Risks -- lots of Poison Oak along the lower/forested portion of the trail. 

Tread generally very good. 

Wildflowers (especially balsamroot) fading -- especially at lower elevations. Lots of phantom orchids in the forested sections. Also -- Indian Paintbrush, Wild Onions of various types, and Clarkia (Farewell to Spring). Butterflies included PAle and Western Tiger Swallowtails, Lorquin's Admiral, Boisduval's Blues, and Sheridan's Green Hairstreak. A few mosquitoes. Birds -- Black-headed Grosbeak, Robins, Turkey Vultures. 

A few photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/myake/albums/72157697308502504

Got to the Stevenson Fairgrounds parking lot around 7:30, 8:00 this morning. Warning: the shuttle definitely comes every 40-45 minutes, rather than 30 minutes. We got to the trailhead probably around 10:00 because we were waiting for the rest of our group to show up and then had to wait a really long time for the shuttle. No issues at all driving to the parking lot. You'd also have no issues driving to the trailhead. There is a restroom at the Fairgrounds parking lot and another at the trailhead.

Keep in mind that there are rangers at the trailhead during the early hours to verify you have a pass. 

Trail is in excellent condition. Totally dry, no snow at all. We took the Difficult Trail up, and the More Difficult Trail down. The way up was a mostly gradual incline, with some steep parts. Nice place to sit at the top, but you start getting excellent views once you make it to Dog Mountain Lookout viewpoint, which is where an old lookout used to be (but is no longer there). I expected a more difficult time coming down given that the More Difficult Trail should have felt steeper, but it was actually fine.

Wildflowers were all over the place, but you could tell they were on their way out. 

We had young children on the hike, and they made it to the summit, but they did complain a few times. The dog we had on the hike did fine, but was definitely tired by the end. 

After we got back to the trailhead, we had to wait over half an hour to get on the shuttle. People were practically shoving each other to get on it, which was frustrating. 

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

Dog Mountain was absolutely magical. Walking throught the forest...then coming to the spectaculat view with all of those wildflowers!!! The trail was busy today but as expected for a holiday. I will be hiking Dog Mountain again!!

First time hiking dog mountain, but I had a couple of people with me who had hiked it before. 

We opted for the shuttle from Stevenson. Got there right as the first bus was pulling up, and were headed to the trailhead at 7:30am. It was really a good deal, $2 for the shuttle and you get your permit wristband as you get off the bus. Dog friendly bus, me and my pup took the open space in the back, and there were 2 other dogs on the shuttle for the first ride of the day. 

Shuttle ride was about 15 minutes. Stopped for the bathroom at the trailhead, nothing fancy - just a vault toilet. Started the hike around 8am. 

I was pretty intimidated by this hike from what I had heard from others. I found it about the same as Hamilton Mountain, there is just under 3,000ft of elevation gain. I just took it at my own speed as my hiking companions outpaced me. 

At the fork in the road, we headed for the "More Difficult" route rather than the "Difficult" route. From what I could tell, the "More Difficult" route was steeper and about a half mile shorter. The first part of the hike was under tree cover, which was appreciated because the steepness of the trail had me sweating pretty good!

We reached the peak at 10am (lots of breaks!) and were just blown away by the views. The day had good visibility, and the fields were just full of yellow wildflowers (balsamroot) with the occasional red flower (paintbrush). 

Very windy at the top! We all quickly threw our light jackets back on. Took a while to take in all the views, then started to head back. 

We took a different route back down.  We took the western route down the mountain, which is part of the Augspurger mountain trail. This route had a more gentle slope, but also added about a mile to our journey. 

I always enjoy going a different way back. This route was much less populated, and (in my opinion) had better a visibility of the gorge because there were less trees. The trail was also different because several parts of the trail were very rocky from landslides (but all very passable). 

We made it back to the parking lot and hopped right on the shuttle at 11:45. 

By 12:30, we were at Backwards Brewery in Carson for lunch!