Saturday, June 25, 2010
This was my second Saturday in a row hiking Dog Mountain. Had to be done. The first Saturday was a cold, dreary typical Northwest spring day where Amanda and I somehow managed to find 'quad-killer samurai route' on the way down the 3,000' trail making for a very sore couple of days after. The second Saturday, was the virtual opposite, with clear blue summer skies and Indian Summer temps - not too hot, not too cold, just right.
Big Bro' Randy was on a rare trip out to Portland for work and so we decided that we'd show him a bit of the Northwest forests....and since the hike was about 3,000' elevation gain, we thought we'd count this as a training trip for our big trip to Glacier in September.
Man with Stick
Dan, who was just back from a work trip to Sweden, was up for it despite jet lag. Amanda would do the hike again, looking forward like I was to the missed views of a week ago.
What a difference a week makes. The flowers were still in bloom, but now we were actually able to see the amazing views and enjoy the abundant wildflowers without the sandblasting pelt of windblown rain on our skin.
Phantom Orchid
We also discovered that best route for us: About 7 miles / 3,000': - Take the far eastern route up and far western (Augsberger) route down. Last time we went up the west trail and down the middle trail - it was easy up, but hard going down.
