First new mountain bike trail in a decade opens on Tiger Mountain; updated

A new trail that connects the summit of Tiger Mountain to the Preston Railroad Grade trail opened this week.

The 1.5-mile East Tiger Summit Trail is the first new trail in more than a decade on the mountain overlooking Issaquah.

[Update: Saturday, Sept. 8 — This is an awesome trail that features a dramatic start at the Tiger Mountain summit. I checked it out on Friday, and had a difficult time pulling myself away from the breathtaking view of Mount Rainier.

The trail itself has been described as “flowy,” and that’s pretty accurate. It’s mostly smooth and undulates through the trees with rollercoaster runs and banked turns. I’m thinking a BMXer would feel at home here. It ends at the beginning of the much rougher Preston Railroad Trail.

Because it starts at the Tiger summit, there’s another 1.1 miles of uphill riding to reach the trail. My Garmin tells me it’s 4.3 miles from the parking lot off Highway 18 with about 1,700 feet of elevation gain (I took a sidetrip past the restrooms at the “upper” parking lot). It’s worth the suffering.

The entire round trip encompassing the new East Tiger Summit Trail, Preston Railroad Grade and Northwest Timber Trail is about 14 miles.

Here’s what the Department of Natural Resources says about it.]

The trail is a joint project of the landholder, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, and volunteers from the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and crews from the Washington Conservation Corps.

Work parties have been busy on the project all summer.

Named the East Tiger Summit Trail, the trail will remain open until Oct. 15 when the rainy season starts, according to the Seattle Times.

To get there, park at the Tiger Summit parking lot off Route 18. Pedal up the fire road to the Tiger Summit  to about 3,000 foot elevation. There are views of Mount Rainier and the surrounding countryside here.

The trail drops about 500 feet through the forest to the start of the Preston Railroad Grade trail, which continues another 4 miles or so to the Crossover forest service road, then 2.3 miles to the Northwest Timber Trail and back to the parking lot. It’s about 14 miles.

This trail never could have been completed without the volunteer labor to shovel, haul and grade. If you missed out on these work parties, Evergreen is currently working on two other trails that need volunteers.

According to the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance website, the Silent Swamp rerouted trail will add more than 2 miles of single track to connect the Preston Railroad Grade trail to the head of the Northwest Timber trail. Another new trail will connect the Summit trail directly to the Silent Swamp Trail.

Check out the Evergreen calendar for work parties that meet two or three times a week.

Here’s a video press release…

And here’s the entire run down the trail….