Augspurger mt. via Dog mt. 6/14/08

[joerunner]

Thought this would be a pleasant easier run but I thought wrong. Didn't realize that the 2500' up to dog is at a rate greater then 1k' per mile. Most of the flowers were faded but still colorful. Some of the smaller flowers were still in prime bloom. Lots of morning fog. Didn't realize that the 4.7 miles North to Augspurger included a section of old forest road on past the powerlines. I misread the blazes and went left instead of right and added on about 4 miles with a lot of climbing on old forest roads to eventually circle back around and cut the actually Augspurger trail.
The climb up to Augspurger goes up to and stays on a ridge but is not as steep as Dog. Spooked a bear and a deer on the way up. Only a couple small patches of snow on the trail. Augspurger peaked out at about 3700'. Some pretty good views of St Helens, Rainer and Adams up there but you have to look between the trees.
On the way back we realized our mistake and followed the 1 mile or so on forest road past the powerlines back to the trail section that takes you back up to Dog. Climbed back up to Dog Summit but this time the area was completely full of hikers. The view was much nicer this time since the fog cleared but it was windy.
The trails were in good conditions all the way to Augspurger . If anyone goes, just remember to take a right (towards the blazes) where the Augspurger trail meets the forest road and follow that road past the power lines on up to where you will see the marked section of trail that continues on up to the summit. My camera battery was dead so I have no pictures.
Stats: 20.5 miles in about 6+ hours with 8000' of gain. If your running that steep section from Dog summit to the TH your legs(knees) will pay the price.

[AlexanderSupertramp]

Thanks for the update joerunner. I'm pretty sure that if I attempted 20 some-odd miles and 8000 feet of elevation it would be far more than just my knees paying a price.

Adam