Augspurger Trail — Saturday, Mar. 28, 2015

Southwest Washington > Columbia River Gorge - WA

Finding myself with free time on a Saturday morning. I decided to do a little exploring in the Gorge area. I wanted to get a 15 mile run in with some serious elevation gain and with a little research, found this intriguing trail. Initially I had wanted to make a variation of it by looping back over Dog Mountain, but with some warning from a hiker on the return of large crowds, I kept it to a simple out and back. Started at about 0730 in the rain and blustery winds. The trail ascends fairly gently in my opinion, but does not let up for the first three miles. You then drop down for about half a mile before once again heading back up. Eventually you traverse a rolling ridgeline as you follow the trail to the turn around point. I would guess that in clear weather you would be treated to some fantastic views, but I was stuck with sideways rain and clouds blowing UP the ridgeline. It was nasty. Encountered a very large WTA crew headed up the trail on my way down. They were all polite and friendly and will have taken care of the various small obstacles on the trail. A big high five to them! Returned very quickly. Round trip was a little over 15 miles in three hours and thirty minutes. Sorry for the lame pictures. Wasn't much of a priority on this trip.