Saturday, October 9, 2021
Today we set out to hike Chinidere Mountain, but when we reached Hood River we could see that it was quite cloudy and we probably wouldn’t get any views up there. So we shifted gears and instead headed to the Dog River Trail, whose trailhead is right on Highway 25.
We passed Puppy Creek right at the start:
Then the trail starts climbing gradually uphill:
The fall color got better and better as we hiked along:
After two miles the trail crossed the Dog River on a footbridge:
Continuing on past more fall color:
At 3.3 miles we reached a very nice trailside viewpoint with a great view of Mt. Hood:
Our hiking guidebook mentioned a viewpoint at a trail junction a little further on, but the view there was mostly blocked by trees:
So we went back to the first/better viewpoint and took a break there. The clouds came and went, and so did the views. We weren’t getting enough sunshine on us so we got cold, even in our down jackets. Time to pack up and head back down:
Considering this hadn’t been our original plan it turned out very well. Great fall colors AND a view! We only saw a few other hikers. This trail is primarily used by mountain bikers and we saw a few, but not many.
Gaia stats: 7.3 miles, 1,560′ elevation gain
