Dog Mtn trail is in good shape, the usual crowds, poison oak, nothing noteworthy. I (obviously) took the More Difficulttrail, and was reworded with abundant saprophytes, lots of Cephalanthera austiniae maybe 5 days from peak bloom, plus some Chorallorhiza. The Balsamorhiza sagittata is just a couple days past peak bloom.

The trail on to Augspurger is also not terribly noteworthy. It obviously and thankfully sees much less traffic. A number of brushy spots; I cut what I could but there's always more. The newish (wishing 5yrs) reroute at Augspurger's summit was a bit confusing, I would have flagged it but conveniently forgot my flagging. Followed the east trail out to the talus for lunch and a view of Hood River. The east trail appears to continue down the slope to the north; it's brushy but the tread for the first bit seemed fairly well built. The north trail appeared to be in decent shape, but didn't have time to follow it very far. Next time I'll try to find the North TH. It'd be great to connect Augspurger to Grassy Knoll trail; only a mile and a bit as the crow flies, maybe 3 trail miles.

Flowers: B. sagittata, C. austiniae, Corallorhiza striata, C. maculata, Castilleja spp., Lupinus spp., Yarrow, Sedum oreganum, Delphinium spp., Vancouveria hexandra, Anemone spp., Achlys triphylla, Trientalis latifolia, Ceanothus integerrimus(?), Rubus parviflorus, Rosa spp., Chimaphila umbellata(?), Aquilegia canadensis, Claytonia spp., Heracleum lanatum, Phlox diffusa, Maianthemum stellatum, Maianthemum racemosum, Viola spp., Streptopus amplexifolius, Clintonia uniflora, Amelanchier alnifolia

If you like your footsteps to carry you forward, instead of to the side to let the hiking masses pass, then this is the one for you.  Unlike its neighbor, Dog Mountain, this trail is quiet.  The first 3 miles from the parking lot does get return traffic from Dog Mountain (which there was an annoying amount on the descent, mid afternoon).  But starting up by 6:30am, I only saw 3 people on this first 3 miles, then only 2 others on the Augsperger trail itself, all day.  

As for water, hiking books speak of crossing a stream before starting a climb to met up with a dirt road that one follows about 3/4 mile before reaching the trail in the trees again.  However, in the forested valley where the stream should be, it is dry.  No water here.  Once reaching the dirt road and turning right, in about 1/4 mile there is a small (very small) stream crossing the road with pools of clear water below that one could gather from.  Just not sure how much longer it will be running though.  As for any thoughts of backpacking up here, I saw no flat place to pitch a tent.  If hammocking, you have all kind of choices.   

The last mile before reaching the summit, it becomes quite steep in spots.  "Up on toes" hiking steep.  Luckily these stretches aren't too long but you gain over 700 ft in the last stretch.  And Thank you to the trail maintenance on this section -- new tread and brushed out.  Otherwise, this would have been a miserable, bushwhacking stretch.  Also, there are frequent blue/red striped confidence markers in the trees along the way to follow. 

Once nearing the summit, there is an arrow pointing up to the right and there is a sign saying "summit".   The summit is in the trees.  Don't take the trail that goes by and PAST the summit sign and continues on, this leads down another ridge.   Instead go back to the main trail and continue straight (north) and it soon steeply descends and soon opens onto the ridge with views of the river, Helens, Rainier and Adams.  This was the turn around point (making it 17 miles by my GPS round trip).

As for the flowers, there were MANY species.  But for the 'blankets of flowers' that I have seen recently in Dog Mtn pictures, they are not that prolific on this trail. 

So if you wants bountiful blankets of flowers, go to Dog Mtn.  If you want peaceful solitude, do Augsperger Mtn.  Just be prepared to work for it.

Flowers: Trillium, yellow and purple violets, Solomon seal, false Solomon seal, miner's lettuce, calypso, wallflower, popcorn flower, balsamroot, indian paintbrush, Dutchman's breeches, larkspur, vetch, chocolate lilies, wild roses, mock orange, dogwood, currant, fairy bells, glacier lilies, avalanche lilies, wild strawberry, manroot, blue-eyed marys, ballhead waterleaf, pea, prairie star, Oregon grape, vanilla leaf, miterwort, bugbane, lupine, broad-leaved starflower, thread-leaved phacelia, columia kittentails, blackberry, bugbane, baneberry, Siberian miner's lettuce (candy flower).

Took the easier of the Dog Mountain trails up and then over to Augspurger Mountain and back on the Augspurger Trail to the TH.

Four trees down across the Dog Mt Trail but otherwise the tread was good. Surprisingly, not too muddy given the rain. Some intermittent snow on the trail about 0.5 miles before the Augspurger summit plaque. Only 10 cars in the lot.

Here's a link to a .gpx track for access to the TH midway between Augspurger and Dogs Head. The road is a bit rough but any hi-clearance vehicle would be able to make it. It took about 50 mins to get to the TH from the Home Valley store. At the gaia.com website, select USGS map layer to see the roads.

Spent some time with my dad on this hike! Got to the TH at around 8:30am to only 5 or 6 cars in the lot. I was afraid there wasn't going to be any parking from previous trip reports and the warning on this site. Looks like the early bird gets the worm :) We were so confused as we saw two signs, the one pointing west read "Augspurger Trail" and under it was listed "Dog Mountain Trail". The other sign pointed east and read "Dog Mountain Peak". We took a guess and went for the west one. We were wrong. Looking at the map later, turns out we started on the Augspurger Mountain Trail. The "Dog Mountain Trail" sign meant that we were going to join the Dog Mountain Trail partway up the Augspurger Trail. Silly mistake. I'm actually really glad to have made this decision though, because the hike ended up being a loop. The Augspurger trail was mostly forested. My dad didn't have any long athletic pants so he wore shorts and we were keeping out eyes peeled for the poison oak as the warning stated. We didn't see any poison oak or poison ivy so that was great! We finally met up with the actual Dog Mountain trail and got to the top. The views were amazing, and I found it especially cool that you could see both the tip of Mt. Hood in Oregon and a good chunk of Mt. St. Helens in Washington. Warning: It's really windy up in the meadow! I highly recommend bringing poles to stabilize yourself as you walk along the mountain side in the heavy wind. I felt myself losing my balance a lot. Also, poles would be great to have for the hike back down the Dog Mountain Trail. Parts of the trail are really dry (it's really cool because you can see the change in the types of trees as you enter this part of the trail) and it almost feels like you're in Arizona on a hot day. The ground will be very dry in the summer after a period of dryness so make sure you bring stable shoes. It's very easy to slip on this trail! Again, bring your poles!! My tracker said we walked a total of 10 miles. My sore legs agreed. We got back to the car at 1pm, just in time to grab a snack and head home.