Dog River Trail 10/27

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pdxgene
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Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by pdxgene » October 27th, 2014, 3:18 pm

Matt and I met out at Clackamas this morning to take a ride out to the east side of Mt Hood and the Dog River Trail. Mt Hood looked great from the car and again later on the trail in clear blue sky where you couldn't really get a picture but of course the clouds swirled back in and obscured the view most of the time. We were gonna try and sneak out to Lost Lake for a couple quick photos but the clouds took care of that idea so we went to Hood River and pFriem brewpub for liquid refreshments instead. :D Most of the nearby occasional larches scattered around were still mostly green except on the distant flank of Mt Hood. You can see a few scattered spots of yellow in the distance..
Here's what it looked like..
Mt Hood just before 11a at the viewpoint about 3 or 4 miles in that was our goal for the morning..
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Some of the fall yellow that lined the route..
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At a viewpoint coming back down there was one of those brief partial clearing and blue sky combos that showed off the pretty new snow on Mt Hood..
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Sunbeams in the forest as we headed back down..
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A bit of fall red to go along with the yellow and green..
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Another blast of sun into the forest..
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Matt crossing the last footbridge before getting back to the trailhead on Highway 35..
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We did see one other couple just before we got back down to the car.. Album from what looks like the last sunny and dry day for a while here http://picasaweb.google.com/pdxgene/DogRiverTrail
This is the first trip report attempt on this shiny new computer as my old one finally died a slow death (as it was in life :roll: ) last Friday. Hopefully it works..

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mattisnotfrench
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Re: Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by mattisnotfrench » October 28th, 2014, 6:28 am

It was a good day. I didn't get much sleep the night before so I struggled a bit during the beginning, but I did fine. This is a really nice trail, as it's well-graded, well-maintained and it rises up to a really nice viewpoint for a relatively minimal amount of effort. When I came here in May with my wife we saw more calypso orchids than I'd ever seen anywhere else. Sadly, my hopes for a similar amount of bright orange larch were dashed; there were only a few, and they weren't bright orange. Oh well.

Photos:

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Oh, and pFriem rules.
Author of Extraordinary Oregon!, PDX Hiking 365, 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region, and Off the Beaten Trail. Website: www.offthebeatentrailpdx.com

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woodswalker
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Re: Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by woodswalker » October 28th, 2014, 7:15 am

Great, I've always been curious about that trail. I will check it out. Woodswalker

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Splintercat
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Re: Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by Splintercat » October 28th, 2014, 8:27 am

Great report and photos! Gene, did I see your Mount Hood pic on Channel 12 last night..?

Thanks for posting -- I've never hiked that trail, for some reason... need to check that one off!

Tom :)

pdxgene
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Re: Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by pdxgene » October 28th, 2014, 8:45 am

Splintercat wrote:Great report and photos! Gene, did I see your Mount Hood pic on Channel 12 last night..?

Thanks for posting -- I've never hiked that trail, for some reason... need to check that one off!

Tom :)
Yeah, I'm one of our site regulars in the weather photo of the day on kptv group.. They even brought Stephanie Kralevich out of retirement to show yesterdays'.. :lol:

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mattisnotfrench
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Re: Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by mattisnotfrench » October 28th, 2014, 9:32 am

Splintercat wrote:Great report and photos! Gene, did I see your Mount Hood pic on Channel 12 last night..?

Thanks for posting -- I've never hiked that trail, for some reason... need to check that one off!

Tom :)
Go in May when the flowers are a great mix of the Gorge and the Cascades - you have larkspur, a bit of balsamroot, phlox, anemones and tons of fairy slippers. Oh, and that view of Hood is about as good as it gets for that amount of effort. It's easier than Bald Butte with less people and less cyclists.
Author of Extraordinary Oregon!, PDX Hiking 365, 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region, and Off the Beaten Trail. Website: www.offthebeatentrailpdx.com

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-Q-
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Re: Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by -Q- » October 28th, 2014, 3:53 pm

Great trail
Fun to hike it from both trailheads... either Dog River TH, or the Zigzag Trail TH.

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kepPNW
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Re: Dog River Trail 10/27

Post by kepPNW » November 3rd, 2014, 4:17 pm

Love those shots of sunlight streaming down to the forest floor.
Karl
Back on the trail, again...

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