Cougar Mountain – Wilderness Peak and Creek Trails

Last week I visited the eastern side of Cougar Mountain. Noa and I did this hike by ourselves, so there was no pressure to keep pace with a large group. It was a beautiful spring day, and the trail was full of stops as we focused our camera on the nature around us. The frequent stops were encouraged by my research of the mountain’s features and vegetation. The trails wound us through deposits of glacial erratic left from the last ice age to the highest point on the mountain (1,595 ft.) not really noteworthy, but its environment definitely worth exploring.

The understory was full of blossoming flowers (tons of Trillium) and new fern fiddleheads. I spent a lot of time taking photos of the many of the trees - Douglas-firs, Western Red Cedars mainly. I even captured what I think was a Big Leaf Maple doing its interpretation of a Tim Burton back drop. The mountain has many peaks and once up top there were many birds. I was able to snap a last minute photo of a Red-Breasted Sapsucker (woodpecker) as it flew from tree to tree pecking at its bark.

The way back down the mountain provided a new environment to photograph since the trail route we took was configured as a loop; I prefer this over the out-and-back trail. Noa and I agreed that we would like to revisit this trail later in the year when all the vegetation is in full bloom.

Mount Margaret NFD 4832 Rd.

This week I tried out snowshoing for the first time. I went with a small group of friends and had a great time despite the rainy weather.

I chose a route from a snowshoe book I picked up from REI the day before that sent me to the southern point of Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Unfortunatly, the description of the trailhead was a little obscure and we drove a quarter mile pass the book's described starting point. We only discovered this after walking for about a half-hour. Thinking it was a little too much trouble hiking back to the cars and that there is little chance of getting lost we plowed on.

We hiked about 2 miles along a forest service road up what I now know is Mount Margaret (only 400 feet of about 2400 feet of mountain side). We stopped about three-quarters of our way up the road for a snack. We found cover under a Hemlock from the soggy rain/snow mix that was coming down on us most of our hike. However, the tree provided little cover and we stood as we ate.

After eating we hiked up the road a little further. By this time we were tired of heading up a service road, which provided very little excitment and views. After an eigth of a mile we decided to head back. We chose to have some fun with our snowshoes and cut straight down the mountain side. It was a blast and it took a fraction of the time to get to the mountain base.

On our way back to the freeway we saw the true trailhead. Oh well, gives me a reason to schedule a next time, and we had fun anyway.