Augspurger Trail, Dog Mountain — Monday, May. 9, 2016

Southwest Washington > Columbia River Gorge - WA

We arrived at the parking lot about 0815 this morning, with approximately 10-15 vehicles in the lot ahead of us. We hiked up Dog Mountain this morning, taking the less difficult route to Puppy Point, then up to the former location of the lookout. Because it was cold and blustery, the bugs were not bad, but we did find a tick and several fleas on the dog. The balsam root, Indian paintbrush, lupine, yellow monkey flowers, and others were in bloom. We proceeded to hike down Augsberger Mountain trail and pick up the trail to Augsberger Mountain. The trail initially appears a bit overgrown but further in has been cleared of blowdowns relatively recently. There are Solomon's seal, etc in bloom on the forest floor. We made it to the peak of Augsberger Mountain, and only ran into one other person at the top of Augsberger Mountain. The trail was faint between the top and where it starts to drop down to view the flowers, mountains, the gorge, etc. We stopped shy of dropping down to the view point, as it had already been a long day.