Dave Goes Outside: Dog Mountain Round 3

3 years ago, after a memorial day hike of Dog Mountain, I decided to start this little blog. It's seen some action since, including one more visit to the mighty pooch. I've mentioned the hike a lot in these blogs as a standard of difficulty. Dog isn't the hardest hike, but it's tough enough to warrant comparison to everything else. If something is worse than Dog, you can be assured it's hard and you have to really be ready and in shape. If it's easier than Dog, anyone can do it. It's a great cutoff point because it's probably the absolute limit of hike for anyone out of shape and not used to this sort of thing.

This year, with a couple of friends in tow, we summited the beast again. Luckily, they were very in shape and had no problems getting to the top.

We sadly missed the peak flower bloom (warm weather all May really screwed us over) but the views are still stupendous and despite what anyone says, that final half mile climb through the summit meadows might be the prettiest half mile in the entire gorge. Unless you count Silver Star Mountain as part of the gorge, which I don't. Too far north. There is something immensely satisfying about climbing so much and suddenly having the trail open up into a wonderland of views and flowers to reward you for your efforts.

This was probably my easiest time going up. It was still tough, but I never felt like I required a brief break and our breaks on the way up never lasted long. Of course, compared to that 12 mile stupid fest that was Franklin Ridge a 7 mile 2800 foot climb isn't so bad. The first mile or so to the first junction is still brutal. The middle section is still okay, and the final ascent before the meadows is still stupid steep. The Augspurger Trail is still long and kind of boring (Coming back this way is easier on the knees but man it drags on towards the end). There is more poison oak than ever. The lower reaches are littered with the stuff.

They also consolidated the parking lot to accommodate fewer cars, which meant we got out there at 8:30 for safety, which proved to be smart since it was 80 degrees by 1pm, a half hour after we finished. Also an oil train exploded near Hood River, so that was a thing that happened.

Enough talk PICTURES TIME