17 miles of hiking • 6000' elevation gain •
Awesome day with good friends, exploring some new spots and some old favorites. Started with the Cook-Augspurger Traverse (CAT, eh?), which was entirely unexplored territory for all of us. The route up Cook was exceedingly easy to follow, and provided some spectacular vistas and wonderful meadows full of wildflowers. Fun to taking photos of balsamroot with the much-ignored backside of Dog Mountain in the background, as the masses amassed over on the flipside. We were entirely alone, of course.
Once we hit the summit of Cook Hill, it was a long and winding ridge walk over to Augspurger's unremarkable summit. (I believe much of this trail was constructed by Russ Jolley?) It's in need of love and boots, though following along the "tin can lid" route is never a difficult navigation challenge, there are spots where it's somewhat overgrown, as well as a bit of blowdown. Great views open up periodically, especially towards Mount Adams, but also up and down the Columbia River. The summit of Augspurger may be one of the few less remarkable than Devil's Rest, but there is now a new sign to assure you that, "Yes, this is all there is."
The real beauty of Augspurger is found by dropping a few hundred feet down the north ridge, where more meadows and rather spectacular views start opening up. We enjoyed second lunch on a four-volcano-view prominence, that also offered a great overview of Indian Heaven, Grassy Knoll, the two Huckleberries, Big Lava Flow, and more! We'd considered continuing north to the gravel pit, then winding back on old 4WD trails to the saddle between us and Dog, but the heat and humidity was taking a toll so we chose to return through the shaded woods along the traditional Augspurger Trail.
On the way back towards Dog, we encountered other people for the first time all day. By the time we reached Dog's summit, we'd seen a total of six! (Two on top.) Just an amazing dearth of humanity, considering the beautiful day it was. The fabled hanging meadows were a brilliant shade of yellow, and all was well with the world. Umm, other than the damn bugs! Zero breeze meant we continued to be plagued by these little flesh-eating criminals. You'll see them appear as birds in many of the photos, as they were so prominent.
All in all, another fabulous day in the woods!!!
