Hike of the Week : Poo Poo Point

Up early today -- despite Daylight Savings beginning -- to drive out to Issaquah to hike POO POO POINT. 

There is no point in lying ... obviously we hiked this because of the name. Well, okay, the name and the fact that it was the right distance and difficulty for us to hike 3 hours today, had no snow on the roads to get there, and had no snow on the trail. So it was perfect. And the name... well, that was a bonus. 

We squeezed in to the last spot in the small trailhead parking lot -- amusing to have 5 of 7 cars be Subarus -- and set off down the trail.

Soon we reached the first trail marker and knew we were on track. And this is proof that this really is the name of the hike. Seriously.

We started up a railroad grade trail, nice and gentle, and could see why this is so popular with trail runners.

And cougars. And bears. And Wil.

Eventually we came to a junction and ... yeah, the sign makes me giggle every time. 

The trail continued up up up for a few miles.

There were a few spots where we leveled out, and a couple of brief downhills... but for the most part it was up, up, up.

We crossed a bridge with damaged -- and partially repaired -- railings. I assume a tree fell on it? Or?

Though I instinctively stayed away from the railing, Wil took a nice picture of the creek we were crossing.

I love a mossy, ferny, woodsy trail ... but even I have to admit that a lot of this was pretty monotonous. And just up up up.

But we did see some pretty badass stumps...

... and some mossy, ferny trees ...

... and just the lightest dusting of snow just off the trail.

At one point we reached a trail junction and I was sorry that we started descending -- steeply -- because who wants to lose elevation? But eventually we popped out onto a wide, flattish trail with half a mile to go.

And then, Poo Poo Point!

Just kidding. This is Poo Poo Point:

The GREEN stuff is rubberized astroturf, because paragliders launch off this point. We did not launch ourselves, but we did take the obligatory "hikie". 

For the trip out to the point, we only saw about 5 people the whole time. As we walked the last few hundred yards, there were suddenly quite a few people... maybe 10 in all... which made me quip that the Starbucks / pub / free candy shop must have just closed.

Until we got to the point and saw 4 people and their dogs who had walked up the dirt road and who felt the need to talk very loudly at each other, let their dogs run loose, and then spark up. We may be people who like our nature very quiet, and who are big fans of using inside voices even when we're outside. So this was pretty grating, and we left after a few minutes.

Interestingly, this trail was listed as 4.5, 3.6, and 3.4 miles long ... We think 3.6 is pretty close.

So we climbed back up to the trail junction, then eased into the long downhill. As Wil said, it was surprisingly boring, but a good training hike. And, of course, it has lots of mossy, ferny trees...

As we came down we passed more and more people, and it started to rain. Another well-timed hike!

Poo Poo Point was a great training hike -- plenty of up and down (mostly up, then mostly down...), and I could imagine hiking up to the trail junction just for the exercise if not for the experience.

Poo Poo Point Trail
7.2 miles
2214 feet elevation gain