I think the people that predict weather in the NW were in some part of some sort of conspiracy to keep everyone else indoors for the start of Memorial day weekend.  After checking the weather forecast for yesterday on Friday, I cancelled a planned day of sea kayaking with my brother and his girlfriend.  Both are new to the activivity and while a little rain and wind wouldn't bother me terribly, I wanted them to have a good time.  So with no plans for Saturday, I woke up to blue skies.  Another check of the weather report still showed possible thunderstorms for the afternoon.  I did some yard work and kept my daughter at home while my wife and son went out with some friends.  Realizing that the weather report was bogus, I made plans for some afternoon hiking.

After dropping off my daughter with my wife, I headed off to explore Taylor Mountain.  King County is still a relatively new owner and manager of this land.  It is Southeast of Tiger Mountain, on the other side of Hwy 18.  I parked at the south entrance off of 276th (Issaquah Hobart Rd.) and headed up the dirt road.  Not knowing what I'd find and quickly realizing this area has not had any signage put in place, I started marking points on my GPS.  After a couple miles I finally came to some trails off of the dirt road (which was gated so I couldn't drive up here).  King County Search and Rescue folks were out with their dogs for a training exercise.  Apparently I was the only non-S&R person hiking during this time.  After passing a couple searchers, they passed the word about a day hiker out that wasn't part of the exercise.  I guess I was confusing the dogs since they were looking for injured people who couldn't walk.  At least I knew I had help close at hand if I was injured or somehow wound up lost.

Being a new park, the trails are not all complete.  They have been kept up with help of locals and horse riders who have been using this area for years.  Other than having to hike in on a dirt road (I prefer single track trails), once on the trails the fine aroma of horse manure accompanies parts of the trails.  While enjoying wandering through the woods, I wasn't finding it to be a very interesting area.  There were lots of streams crossing through but much of the time I could only hear them and not see them.  I met some people on their horses and chatted about the area.  They told me the clear cut areas at one point were slated for estate home developments.  Some court battles ensued and the county was then able to buy the property.  There is still some privately held land in the middle of this park.  The 'inholders' have access to the roads so they can get to their home on this property.  That's not a bad place to live, surrounded by a park that will never be developed.

They recommended a view trail that I had passed on the way in.  I headed back to this trail and headed up the mountain through the clearcut.  I wish I'd come this way earlier.  Its narrower and appeared to be less used by those on horses.  It went up to a short peak with beautiful views.  I could look NW to Tiger Mountain or SE to Mt. Rainier and the cascades.  The trail appeared that it would head back down to the Road but it dead ended.  It looks like it eventually might, but not right now.  I could have followed the trail to the North, but I was running out of time.  I did find a geocache in the area to add to my list of finds at www.geocaching.com.  I headed back down the trail to the dirt road and home.  All and all, not a bad way to make up for inaccurate weather forecasts.  I uploaded my track from my GPS at home and it registered just shy of 7 miles of hiking.  Go to the link below for pics at Flickr:

Hiking - Taylor Mountian - a set on Flickr

I haven't been using this blog often enough recently, but wanted to mention one of my new (from Christmas) toys that I love.  I have a black Zune 80 and am really enjoying it.  It's great to have access to all my music and to movies and TV shows for the bus.  For the shows I use Beyond TV on my PC (www.snapstream.com) and with the podcast feature, it is a snap to sync my recorded shows to my Zune for my bus commute.  The recent 2.5 software/firmware update was a great release that fixed most of the glaring issues.  MS also announced game development for the Zune and they released a technical preview the same time as the 2.5 update.  Folks are already pounding away and have created a few simple games and a clock application (yes, the Zune doesn't include a clock).  I'm not a developer but I'm techie enough that I was able to get it installed and working on my Zune.  I look forward to the consumer release.  The games are simple but its interesting to see what the Zune can do.  The biggest issue with the apps on this tech preview is when the user exits them, it reboots the Zune.  Not a big deal since a reboot on this device is quick and painless, just something to be aware of.  Here's the link to read up on how to install games on your Zune if you feel like messing around with it:

Zune Boards - How to Install Games on Your Zune