Mailbox Peak (New Trail) - 9.4 miles, 4,000' gain
To celebrate my 100th Washington Trail Association hike, I opted to target one of the most popular summits just outside of Seattle. Even on a Thursday in late April the trail was buzzing, primarily with folks hiking the old trail that makes a beeline up a ridge to the summit, same 4,000' gain but only 2.7 miles each way. I like climbing mountains but I also prefer for my heart to not explode so I took the new trail.
Mailbox appears as a beautiful pyramid from the Teneriffe summit and for the first 4 miles of the trail you are zig-zaging along the face of the pyramid, trying to sneak peak of Teneriffe and Mt Si through the Douglas fir/hemlock desert.
Eventually you break into a few old rock slides for a clearer view of old friends. The open spaces also heralded the start of the slip and slide game as dry trail abruptly flipped to 1-2' of packed snow at around 3,400'. Luckily for us it was warm enough to give some traction and not warm enough for us to take constant depth readings.
From the junction its a relatively short jaunt before you break out into the open for the first alpine views. Maybe because of the altitude or maybe just a lack of common sense, I convinced myself that the first rocky mound was the summit and was marveling at how awesome my legs were feeling. I was only off by about 0.2 miles but that last stretch climbs another 500'.
Its an awesome south facing climb so even though later hikes would confirm you can still find 2'+ of snow down at 2,500' this was a nice, clear stair master. Plus, no matter if/when you needed a break(s), you could always pretend to be taking pictures.
Mailbox sits above the confluence of the South and Middle Forks of the Snoqualmie River so its a true panoramic view for miles and miles. We were spoiled with 3 of the 5 volcanoes in view (Rainier, Baker, Glacier), all the regular Cascades you could even want to climb, as well as the Olympics. Overall, a good payoff for the effort and we even had enough time left over to soak the toes in the bitterly cold Middle Fork. Just to show he still had it, Oak immediately launched into his log retrieval and shredding routine. We still have a few more years before I can start paying him back by pulling him up mountains.
