There were no fresh people tracks on the trail, but various kinds of small animals had been running all over it, including (I think) a rabbit (or fat squirrel?).
Just before Puppy Dog, the snow had reached 12-24”, with icy spots and posthole opportunities,
but the view to the E was a good one.
It had apparently been quite windy on Dog recently,
but today it was a gentle breeze (by Gorge standards) and I didn’t have to brace with my pole to climb the final stretch to the summit.
The wind had also been busy higher up,
and had been howling and scouring and doing some nice sculpting on the summit too.
I’ve been on Dog when the wind is doing this kind of sculpting and it’s one of those character building moments, particularly if your “winter” gear isn’t up to the task. Down from the summit, I saw that the Augspurger Trail was an expanse of pristine untracked snow, so I decided to head back that way. The trail (arrow) was pretty visible through the snow, but there were a few icy spots and more postholing (which was minimized if I walked the outside edge of the trail). I wasn’t using snowshoes because of all the sidehilling this trail requires – slipping sideways doesn’t much interest me.
This is the point where the trail makes a short climb before heading down – near the high point it was almost completely invisible under 3-4’ of blown snow.
The snow seemed to highlight the big landslide that had come off of Greenleaf Mountain about 2 years ago.
There was one person coming down from the summit as I was going up and later I passed two people heading up, otherwise it was a near solo hike of Dog. I was therefore surprised to see this many cars in the lot when I got back – I guess no one wastes a sunny winter day in the NW if they can help it.
