Yesterday was a lovely afternoon. Therefore my sister, Harley, the dogs and I took the opportunity to venture around the moss covered and fern blanketed forest of the lower Tiger Mountain trails.
Before losing my balance ability I never explored these trails because I thought it was too easy. I was always too busy seeing how fast I could reach the Tiger Mountain summit at 2,522 feet. Now however, these trails are a new welcome adventure for me
We wandered around for a litte more than 2 and a half hours until it was nearly dark. We started out on the Tradition Lake trail, then went around the lake which is another trail, came out at the Puget Power trail and went on another that led to Poo Poo Point and the High School trail. Although I was really tempted to try making it to Poo Poo point which headed uphill, Harley talked me into my senses at the late hour and we headed back to the Puget Power trail crossing. From there we headed the opposite direction and hit Ruth's Big Tree trail, the wetlands trail and then I am not sure as it was getting too dark.
The crushed gravel was nice to walk on but as we ventured out we traversed trails with slick boardwalks, and big slippery rocks and roots in the way. Before I would have stepped over them without even thinking about it but now that type of terrain is a challenging obstacle course leaving me to move at the pace of a snail! Nearly the entire time my eyes are fixated and focused on the trail beneath my feet.
After a couple hours of hiking around concentrating so hard, the daylight fading away, and double vision or just skewed vision setting in, the task was not physically exhausting but mentally. Sooner or later my brain and eyes could only handle so much and I began to stagger all over the place. Keep in mind how easy I would have found these trails and even ran on them before. I miss those days.
But alas, it is doubtful I would have ever explored them had nothing changed. Remember that I had a one track mind of pushing for the summit and often skipped the regular route to take the shorter but steeper and harder cable line trail shooting straight for the top instead of switchbacking
Despite the frustration near the end (which at times I had to hold back the tears welling up from my grief over an invincible mountain self now gone) I enjoyed getting out into the damp mossy woods. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I love being here!
My picassa album can be viewed by clicking the link below.
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