The Triple Dog Dare: Hiking Dog Mountain Three Times in a Day - March 2026
Adventure buddy Hannah and I were on the chairlift at Mt. Hood Meadows Friday evening when we thought, “Why not hike Dog three times tomorrow?” We have a tradition of doing things that require us to explain ourselves afterward, like our 100 mile ultramarathon on Mt. Hood or our 50 miler through a wildfire. One of our first 1:1 hangouts together was hiking Triple D (Dog, Defiance, and Devil’s Rest in the Columbia Gorge in one day).
That’s how we found ourselves on Saturday parking at Dog Mountain, ready to summit three times on the last day before Daylight Savings Time kicked in. It felt like the right way to say goodbye to winter: 19.5 miles, 9,000 feet of gain, 9,000 feet of loss, and ~7.5 hours.
The Routes and Recap
We decided we’d do all three routes out and back, for funsies and data comparison: “More difficult,” Augspurger, and “Difficult,” in that order. No wildflowers yet — come back in a month for those. (And make sure you read these tips about hiking Dog, since you might need permits, etc.)
First lap: “More difficult” started at ~10:30AM, with the parking lot over half full by the time we arrived on Saturday, March 7th. It was slightly humid and pretty cloudy. Very windy at the summit. We wanted to start conservatively to preserve legs and made it round trip in about 2 hours and 7 minutes. About 5.6 miles.
Second lap: Augspurger out-and-back. By then the clouds had burned off and it was pleasantly warm and sunny. I sweat through my sun hoodie but stayed comfortable. Calmer at the summit and great views! This one took about 2 hours, 40 minutes. About 7.7 miles.
Third lap: “Difficult,” with clouds rolling in and golden light hitting the Gorge in that perfect way. It was calmer and moodier, and most folks were gone or headed down the mountain. We finished at sunset, one of the last cars in the lot. Also around 2 hours, 40 minutes. About 6.2 miles.
Food and Gear
Welp, the night before, I ate moldy bread — didn't realize you can’t cut around bread mold it until it was too late, yay — and by morning my stomach was doing whatever a stomach does when you've mildly poisoned yourself. So, I ate a decent bit less than I normally would for a day like this. I’ve been getting more into gels lately, so that helped me fill the calorie deficit a bit.
Between each lap we made a point of stocking up at the car with water and snacks before heading back out.
I wore one outfit the whole day — sun hoodie, shorts, worn-out HOKAs, running vest, and a ball cap — with a windbreaker I added at each summit and stripped when not up there.
Considerations for your own Triple Dog Dare
1. Choose your route order intentionally. We did three out and backs specifically so we could avoid crowds certain times of day and maximize our time with evening light. But there are a handful of different ways to order and combine the three routes, and the right answer depends on what you're optimizing for — speed, solitude, scenery, or all three. If you're going for speed, probably skip Augspurger. It's the least steep of the three, but the extra mileage made that null for us.
2. Consider poles. I’m not usually a poles person, but they genuinely helped on this one, especially by lap three when my legs couldn’t remember all my 2025 summits. Knees felt fine the next day!
3. Would not attempt during wildflower season. The crowds at Dog during peak bloom are no joke, and if I'd been fighting for trail space all day I would have been frustrated.
Tips for designing your own endurance challenge
1. Look in your backyard. I'm lucky to live in the Gorge, where the options for something like this feel limitless, and half the fun was chatting with Hannah and brainstorming what we could even do. We landed on Dog Mountain x3 because it minimized driving and kept us out of snow.
2. Bring more than you think you need. Stash it in the car! Extra water, extra fuel, a backup pair of shoes, an extra top or two to feel fresh with each lap.
3. Document the day. A mini video, photos throughout, even just voice memos in the moment are SO fun to look back on later.
4. Schedule dinner with friends after! The challenge deserves a closing ceremony. Especially with sweet potato nachos at Everybody’s Brewing.
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