[Jasper]

I took my dad for a walk up Dog Mountain yesterday. Wait, what did you think I was talking about? We had hiked up the Dog Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge a few years ago, but hadn't been up the one up the North Fork before. Dad read a recent trip report from Jeb and his dogs, and decided that this would be a good time to head up there. So that's what we did. After the long drive, we got to the end of the road and found a still smoking campfire. Dad peed on it, although he didn't lift his leg properly. Then we started hiking. At first it was on an old road, then it eventually turned into a trail. There were some muddy spots, some icy spots and soon my favorite, SCHNOW SCHNOW! There wasn't enough for dad to use his snowshoes, but enough for me to be happy. During one of our breaks dad dropped the treat bag right in front of me. Score! Just as I was about to fill my belly the old man reached down and swiped the bag from right in front of me. I never knew the elderly could move so quickly. Back to the hike. We left the trail at ~4,300' and headed more or less straight uphill towards the summit ridge, mostly following Jeb's footprints and his doggies pawprints. One part was really slick and I had an unplanned glissade down a few feet before I ran into dad's legs. We looked for a better route and managed to find one. Whew! We had been hiking in the shade all day until reaching the summit ridge where we popped into the sun. Dad didn't like the postholing on the ridgetop so he traversed just below the ridge until the actual summit, where we found a nice sitting spot and hung out for a while. Dad ate some soup while I munched on a little kibble. Of course dad took silly photos of the plastic frogs. Then he made me wear those stupid antlers. At least this time Zeus wasn't around to make fun of me. Then we tried to take cat naps, but that might have worked better on the Kendall Katwalk. After almost an hour dad decided that we should head back. I was comfy, but wanted to get home to mama and more importantly, DINNER! He took a slightly different route down that avoided the steep, slick parts and soon enough we were back on the trail. The truck was still there when we got back to the trailhead. After a brief discussion about who would drive home we decided it over a game of rock-paper-scissors. Ha! I won again. I can only make rock, but dad still chooses scissors every time. Silly dad. We made it home after a brief stop at Yellow Dog Inn to say hi to Z&A and their guest Bear. Just as I was getting comfy we got back in the truck. This time we made it all the way home and I got to relax while dad unpacked everything. Another good hike. Here's a few photos (dad's full flickr set)

Frozen mushrooms

Jasper on the icy trail

"Hey, why can't I drink this?"

Either a platypus or one of the creatures from the movie The Abyss

Bare

Get that snow!

View east from the summit

Jasper soaks in the views

Festive frogs (2)

Hinman and Daniel

Looking into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

The annoyed reindog

The Snow Pig takes a Cat Nap on Dog Mountain

Mt. Si from the drive back

Dad's GPS said 9.5 miles with a little over 3,300 feet of gain.

[Snowdog]

[zephyr]

[Matt]

Fine captions and Christmas photos. The frogs look comfy. Jasper, not so much.

[Roly Poly]

The "annoyed reindog" is very funny. Now you have given me the idea to have my own annoyed reindog.

[fourteen410]

haha I love this!

[Magellan]

Good stuff.

[Bedivere]

Good job Jasper. Jack is extremely envious. He gives me the stinkeye every time I read a trip report with a dog in it. He hasn't been on one single hike in 2013, so I don't really blame him.

[Jeb]

Thanks for the deja vu!

[harrymalamute]

It's good for doggies to take their humans out for hikes. But the reindog might want to check on Dads real Christmas plans this year! Grinch

[puzzlr]

You'll be lucky if he takes you along again.