A quick jaunt on a roadtrip. We took the “more difficult” way up and down, which didn’t seem too difficult at the time but my calves sure hurt today! The trail is in good shape, one downed tree you can step over and not too rocky or muddy. It was raining - lightly in the woods but much harder at the top. Wildflowers are past peak and the balsamroot will be gone soon.

Hiked up Dog Mountain and back down Augspurger Mountain Trail, as suggested.  Augspurger was quite muddy for the top quarter of the trail, with standing water in some areas.  Dog Mountain is spectacular, although the poison oak on the way up is fairly daunting.  Saw Yellow Balsam root in bloom as well as Inside-out flowers, spotted coral root, chocolate lilies, lupine, red paint brush, Solomon's Seal, choke-cherry, Monkshood, Fairy bells, yarrow, creeping phlox and Three leaved Anemones.  

Arrived at the trailhead at 8am today (Sunday) with lots of spots available, and when we returned around 12:30 there were still lots of spots. Had tried to get there early since we were worried the parking lot would fill up but either because of the shuttle or the permit system or maybe the poor weather, I doubt anyone had issues parking today.

This was a hard hike!! Haven't actually done a hike in a few months so that probably didn't help, but the first mile is ROUGH. Did the "difficult" trail (as opposed to the "more difficult" trail) and it got a lot less steep after the signage. Would recommend doing the difficult trail because there's a really nice viewpoint that was the only view we got the entire way, and it's only .2 miles longer.

Cloudy day - no view at the top and extremely windy. The wildflowers are out in full force and SO nice. I wasn't sure there would be as many as the prior trail reports led me to believe but there ARE!

Getting weekend permits was hard - they sold out in about 1 minute, but it looks like anyone can take the shuttle with no prior reservation.

This report includes a photo album and link to Columbia Gorge wildflower guide. We went up Dog Mountain via the difficult trail (as opposed to the more-difficult trail). It was a very windy day and glad to have an extra layer as well as a wind jacket. Otherwise would not have been able to pause at the top. Went downhill via the less steep Augspurger Trail. Unlike the Dog Mountain trail, the forest here is moist and in some places muddy. On both trails, there’s a serious amount of poison oak on both sides of the trail. It doesn’t disappear until you’re above treeline. Despite staying away from edges of the trail (to avoid the poison oak), I arrived back at the parking lot with a couple ticks on my nape of my neck. Oddly, there were no ticks on my dog (maybe the flea/tick stuff worked). It doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere, but there’s a vault toilet uphill 100 yards from the parking lot.  On this Monday, the parking lot was full by 8am.

We showed up to the shuttle service around 7am and the first shuttle took off on time right at 730 with maybe 2 empty seats.  It was a quick and easy way to get to the trail and get permits - maybe 10-15 minutes. The shuttle is donation based.  I would say there was about 20 of us which was nice because coming down you could tell it was getting very busy.  If you drive, the parking lot was definitely not full when we arrived at the trailhead and with the weather being perfect on Saturday and flowers blooming like crazy, I would say the day was probably one of the busier ones. We took the 'more difficult' route on the way up and had it to ourselves (group of 3) which was nice and the normal route on the way down.  The trail was definitely a leg burner but very worth it. Our group is fairly active and in our early 30s.  There aren't too many switchbacks, just continuous fairly steep upwards on a few long switchbacks.  If you take lots of mini breaks on the way up, I didn't feel it was too difficult. We didn't use poles and it was fine but I could definitely see them useful on this trail. I would make sure you wear hiking boots and not just sneakers because the trail was dry and has loose rock so good traction helps on the way down. windy up at the top so if you plan on hanging out, have layers.