The weather forecast was for snow in the mountains with levels dropping as low as 1500 feet, so I decided to try a location closer to home. I had never been on the hiking trails on Cougar Mountain even though I have spent almost my entire life only a few miles away. I was surprised to find a web of trails in this system that is part of the King County Parks Department. The trails are well marked with signs and mileages, but the small map I was trying to follow from the book I had consulted was either out of date or a bit inadequate. A large parking area is now nearing completion and hopefully when it is done, the Parks Department will post a large map for reference.

Not far from the new parking area is something worth a bit of an historical note. Back in the early days of the Cold War, the United States installed a missile defense system on this site. I remember building a plastic model of one of the missiles, the Nike Hercules. If my memory is correct, they were installed on Cougar Mountain so that they could shoot down the Soviet Bombers before they could turn Boeing and all our local military bases into a radioactive wasteland.

I started off on a trail I thought would lead to a view of Seattle, but I only found a large number of radio transmission towers serving the broadcast needs of the Greater Seattle area. After backtracking, I set off on another trail that led to Coal Creek Falls. Pleasant, but with all the falls in the Cascades in the back of my mind, the trickle of water in Coal Creek this close to it's source, a bit of a disappointment.

Pushing on, I soon found a sign that indicated the way to Wilderness Peak. Sounded like a good place to find a panoramic view, but it turned out to be a log bench on top of a round and forested hilltop with only a view of the trees that I had been walking through all morning. After a quick lunch I took another short side trail to Long View Peak. At last a bit of a view (see photo ) looking, I believe, toward Renton.

After a bit of backtracking again, I tried taking a different route back to my car by following the signs and trying to remember the names of the trails, locations, and road that I needed to get back out. That worked well until I reached the Clay Pit Road, which I knew would get me to my car. Having not been on this particular part of the road, I was unsure about which way to go. I started to the left, thought better of it, went back the other way a 100 yards or so, changed my mind again, and found that my first inclination had been correct. It was only a short walk back out of the park and to my car.