Dog Mountain

I organized a trip for my group at work to climb Dog Mountain on the WA side of the Gorge. We were supposed to head up on Tuesday, but I had to reschedule it to Thursday because of bad weather. It turned out to be a great decision.

We had a great turn out. Allen, Melvin, Jagan, Jason, Michelle, David, Jeff, Margo, Ken, Rob, Gans, Kai, George, Bob, Krishnan, Allison, and I headed up from the trail head at about 11:30. We made it about 1/2 and stopped for lunch at the first big lookout. The flowers were out in full force (as expected).

From Dog Mountain Quarterly

After a nice long break, giving everyone a chance to recover, we headed on up. After the first stop, we passed through some more woods but eventually got out of the trees again. The final push to the summit is all through meadows and is great.

From Dog Mountain Quarterly

From Dog Mountain Quarterly

From near the top, there are great views of a snow-covered Mt St Helens across wild-flower covered meadows.

From Dog Mountain Quarterly

We had a nice rest at the top with great views of the Gorge.

From Dog Mountain Quarterly

Everyone made it to the summit, and it was a perfect day for a hike. It was still rather crowded at the top, but I am sure the number of people up there was only a fraction of what we would have encountered on a weekend.

After the hike we headed over to Laurelwood Public House on the East Side and enjoyed some food and libations. Another successful quarterly! I am going to have a hard time topping my last two.