Dog Mountain — Saturday, May. 15, 2021

We showed up to the shuttle service around 7am and the first shuttle took off on time right at 730 with maybe 2 empty seats.  It was a quick and easy way to get to the trail and get permits - maybe 10-15 minutes. The shuttle is donation based.  I would say there was about 20 of us which was nice because coming down you could tell it was getting very busy.  If you drive, the parking lot was definitely not full when we arrived at the trailhead and with the weather being perfect on Saturday and flowers blooming like crazy, I would say the day was probably one of the busier ones. We took the 'more difficult' route on the way up and had it to ourselves (group of 3) which was nice and the normal route on the way down.  The trail was definitely a leg burner but very worth it. Our group is fairly active and in our early 30s.  There aren't too many switchbacks, just continuous fairly steep upwards on a few long switchbacks.  If you take lots of mini breaks on the way up, I didn't feel it was too difficult. We didn't use poles and it was fine but I could definitely see them useful on this trail. I would make sure you wear hiking boots and not just sneakers because the trail was dry and has loose rock so good traction helps on the way down. windy up at the top so if you plan on hanging out, have layers.