4/21 Cougar Mountain Grand Traverse via Coal Creek

This was another hike that was part of the hiking by bus course through experimental college. The following are directions to the trail as provided by the instructor, for anyone interested:
“Depart at 8:20 AM from 15th Ave and 43rd on King Metro 271 to Bellevue
Transit Center (arrive 8:43 AM). Depart 9:05 AM on King Metro 240 to 119th Ave and Coal
Creek Pkwy (arrive 9:27 AM). Hike about 9 miles to the opposite side of Cougar Mountain
stopping for lunch then eventually to Issaquah Transit Center to catch the King Metro 271 at
3:36 PM to 15th Ave and 42nd (arrives at 4:44 PM).”
It was a perfect day for hiking; we even had to apply sunscreen, a first for me in the pacific northwest. It was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, with little wind. This hike was particularly interesting, as cougar mountain is in Issaquah, WA, so despite being in nature we were never too far away from civilization. It must have been the right time of year, because many of the flowers we saw were blooming. There were many of the common trees we have learned about, but more interestingly, we saw a good number of Trillium along the trail. As we neared the highest point of the hike, a lot of the ground flora were gone. Slugs were also easy to find on the trail; we had to be careful not to step on them. Many times during the hike we could see residential housing or the highway, which might have accounted for the lack of larger mammals. We didn't see any cougars either, which was probably for the best.

Species list:
Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)
Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
Earthworm Komarekiona eatoni
Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)
Licorice fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza )
Pacific trillium (Trillium ovatum)
salal (Gaultheria shallon)
osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis)

Posted on May 1, 2012 07:03 AM by beardendb