The Tiger 3 tobaggan run

The "tobaggan run" on Tiger 3

The man with the three dogs warned me about the slickness of the trail as he stuggled to control the two Australian sheep dogs that were straining the leash. He had recently descended the trail in the photo at the right, and those dogs didn't make the job easy. I stopped someplace around that dark spot in the center of the trail when I realized what I was getting myself into, and gingerly made my back to the point at which the ground could poke through the ice in places. Tiger was no place to be hiking today without traction -- although a wood nymph in short shorts and a male runner made it look like child's play. It wasn't. This photo was taken just below the 2.2 mile marker. I pulled out my trekking poles, exposed the hard points to dig into the snow, and made my way to safer ground.

I had planned to summit today, but settled for reaching approximately 1,600 feet above sea level, about 900 feet below the summit. Total elevation gain from the parking lot was about 1,100 feet. Distance traveled was easily 4.5 miles. I developed these conservative figures from the Map My Hike software.

Given all that, here are my figures to date:

Distance year to date: 24.5 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 5,965 feet.

Record of the descent from near the 2.2 mile mark to the car. Cable Line Trail is to the right.

To the right of the trailhead, this path leads to the carcass of an old bus.

There were many split and downed trees from the winter wind storms.

Filtered light from a slightly overcast sky enriched the colors along the path.

A sight along the path

This tree is a familiar landmark on Tiger 3 -- always in the same location.

Another landmark -- in this case, a harbinger of the snow at higher elevations.

I heard about these ferns that grow out of trees on my last hike. Their roots taste like licorice?

Licorice might have been hinted at, but the flavor was more nutty; maybe later in the season.