I thought it would be interesting to do all three standard routes up Augspurger Mountain in one winter week. Sure, it can be done in a day, but I wanted to poke around a bit and enjoy myself.
day one:
Drove as close to the north trailhead as possible. Didn't get far. I was getting nervous about having to back down, so parked at a wide spot and started walking. It was raining, but I ascended quickly into the snow zone. Got confused in the labyrinth of roads, ended up on the powerline road headed east, south of Augspurger. Wasn't quite sure where I was, due to poor visibility and bad map. Eventually encountered the Augspurger trail coming up from Dog Mountain. The weather was expected to improve, so I killed some time looping around to the north trailhead. At the powerlines north of Augspurger, I retreated. I could handle the wind and snow, but with terrible visibility it just wasn't worth it. On the way down, the snow turned to rain, accompanied by slush dropping out of trees. Still raining when I returned to my car. Forecast had indicated a slight chance of morning showers.
day two:
Similar to day one, but a more direct route, better weather. From the north TH, it was easy enough to follow the trail up the north side of Augspurger, through the boulder field/rockslide. But soon, I struggled to find the trail. A little luck and a little wisdom kept me on track. When I reached the ridgecrest, I knew routefinding would be easy. But the wind grew more ferocious, the snow grew deeper, and the route was longer than I remembered. When the ridge faded into the broad slope below the summit, I gave up trying to follow the trail, and just went up until there was no more up, and wandered a bit until I found the summit sign. From the summit, following the southbound trail (towards Dog) was much easier than expected. I enjoyed my fast fun descent to the powerlines, which I followed west, back to the maze of roads that took me to my car.
day three:
Started up Cook Hill in daylight, later than I would prefer, but I figured it would be a fast ascent to Augspurger. Cook Hill is pretty steep, and in less than two hours I had already covered two thirds of the elevation gain for the day when I arrived at Augspurger/Cook saddle. This was where the snow started to slow me down. Following the trail was fun for a while, but eventually ceased to interest me, so I left the ridge and spiraled clockwise up Augspurger. Reached the summit at 9:45. Not bad. For the descent I mostly followed the trail, with a couple variations. On the way down, it occurred to me that a Dog/Augspurger/Cook loop could be interesting. Too late. I'll put it on my "maybe someday" list.
other parties:
Three-day total was a pair of hikers and their dogs coming up Cook Hill. I also saw a set of footprints that weren't mine, descending Cook ahead of me.
Augspurger + Augspurger + Augspurger (Winter edition)
Augspurger + Augspurger + Augspurger (Winter edition)
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Last edited by Chip Down on February 22nd, 2020, 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- retired jerry
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- Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Re: Augspurger + Augspurger + Augspurger (Winter edition)
too bad you didn't stay up there between day one/day two and day two/day three