Below is a "report" of my ramble Down from Dog Mountain summit > ~11:30 ~40s_F Dog-Augspurger Tie > ~12:10 "Lower" Augspurger Trail > ~13:45 Trailhead .. hot 60s_F .. 😅

The Distance between the Trailhead and the turnout to Dog-Augspurger Tie is approx 2.7 miles.

Going down via the above-mentioned route was definitely "knees saving" .. 😅

The Trails were in good condition and seemed well-maintained. A few muddy muddy sections though passable with care. Encountered 3x solo Trailrunners came down from behind behind me. And a pair of hikers came Up.

Had some nice views of the nearby places .. Wind Mountain. And a few spots of wildflowers along the "Lower" Augspurger Trail .. not much .. but good enough to make me happy 😊

Happy Trails Everyone 😃

This report includes a photo album and link to Columbia Gorge wildflower guide. We went up Dog Mountain via the difficult trail (as opposed to the more-difficult trail). It was a very windy day and glad to have an extra layer as well as a wind jacket. Otherwise would not have been able to pause at the top. Went downhill via the less steep Augspurger Trail. Unlike the Dog Mountain trail, the forest here is moist and in some places muddy. On both trails, there’s a serious amount of poison oak on both sides of the trail. It doesn’t disappear until you’re above treeline. Despite staying away from edges of the trail (to avoid the poison oak), I arrived back at the parking lot with a couple ticks on my nape of my neck. Oddly, there were no ticks on my dog (maybe the flea/tick stuff worked). It doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere, but there’s a vault toilet uphill 100 yards from the parking lot.  On this Monday, the parking lot was full by 8am.

Though the parking lot was busy on a sunny Saturday, it seemed most people were hiking Dog Mountain instead of Augspurger. The trail is in good condition, until the last mile or so that had calf deep snow. The views just north of the true summit are totally worth descending for. But great views can be found sooner from the ridge next to the power lines. We passed 5 small groups on the trail. Most unusually, we spotted a mountain goat, deep in the woods, a couple miles from the trailhead! 

I had the privilege of being in Hood River for a couple of days, both of which were sunny.  Chose Dog Mountain and made it a loop hike.  This was my first time hiking down here and I would love to return and explore more trails.

Started at 1015 in the fog which was forecasted to burn off around 1100.  Hiked up the Dog mountain trail and stayed on the “new” trail which is described as difficult (the “old”trail is described as more difficult).  The intersection of the 2 trails is about 1/2 mile after the start.  The fog kept it nice and cool on the way up the steep and pristine trail.  It’s a wide path but so smooth, dry, and not rocky.  When the trail breaks out of the trees at “puppy viewpoint” the wind started picking up but it was nice and cool.  Put on a jacket and kept moving to the summit and layered up.  Amazing views of the gorge, the tip of Hood, Wind Mountain.  St Helen’s and Adams visible to the north.  Hung out for about an hour.  About 8-10 hikers seen all day.  Descended on the connector trail to Auspuger trail which is a more gradual decline and about 0.9 miles longer.  So worth it for the solitude and the views.  Saw a WTA work party, thank you!!  Took the same amount of time to ascent as it did to descend.  What a spectacular hike and workout.

dog Mt... So one of the maps show a blue line that's what we still have to do couldn't do it because intense temperatures and we still had a mile to go so we had to turn around. Great views though where we stopped to take pictures before we had to go up the mountain. Seen Indian pipe which is a white fungus. it was so dry and Dusty up there all my pores on my body were just covered in dust. There wasn't even know wind to help us cool off. But amazing views. as we were coming down about two miles down these two teenagers were going up and they had no backpacks so we asked them do you have any water and they said no and they said how much further to the top we told them 2 miles but we said u all should turn around because it's too hot and they had no water so hopefully they made it off the mountain and I don't have to hear about them on the news. The trails in Nice condition. Just one part where the bushes are on each side of you someone should hack those down. I was worried about ticks LOL... No shade.. n I got sunburn.. and when you get to a certain point it says more difficult or difficult and we went up difficult and came down more difficult and I don't see any difference but maybe just a little bit more elevation. Trials easy n clean