Dog Mountain — Monday, May. 23, 2011

Southwest Washington > Columbia River Gorge - WA

We hiked the new Dog Mt trail up and the Augspurger connector trail down gaining 2900 ft. Poison oak is out, but the balsamroot and lupine in the meadows are at least 2 weeks behind schedule! Ballhead waterleaf was one of the most prevalent flowers on the upper slopes. Plectritis, a few aging chocolate lilies, calypso orchids, red and orange paintbrush, yellow violets, a few dutchman's breeches, spotted coralroot, and wild ginger were some of the flowers seen. The day was extremely windy, but we found a lunch spot on top at the edge of the trees with a view of the cloudy day! Trillium and a few glacier lilies were on the top. The Augspurger connector trail had many slick muddy areas probably from recently melted snow. This was a good work out as usual!