First time hiking dog mountain, but I had a couple of people with me who had hiked it before.
We opted for the shuttle from Stevenson. Got there right as the first bus was pulling up, and were headed to the trailhead at 7:30am. It was really a good deal, $2 for the shuttle and you get your permit wristband as you get off the bus. Dog friendly bus, me and my pup took the open space in the back, and there were 2 other dogs on the shuttle for the first ride of the day.
Shuttle ride was about 15 minutes. Stopped for the bathroom at the trailhead, nothing fancy - just a vault toilet. Started the hike around 8am.
I was pretty intimidated by this hike from what I had heard from others. I found it about the same as Hamilton Mountain, there is just under 3,000ft of elevation gain. I just took it at my own speed as my hiking companions outpaced me.
At the fork in the road, we headed for the "More Difficult" route rather than the "Difficult" route. From what I could tell, the "More Difficult" route was steeper and about a half mile shorter. The first part of the hike was under tree cover, which was appreciated because the steepness of the trail had me sweating pretty good!
We reached the peak at 10am (lots of breaks!) and were just blown away by the views. The day had good visibility, and the fields were just full of yellow wildflowers (balsamroot) with the occasional red flower (paintbrush).
Very windy at the top! We all quickly threw our light jackets back on. Took a while to take in all the views, then started to head back.
We took a different route back down. We took the western route down the mountain, which is part of the Augspurger mountain trail. This route had a more gentle slope, but also added about a mile to our journey.
I always enjoy going a different way back. This route was much less populated, and (in my opinion) had better a visibility of the gorge because there were less trees. The trail was also different because several parts of the trail were very rocky from landslides (but all very passable).
We made it back to the parking lot and hopped right on the shuttle at 11:45.
By 12:30, we were at Backwards Brewery in Carson for lunch!
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