Smoked by Poodles on Dog Mountain

We hike heavy and slow. The speedy locals wear shorts or tights, wicking tops, and a rain jacket. I wore two layers under an insulated rain jacket, gloves, hat, scarf, and wind-protective glasses. The weather had temperatures in the mid forties, rain, and extreme winds.  The young folks have to keep moving or they’d freeze. We step off trail and adjust our layers, catch our breath, snap fungus or flower photos, snack, add sunblock, and absorb the forest peace. So the eponymous dogs climbing the trail charged past us, followed by fit young folks. You may think poodles belong in the salon eating macarons, but we saw some fit athletic poodles, wearing the trail mud with obvious delight. 

Dog Mountain, in the Columbia Gorge National Recreation Area, is a famous, popular hike on the Washington side of the Gorge. I’d compare the elevation gain to the trail up Mount Ralston from Twin Bridges, off US 50, into the Desolation Wilderness. It has got steep switchbacks through the forest, but unlike the rocks of Mount Ralston the trail is soft and smooth underfoot. And the forest is amazing. First we saw oak, maple, poison oak, and rock gardens. Then we climbed, turned into a protected valley, and found ourselves in a PNW temperate rain forest of mossy fir, hemlock, vine maple, huckleberry, Solomon Seal, and more. Then we turned again at Puppy Point, after the dogs had long since turned around, to climb the last mile through fields dominated by golden-flowered balsam-root but also showing purple lupine, blue phlox, and red paintbrush. We climbed 2820 feet to the summit as tracked by JG’s App. 

In the mild Soquel climate, we get either wind or fog, but not both at the same time. In the Columbia Gorge, wind and fog coexist all the time. Maybe another day we might have seen Mount Hood to the Southeast, or Mount Adams to the East, or even Mount St. Helens to the Northwest. On our hike we braved strong headwinds to summit and saw only mist. The less popular hike back down to connect to the Augspurger trail, pronounced “Ogsburger” and amusingly autocorrected to Asperger, meant squelching through deep slick mud on a narrow steep slope in a headwind. We reminded ourselves that we were having fun as we picked our way down. 

Then finally we ambled easily for the last few miles on a gentle grade of a quarter mile per contour line, meeting folks hiking uphill, including a few backpackers. We arrived at the trailhead tired, muddy but ebullient. Another epic adventure.