Fall color? Cougar vs Talus

City trees have been putting on their fall color show for several weeks. Forest trees usually turn later...but we've rarely caught them at the right time, and when we attempt a "fall color" hike, the best show is usually when we get back down to in-town areas. IMO this is because people choose to plant trees that have flashy fall color, whereas forests here generally choose conifers. Let's go do a comparison. We'll first loop through the east side of Cougar, then come out into the Talus neighborhood of Issaquah, where we've previously seen good fall color.

Let's meet at the Issaquah Transit Center, bus bay 1 (where the eastbound #556 arrives) at 10am. We'll go up the Big Tree Ridge trail, up to the Million Dollar View Pergola, where we can stop for lunch. (One suspects the "million dollar" refers to the price of homes down below, as the "view" is of Lake Sammamish.) Then the Tibbets Marsh, West Tibbets Creek, and Bear Ridge trails will give us a sampler of Cougar foliage. We'll come out at the south end of Talus.

Talus is unusual in that it has an extensive forested trail system right in the neighborhood -- it's on steep terrain, and some areas are not suitable for building. But if we stick to those trails, we can't do the fall color comparison of forest trees vs landscaping trees. Folks can decide whether they'd rather see the Talus forest trails or Talus garden / street trees. We can likewise decide, on the way out of Talus, whether we'd rather stick to streets, or take the not-quite-official trail out the north end.

Depending on the options folks choose in Talus, the hike is about 7.5 to 8.5 miles, with around 1500 ft elevation gain in the Cougar part. The Cougar section is a little over 4 miles.

I can't guarantee fall color in either Cougar or Talus. If you know of reliable fall color viewing, please post in comments or send a message, in case we can try that in the future.

Google Maps doesn't show the trails inside Talus, and doesn't have all the Cougar trails, but they recently added some important trails there -- yay! OpenStreetMap has all the trails, and any hiking app that uses OpenStreetMap data (e.g. AllTrails) will show them too. (I believe MapQuest uses OpenStreetMap data too, not sure about Gaia. If you want a version of OpenStreetMap that you can use without a cell connection, install OSMAnd -- the free version is ok -- and download the Washington state map in advance.) Talus publishes a map of their trails, and has printed copies in kiosks at parks, but I haven't seen this online.

Logistics

Meet on the passenger platform, bus bay 1, at the Issaquah Transit Center, at 10am.

Bring plenty of water, lunch, snacks. Hiking shoes or hiking boots with good traction are appropriate. There is nothing technical on this hike, but there are a few spots that are a bit steep downhill, and there may be slippery damp fallen leaves. I always bring trekking poles -- the main use for these is avoiding / arresting slips. Current forecast by NWS is partly sunny, but TimeAndDate predicts possible sprinkles (both predict a chance of sprinkles on Saturday, hence the choice of Sunday.)

Bus riders: There is a #556 bus, coming from Bellevue, that arrives at bus bay 1 at 9:52am. Folks coming from Seattle can take Link line 2 to South Bellevue Station, and transfer to the #556. There is a Link train scheduled to arrive at South Bellevue at 9:30am, and the #556 departs from bay 1 at 9:40am. Folks coming from the eastside have the option to get on the #556 earlier, e.g. at Bellevue Transit Center. Use your favorite trip planning app for details.

Drivers: The Issaquah Transit Center has a large parking structure. Leave yourself enough time to get out to the passenger platform, west of the parking structure, by 10am. There is also the option of parking at South Bellevue Station, and taking the #556 bus from there -- see the bus rider info above.

The end time is a guesstimate, and depends on what we find to look at.

Use comments to coordinate.

If you sign up, then find you can't go, please change your RSVP -- thanks!