Hiking near Tiger Mountain

I have been happily planning an outdoor adventure with the family ever since I saw cheerful sun icons plastered over the weather forecast through next Tuesday.  AND it was in mid to upper 50s today and the breeze felt like spring!  We decided to go to a trail called the Big Tree Loop in Tiger Mountain since Sean and I are a fan of the classical mountain-shaped mountain we see every time we drive to Issaquah.  It's one of the mountains in what are called "Issaquah Alps" and I say the shape is nice since the other mountains, Squak and Couger are either too flat on the top or hardly a mountain.   Gee, I guess I do spend a lot of time staring at those things on the way to the boys' therapies!

When we arrived at the entrance to the High Point Trails area and started to head out to the trail we wanted to take, we realized that it takes 20 minutes just to get to the starting point.  With two kids walking (Noah and Saya sat on the jogging stroller), it would have taken 30 mins.  So, we had to turn back and find another trail to hike.  We also didn't have the required Discover Pass to enter most of the National Parks in WA, so we returned to Issaquah to purchase the pass.  On the way to the store, we spotted a nice flat trail off the free way, so we decided to come back to it after getting the pass. 

The trail, more like a bike path, was OK.  It was noisy since it was right next to I-90, but the kids had lots of fun observing the fallen trees from the recent snow storm plus wind storm.  I remembered reading the area having mud slides after the storms on a local news page.  There was a creek right by the path and I was surprised now clean the water was.  We are so lucky to live in an area with abundance of nature and people who care to keep the mountains beautiful.

Things didn't go perfectly, but we had a perfect day.  On the way home, we drove through Redmond and picked up a gallon of Mac & Jack at their brewery.  Their African Amber is my favorite beer of all time.  The first gulp (not a sip) of it makes me smile and nod.  Here we are in the final month of winter already, I am left thinking how quickly the seasons go by and how my children are growing up.  I hope I captured the happiness we felt in the photos I took today.