail coming off of Tiger #3 where we passed a dozen hikers, we were on our own to appreciate the frosted trees.

West Tiger #1 & #2 are still owned by Weyerhaeuser and covered by radio/cell towers but there is one overlook just below Tiger #1, at the Hiker Hut, that might have had expansive views if another flurry wasn't moving in.

The three West Tiger Mountain hikes are shown below. Next post will be back into the mountains proper with a waterfall hike and a summit that I'm still recovering from. Which also means I'll finally be caught up on my homework!!