7 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
Today was the day for my second annual hike up Dog Mountain.
We got to the parking lot at around 8:30am and got a spot near the start of the second row. As we were getting our boots and packs on, we watched the steady stream of cars pulling into the parking lot. I was almost like parking at Disney Land, complete with the Forest Service setting up cones and directing parking.
We opted to take a loop on today's hike, hiking the eastern trail past the viewpoint up, and the Augspurger Mountain trail down. Trail conditions were pretty good, although there were several long muddy sections on the upper portion of the Augspurger Mountain trail, which made for some good slip-sliding fun on the way down.
The spring wildflower show was pretty much on everywhere, except on the meadows along the last switchbacks at the top of Dog Mountain. That section will probably need another week or two.
Hiking time up the "scenic trail" - slightly less than 2 hours Hiking time down Augspurger Mountain Trail - 1.5 hours
