Cougar and Clay Pit loop, with wildflowers

Let's go visit trails around Cougar Mountain and the Clay Pit. We've been keeping tabs on the recovery of the Clay Pit -- what plants are starting to populate the area? We'll also cover trails where we've seen some wildflowers, though it may be a bit early (in normal times) or a bit late (because flowers have been appearing earlier...). Let's go find out.

We'll start from the Issaquah Transit Center, go up the Military Ridge, Surprise Creek, and Shangri La trails to the Cougar Mountain "peak" (in quotes, because it's flat, and hard to tell where the high point actually is). This is also where the Million Dollar View Pergola is...the name is likely ironic...

Then we'll take the Harvey Manning trail south. We can do an optional detour to see the coal mine air shaft. If the weather seems dry enough, we can shove through the end of the East Fork trail, that is a shortcut to an abandoned part of the service road at the Clay Pit, else we'll backtrack and take the maintained part of the road.

The Clay Pit was a former clay mine, run by the Mutual Materials Company / Newcastle Brick Works. Bricks for Red Square on the UW Seattle campus were made from this clay. King County purchased the land from the company. Restoration work started in 2015.

After a bit of exploring there, we'll return via Tibbetts Marsh, West Tibbetts Creek, Bear Ridge, and Talus Bridge trails, to the south end of the Talus neighborhood, then some trails within Talus, and back to the transit center.

We can stop for lunch either at the Cougar Peak (where there are benches, but this may be a bit early for lunch), or at the Clay Pit (where there are a number of convenient rocks, but no-place to sit as a group).

This is approximately 8.5 miles, about 2000 ft elevation gain.

Logistics:

Meet at the Issaquah Transit Center, bay #6, by 10am.

Bus tiders: There is a #554 run from Seattle that arrives at Issaquah TC at 9:55am. The #271 also stops at the TC, but the timing is not as convenient.

Drivers and cyclists: Park at the Issaquah TC, then come out to the platform where the bus stops are, and find bay 6.

Bring water, lunch, snacks. With the weather starting to warm up, it's better to bring extra water (i.e. don't just bring one little half liter bottle...). There is no potable water in the Cougar Mtn area.

There is nothing technical, but hiking boots or trail shoes with good tread are appropriate. One of the trails tends to have mud. I always bring trekking poles, but the trails we'll be on don't tend to have slip and trip hazards.

You might even want sunscreen and a hat. Or rain gear...check the weather forecast closer to the date. I don't recall being bothered by bugs, but having bug repellent along could be good.

We'll likely have benches to sit on at lunch, but just in case they're occupied, bring something damp-proof to sit on.