Beautiful day on the gorge, campgrounds that the parks websites say should be open are CLOSED!!! ARG. So a motel it was. Beautiful, snow free, (warm) hiking with a so-so (but suprising) view of mt. hood and an excellent view of st. helens, not to mention the columbia. Drive via courgar/carson (FS 90 I think) to get a great viewpoint of st. helens (and maybe hit the lewis river trail on the way).

On a visit with the grandmonther-in-law's in Portland, decided to head out to the gorge while my wife headed to the zoo. I was headed to the Beacon Rock trailhead on the north side of the Columbia River (SR 14) but decided to keep going when I noted the 5 dollar parking fee for what looked like a pretty exposed parking lot. So to Dog Mountain just beyond the Wind River. When I set out the clouds were on again, off again. But to a NW hiker that makes no different. About a 0.5 miles, the trail cleared out into a field with a grand view of the columbia river. This was to be the open view of the trip. From there I noted a single solitary wild flower.(Purple and Blue bell). This lone survivor was battling the wind and the howling crows that kept circiling from above. Up the trail more there is an unmarked junction. The trail seems to split many times. Taking the Right is always the best method! This side shows some grand views of clouds and openinging in the layers to the sky. Accending up till the old trail meets again is a grand deep forest. Not large old growth, but definatly a sence of magisty to the mist between the trunks. The forest also has a dark feel, with the sun out of sight, made me think of the Lord of the Rings, personnally. Upon reaching the junction with the trail, again the accent up the mountain continued. Here the trees were a bit bigger, and had a constant creaking noise, as gusts of wind blasted the summit. Once out, another clear area of the summit where the old lookout tower once was. Would have been a grand view and continued to the top, but gust felt about 60+ mph so decided to head back down. Got caught talking to my self by three women hikers... Oh well! From what I saw, the Mountains of the South Gorge had a snowline about 3500-4000 feet, but the north peaks looked clear. Looking towards going up Table Mountain. Spotted the cliffs and it looks like a great hike (on a clear day). --- Ridgewalker

This one starts as far as you can drive up FS Road 57 along Lennox Creek. Currently, and most likely permanently, the road is washed out just short of a large wooden bridge at 2120' near the trailhead for Bare Mountain. With Saturday's deluge of rain, I was surprised to see clear skies early Sunday Morning conditions that would persist through most of the trip. We left the truck at 0845 and walked the road 1.75 miles to the start of the unsigned trail heading to Anderson Pass. There is only one significant intersection on the road where it's necessary to stay right to find the trail. The trail starts off as a decent sized creek and we got to hop rocks for the first 150' of gain. From here the trail switchbacks up the hill just under Dog Mountain. Snow started around 3600' and by 4000' it was 18"" deep. At 4100' or so the trail begins trending to the east out onto the open slopes above the headwaters of Lennox Creek. We kept traversing until we were around 4300' where we headed straight up the mountain. Snow depths increased quickly to 36"" and the going was slow without the aid of snowshoes which we deliberately left behind. We gained the north ridge at 5300' and followed the tree-lined ridge to the summit. Impressive views from the summit and mostly clear skies to boot - who would have guessed given the weather forecast. Noteworthy views included those of Treen, Garfield, Phelps and the lower Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Valley. After 30 minutes on top, we descended our same route. We tried to get in a glissade or two, but the snow just didn't cooperate. By the time we had made it back down to the road at 2600', the rain finally arrived. Those 1.75 miles or road walking were way too long at the at the end of the day, but we eventually made it back to the truck at 1445.

This is the time of the year we make our annual trek up Dog Mountain. The view of the Columbia Gorge was stupendous, as usual. The wildflowers, including mostly balsam root and some phlox, larkspur, and paintbrush were at their peak. We recommend taking the Augberger Trail back as an alternate. Most people go back the way they came, which makes for quite a bit of traffic. We saw no one else on Augsberger. Find trailhead on the left off Highway 14 about 12 miles east of Bridge of the Gods. The 2900 elevation gain in the 3.7 miles up makes for some good exercise. It's all downhill on the way back, of course. Perseverance pays. The flower display on the summit is the best the Gorge offers, and well worth the effort. This is not a trail for young children or unfit adults. We saw lots of dogs--thus the name.

Dog Mountain overlooks Marten Lake and the name belies the beauty it offers at the summit. With car parked at the Taylor River trailhead we hopped on our mountain bikes for the two mile ride up the former Taylor River road to Marten Creek. It is the first wooden bridge one encounters on the road. About 150' past the bridge one just starts going uphill through second growth forest. Follow the line of gravity until reaching a ridge at about 4,000'. Old growth is met at about 3,000'. We connected with the old Anderson Pass trail at about 4,200' and swung around to the north side of the mountain approaching it up gently sloped snow in a WNW traverse. The Anderson trail lies beneath the snow at this time but 100 years ago brought the miners into Lennox Creek. Here they explored Prospectors Ridge on the flanks of Lennox Mt and crossed over into the adjacent drainage of Money Creek. The summit at 5,406' offers in-your-face views of Treen Peak and the north side of the Garfield summits. Big Snow is prominent to the east and the full length of Cascade Mt can be seen. A memorable aspect of the hike will be finding the ancient blazes left by the miners on the trees on a route that used to be a freeway for travel in this area. The ride out on the mountain bikes is a great way to end a day as it is downhill all the way with little cranking done.