Trip Report
Day Hike - West Tiger Mountain No. 1, Murat's Bridge, K3, Ruth's Cove Loop
Two of us enjoyed sunny, frigid conditions this morning on Tiger, starting from High Point and looping past Murat's Bridge, K3, and Ruth's Cove. While the plan was to see Tiger 1 and 2, our turnaround time for work meant cutting the loop short about 300' below both summits. Still a win in our books.
Courtenay Schurman
- Tue, Feb 11, 2025
- West Tiger Mountain No. 1
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Highway was dry to Exit 20. Parking at High Point has 3-4 inches of snow and is SLICK with ice. I put on traction as soon as I stepped out of the car.
We kept traction on the entire trip, needing them 98% of the time. A few patches in the woods are protected from snow but the trail is icy and hard right now.
There is a sign at the white pole saying "Discover Pass required" but I was under the impression on previous trips that it was only for the parking lot. Nonetheless, we left our parking passes visible.
We were first to park at the white pole. More people were headed for the Cable/West Tiger 3 lot. We only spotted 4 solo male hikers on the morning, 2 with dogs.
We left the cars at 7:45 a.m. and returned from our loop at 10:55. Brief photo stops included 1. Murat's Bridge.
2. Tiger Mountain Trail. 3. Unmaintained K3. We got to within .5 miles of Tiger 2 and my partner had to turn around for a work call at 11, so we cut east to join up with the trail from Tiger 1 heading back down. All told we covered 6.7 miles and 1936 feet of elevation gain. It was a beautiful day, with no clouds. Chilly 28-32 degrees.
We strongly recommend taking traction devices, at least one pole, and gaiters. In some spots, we had a good 6+ inches of squeaky (dry) snow. The straps wore out on my microspikes which meant ordering new ones as soon as I got home.
We heard 10 bird species on the day including Pacific wrens and five mallards.