The hike up Dog Mountain with Portland Outdoor Adventurers Club was my first ever outing with any internet group. There were about 25 people signed up for the hike, but only five showed up and that included the event host and me. Oh well, it was still a good experience and the people very friendly. I have learned since that it is normal for only about half of the people to show up. The rest probably stayed home because of the bad weather. Even though it was June 20th, the good summer weather had not yet arrived here in northern Oregon.

This post is out of chronological order. I misplaced these photos from mid-June in the wrong folder.

The hike was not very long, but that was ok. It was still a pleasant introduction to meetup.com.
http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Dog_Mountain_Hike
At the link above you can see what the hike is supposed to be like on a sunny day.

I found this pleasant recent review today at:
http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Dog_Mountain_0000.asp

“Reviewed by Kmh on 7/23/2010
Saw Black Bear today on this hike. About a mile and half into the hike on the “more difficult ” trail. Bear was coming down hill and did not come at me. I have never been as scared as I was today. I will not be doing this hike again ALONE or unless there are many others around. Please be careful. ”

These thumbnails are just a preview. Click on them to see the post. There are 31 photos.

 

The Bridge of the Gods connects Oregon and Washington states. It has a toll and we drove over it to get to the Dog Mountain trail. Along the way we passed Stevenson, Washington. I was proud to not be one of the many flakes that RSVP’d and did not show. The guy who drove us works at a company that builds those big river barges.

This is the parking lot at the trailhead which is right on the river.

The large group was some other organization.

That is us. All five of us.

Not us.

 

Check out the topo of the trail(s). The trails are the black dotted lines. We went up the steeper way.

The trail was nice and steep and a good morning workout, although I would sure like to go faster. I got pretty restless.

Sometimes it was raining. It was WET. I definitely need to buy synthetic waterproof long pants.

When you get up higher the tail comes out into the open and there should be dramatic views. There were not. It was foggy and WINDY.

Some of us wanted to walk right up to the summit in the open. The leader of the hike did not, so we went around the back way.

Look how comfortable everyone was. There is an open area on the gorge side of the summit, right outside those trees. I forgot to take a photo because I was taking pictures of a group of guys there, with their camera. There was nothing to see though. Their pictures were just as a joke. Instead of the spectacular view behind them, it was just pure white. You could see NOTHING.

On the way down, toward the bottom, the sun came out partially. I am sorry I do not have very good photos from this hike. It was raining a lot and various other excuses are also available should you like to hear them. I did a better job at the hikes since.