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Day Hike - West Tiger Mountain 1-2-3

Some brief moments of rain and wind added excitement to an otherwise calm and pleasant day of hiking among the trees.

David Bradley David Bradley
November 13, 2016
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • There are some recent large blowdowns over most of the trails we took on the east side of Tiger. Some were quite large, but all were easily managed.  None presented a significant obstacle.

    There is a beautiful and impressive new bridge where the Tiger Mountain Trail crosses over High Point Creek!  For the last couple years the old bridge, damaged in a storm a while back, has been lying broken and twisted on its old supports.  One could still climb across it or make a short trip down to the creek for an easy crossing on stones or a log. No more. The new bridge is very large, and crosses the  gorge much higher in the air than the old one so there is less elevation loss/gain.  A beautiful bridge.

    The cold-war-era Hikers Hut at the summit of Tiger 1 continues to look increasingly sketchy as the years wear on.  It is definitely serviceable, but most of our party refused to enter it after actually laying eyes on it.  This seems like a stewardship project in the making.

The forecast was for high winds all day, with a 100% chance of rain for the first hour of hiking then tapering off.  All five participants were gung ho to go in spite of the rain, so go we did.  As per the forecast it rained lightly for the first hour but stopped after that and was mostly dry the rest of the day.  Being on the east side of the mountain, we were completely sheltered from the wind during the entire ascent.  We finally encountered the forecasted wind when we gained the summit ridge.  The winds were so strong that the lighter among us feared of being lifted up and blown off the trail, so we traversed only as far as Tiger 2 before retreating to the shelter east side of the mountain again, leaving the short Tiger 2 - Tiger 3 leg of the traverse for another day.  Once we were back on the east side of the mountain conditions were again calm and pleasant, making for a nice hike out.  We saw only one other person all day, a trail runner with his dog.

Given the events of the week, spending a day exercising among the trees was good for the spirit.