When snow in the Central Cascades made our planned hike impossible, we drove down to the Columbia Gorge and climbed Dog Mountain, a challenging but snow-free hike. The sun was shining, with a few passing clouds and just the briefest intermittent showers. Even the trailhead parking area was beautiful, right off Route 14, with a freight train passing by and great views of the Columbia River and Mt. Defiance across the river on the Oregon side, covered with new snow at the top. When we arrived at 10:30 on a Wednesday, there were about 10 cars in the lot. The poison oak was leafing out everywhere near the bottom of the trail, so be careful if you're wearing shorts or have a dog. We went up taking the slightly shorter, steeper route, and it's a grinder of a climb, but good for training. There were plenty of early wildflowers on the trail, with the promise of a lot more to come. The trail was in excellent shape, free of mud, snow and blow downs. The top of the mountain was windy and cold, but worth it for the panoramic views of the Columbia Gorge, Wind Mountain to the west, and the Oregon mountains to the south.

"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.

It's nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H-nE7jRkQ

5 minutes of hike video clips: http://youtu.be/OuabapYKeAE Left at 7am, first car in parking lot. Two other hikers passed me on the way up, otherwise had the trail to myself. On the way down passed at least a hundred hikers! Sunny with a cool breeze and the wildflowers were in spectacular bloom. Balsamroot were about half done but the lupine, penstemon and paintbrush made up for it added color. The top is partially forested, with a open sitting area facing south. You can see Mount Hood and Mount Saint Helens from that meadow, but to see Mount Adams take the overgrown path that winds through the summit's underbrush a little ways. Trail is in great shape, but steep. You might want poles on the way down. I took the longer route up and shorter route down, which allowed more shade for the hotter return trip(but no views).