Dog Mountain — Sunday, Mar. 22, 2015

Southwest Washington > Columbia River Gorge - WA

"Spring is like a perhaps hand." - E.E. Cummings Things are changing carefully, and almost imperceptibly on the trail up Dog Mountain today. On the hike up, I took the "More Difficult" trail - over a half-mile walk from the trailhead (I didn't do this out of bravado but out of curiosity). The trail was indeed steep and fairly difficult, but far from impossible. It was a good clean tread and maybe entirely devoid of mud in spite of the unceasing flow of rain. There were several blowdowns of mostly premature trees - hopping across was quite alright for me. Things remained decent after the trail reunited with the "Less Difficult" one; about a mile before summit. There were several hundred feet of trail where drainage issues became evidently more pronounced, and this was right before the top - not a big deal, though, I think. On the trek down, a deluge befell the land (ahem, mountain). One could practically catch a fish with a kite. The rain was relentless in its assault, and its fury was evident, discernible on the trail. Whereas many of the tread on the way up was dry and decent, the hike down felt like fording a stream. I decided to do the "Less Difficult" path as I arrived at the fork to spare my knees from the violence that the trail's difficult counterpart would surely inflict - I recommend this. Anyway, I'm not sure how the trails would look in a few days or so (It seems that the current trend in weather isn't going to shift anytime soon), but I assume it would all be along the lines of what I saw today. Good gear, highly prescribed. Wildflowers have begun their fertile chorus. In a few weeks they will crescendo with explosive brilliance. There were poison oak warnings at the TH, so watch out for those verdant scallawags.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/herb_purganan/sets/72157651098026520/