Mail Box Peak

Sunday the June 7th, 2009
Elevation gain - 4000 ft
Trail length - 2.5 miles
Time taken - 2 hours on way up, 1.5 hours on way down.



I heard about this trail from a fellow hiker whom I met duringa a trip to the Tiger Mountains. Then a discussion with my colleague David, who is an avid hiker, albeit much more experienced, whetted my interest so much that I setout for this trail today.

While driving east on I-90 and getting closer to the exit for the trail head, a steady drizzle welcomed me. For a moment or two, I doubt in my mine about going ahead. But then shook it off and continued. Exit-34 leads to the parking lot where a NW forest pass is required for parking. It is a 10 minutes walk from there beyond the gated entry on a forest road to the trail head, where a warning sign cautions hikers this being a dangerous one. You can read the full text of this notice in the slide show.

The 2.5 mile trail ascends about 4000 ft. That is an average of 31% slope. That gives some idea about the levelo of difficulty associated with this trail. For some parts, it feels like a steep ramp, but more often than not, the trail is more like a staircase, or even like a ladder at some points. The difficulty of the Mt Si trail pales in comparison to this one. There two things I would definitely recommend any hiker to bring to this trail - company and a pair of trekking poles. The company will ease your time, the trekking poles will cushion your knees, specially while climbing down. It is a tough trail both on way up and down.

The trail starts through forests for the first hour and then the forest clears up. After 1.5 hours, I encountered the field of boulders that leads straight to the top. There is another option of taking the trail that goes around it over a large patch of snow. I went ahead with the boulder route and was on all four at some points along the way. By two hours I reached the top and there was the Mail Box! There were about 7 people already there. All along the route, I overtook 7 individuals or groups and one person overtook me. So I guess I was on the faster side of the average time needed for this hike.

I spent 20 minutes up there - eating my lunch, taking turn with other hikers to sign the book inside the mail box and taking a few pictures. Unfortunately, it was very foggy all around that prevented getting any significant views. I would consider this as an incentive to visit this peak one more time on a sunny day, for the view from here is vouched to be astoundingly beautiful.

On my way back, I followed the trail on the snow patch around the boulder field and was back at the trail head in about an hour and a half.

More links:
Seattle Pi Article
SummitPost.org
Attrition.ws