Dog Mountain - March 19, 2011

The training for Pentaquest 2011 is underway! On Saturday (3/19) I headed into the Columbia River Gorge with my friend Tim to hike Dog Mountain. The Dog is one of the most popular hikes in the Gorge, frequently drawing crowds of people willing to punish themselves with its 2,800 feet of elevation gain. But on this day, we largely had the trail to ourselves. The time of year (still technically winter), inclement weather in Portland and, perhaps, the opening weekend of NCAA March Madness proved a compelling trifecta to keep people at home.

We rendezvoused in Portland around 7:30 a.m. and jetted down I-84 to Cascade Locks. After crossing the Bridge of the Gods, another 15 minutes on the Washington side of the river brought us to the trailhead. Much to my surprise, only two other cars waited for us in the parking lot. A low-lying cloud hovered above the forest near the trailhead, but blue sky was clearly visible not far beyond. We had high confidence of reaching bluebird conditions above the timberline on the trail.

The Dog is notorious for starting off with steep switchbacks as the trail rapidly gains elevation and enters the forest on the mountain's southern flank. Since Tim and I are training for bigger climbs in the months ahead, we both brought heavy packs to improve our alpine climbing strength (I learned later that Tim brought 35 pounds of gear to my 15-20). As a result, the switchbacks proved a challenge. But we played through and launched up the trail and into the forest.

As we neared the end of the forest, we reached the beginning of the snow. At least several inches covered the trail with the depth increasing the higher we climbed. Fortunately we could follow the bootsteps of previous hikers, but we had to exercise caution since the right side of the trail precipitously drops off down the mountain above the timberline.

As you can see in the pictures, the conditions were spectacular. The blue sky dominated the scene with small clouds below us rapidly moving westward down the Gorge towards Portland. Snow-covered Mt. Defiance, the highest point in the Gorge, was visible directly across the river from us with Wind, Table, Greenleaf and Hamilton Mountains off to the west. We paused frequently to take in the view and continued onward to the summit.

Upon reaching the top, we enjoyed the standard hiker faire of trailmix, energy bars and (in my case) mango-flavored licorice from Australia. Unfortunately I left the ceremonial single-malt scotch at home. Unlike my previous hikes up the Dog, the wind was only a breeze at the summit. Frequently it feels like a gale or worse at the top, even on a clear day.

After fifteen minutes, we packed up and headed back down. About a tenth of a mile below the summit is a spur on the trail that leads to slightly longer, yet more gradual, route back to the parking lot. Although the spur was snow-covered and hadn't been broken in, we decided to take the more adventurous path. More than once we paused to ensure we hadn't gone off the trail, but soon found ourselves back in the woods on the clearly established trail.

The rest of the descent was uneventful; the monotony of the forest broken up by occasional glimpses of the Gorge, good conversation and bouts of trail-running. By 12:45 p.m. we were back at the car and ready for the drive back to Portland.