Augspurger Mtn 6-29-08

[wraithevolution]

I set out before the sun came up to avoid the heat and sun. I hit the trail at 5:00 AM sharp, had the only car there. Even so, it was about 67 degrees when I started. The trail is pretty heavy with oak already, looks like it will only get denser. I was tight-roping quite a bit in some places to avoid it. Thankfully I have a pretty high tolerance to it as I've hit it before and never gotten it. I always see people standing in it or pushing through it when I hike the "Dog-spurger" trails, it amazes me. I'm always having to point it out to someone on the trail, their just stomping right through it! Anyways, the first half in was pretty uneventful as usual. The trail past the Dog summit cut isn't too overgrown yet which was nice. After the service road stretch where the trail re-starts, I immediately got bombarded by bugs. They are out in force right now. I've been hiking for years and have never seen them so voracious before. Usually I'll just push on and try and shake them but I couldn't. I ignored them for a while but right as I got to the ridge with the powerlines, they got downright crazy. I had at LEAST a hundred swarming on me, mosquitos and lots of bighting flies. I had to apply my DEET whilst walking, I couldn't even slow down or risk being drained alive. The spray only served to cause the bugs to find alternate means of attacking me so I literally broke into a run. After shaking a large patch of them, they resorted to bighting through my shorts and going for my face. I didn't want to put any spray on my face as sweating into my eyes would be bad. I had to re-apply and put some on my face eventually, they were too much. I got tired of them trying to drink my sweet sweet eye sclera. I also saw about 9 or 10 different piles of fresh bear droppings but saw no bears. I haven't heard of the bears around here being aggressive but I was checking in every direction just to be safe. The last couple miles were starting to overgrow a bit and I was having to push through some brush and a couple downed trees. Made it to the summit and then on the other 1/2 mile to the nice viewpoint. Beautiful views in all directions! Tried to have a little lunch but the bugs wanted me for their lunch so I had to keep moving. All told, the hike was 15.8 miles, finished in 5 hours and 5 minutes, a decent time for me. Also got the chance to try out my new Casio Pathfinder watch and it was pretty darn close on the altitude! So if your planning this in the near future, watch for the oak, keep an eye out for bears and take lots of bug spray.

Most of the way up the Dog-spurger side, early morning sunrise shadow.




Shot of the upcoming viewpoint.



Looking west down the gorge, amazing view!!



A northerly shot of Mt Adams



Looking south at Mt Hood and Mt Defiance.



And the obligatory shot of my fancy new watch, sorry!!!

[Delfiin]

Looks like a great hike. You got some very nice shots, but it seems like you paid a pretty high price for them. You know we have places in town where you can donate blood if your wanting to get rid of some, no sense in letting the bugs have it all. Maybe I will wait a little before heading out on that loop. Thanks for the info.

[joerunner]

I was up there about 3 weeks ago and we actually spooked a bear on that ridge going up to Augspurger. I was never quite sure if we were actually at Augspurger mt. proper or not. My topo map doesn't make it clear either. We followed the ridge North until it swung towards the East and hit a high point up around 3700' and the trail seemed to stop (or was buried in the snow).

Great photos and report, thanks!

[wraithevolution]

@ Delfiin; I think the trail is good to go, can't let the bugs stop you!! If you know where the trail splits off the service road, get sprayed up really good before taking the cut. If I had known ahead of time, I could have applied properly. Instead, I was literally applying my spray as I was running. When I think of it now, I must have looked like an idiot doing that!!

@ joerunner; I remember reading that post! I know what you're talking about too, about the summit. It's a strange hike as it's not traveled alot nor talked about much. From what I know, the summit is in the thick of trees, the highest altitude and no view. You could bushwhack a little to the south and probably get a decent shot. But when you continue on north of the top, you'll actually lose elevation. There is a thin trail still, I can see how even a little snow would make it disappear. Go about a half mile past the summit and that's where the additional viewpoint is, that's where I went. Really nice spot too have a light lunch. So what kind of bear did you see? Color? Size? All I saw were voracious, man eating bugs!

[joerunner]

We didn't actually see the bear just spooked it from it's hiding place in some thicket about 50yds from where we were. We assumed it was a bear based on the grunts and noise it made. It definitely was not a deer and if it was Elk then we would have seen it.

We didn't have the bug problem on that trip.