Cape Horn — Sunday, Jun. 6, 2021

Request dog owners to keep their pets on leash regardless of how friendly they may be. Some of us have extreme fear towards dogs and it becomes unsafe on steep hike trails to encounter them without leash. 

This trail is a “Dog on Leash” trail, but some dog owners let their dogs off the leash. All of them were friendly but except for one dog on our way down. It is a Bulldog/Pitbull (??) type of breed and looked ferocious. It wasn’t obeying the owner’s orders and started to run towards us as if to bite us. It scared me to death and I screamed out loud. Thankfully the owner was able to control in a third attempt and put him on leash. Owner apologized and said it is his pet’s way of showing joy when he sees people. But definitely not a joyous moment for us. It gave me anxiety until the owner and dog walked past us.

Lower end of the trail is closed until July, so please check for the updates on the site for closure details. It was overall a good hike. View of the Columbia river gorge from a 1500 ft height was gorgeous. There are multiple view points along the way, all opening to Gorge view.  Since the lower part of the loop is closed, we had to hike on the same route back to the trail head where we started. We hiked till the tunnel and turned back. It is normally a 7.2 mile loop but we logged a 9 mile (as per app) due to the “out and back” style that we did.

Enjoy your hike!