[TR] Mailbox Peak- Mailbox Peak 8/6/2005

[Iapetus999]

Climb: Mailbox Peak-Mailbox Peak

 

Date of Climb: 8/6/2005

 

Trip Report:

Had a great climb.

Went with Marie.

She's an awesome babe.

 

It starts out as a fairly flat FS road leading up to the actual trailhead. We had read a description on one of the Mountaineer's books as "steep gravelly route...you'll likely break your neck" so we didn't know what to expect.

Once past the trailhead it continues fairly flat up to the foot of the mountain. Then it's straight up.

I don't know if the people who blazed this trail ever heard of switchbacks. The trail basically ascends 3700 feet in 2.5 miles or so. We were both preparing for Rainier (marie this week, me next week) so I packed extra weight.

It was warm but not too brutal but we both sweated our asses off.

One of the funnier moments of the trip came when some old geezer passed us on the way down complaining that he "lost the trail at 2500 ft" muttering under his breath. It's true that this trail is by far the least-maintained trail I've been on this year. There's deadfall everywhere and no sign of any attempts to cut it away. Some places the trail meanders around the deadfall. This is probably where the guy got lost.

Once you get thru the trees it clears into an old burn area around 3800 feet and then into a slide area around 4100.

The trail goes around the slide thru trees and then straight up to the top at 4830.

The top has an incredible view of Rainier and the I-90 corridor. Unfortunately a big bank of smog blocked any views to the SW/W.

The mailboxes are fun. There are notebooks, cards, random items up in there. Marie meant to bring a "magazine" and put it up in there but forgot to pack it. The top of the mountain is covered with wildflowers which were nice.

 

 

 

Going down was fun...if you like sliding on your ass thru pebbles. Let's just say a lot of foul cursing could be heard echoing thru the trees. We decided the word "shitscrewed" was the best description of the descent.

[Kitergal]

I left a "for a good time call" message in the book!! With my sisters phone number!! hee hee.. I forgot the nudie magazine that I bought to place in the mailbox! Lord only knows what my puppy sitter and house guest thought when they arrived to see it proudly displayed on my kitchen table...gulp. Neither asked me any questions though...hmmm!!

 

It was an awesome hike! Not nearly as hard as I was expecting! I will say my quads are sore today though!

 

Andy, it was fun hiking with ya! We'll have to do it again sometime! I'll download my pics and send your way later this afternoon!!

 

-M

[thelawgoddess]

sweet! i've always wanted to do that little hike. someone gave me shitty directions to it once - with which i couldn't even find the trailhead. some day i'll look for it again ...

[Iapetus999]

The entrance isn't marked...I used the directions from the Mountaineers book. Basically it said "when you get to the fork in the road take it" and sure enough that worked!

There's a gate on an unmarked FS road...you can tell it's the right one because there's a little parking area on both sides of the street. If you walk .3 miles up the FS road you'll get to the trailhead. I'll screendump a google map here when I get home.

[Iapetus999]

Here is the exit for Mailbox:

 

Here is a topographic map + the waypoints from my GPS for the hike. The stupid thing got pretty lost near the bottom because of the trees. There's a faint tan line that marks my route. You do get a kewl vie wof the Fire Training Center from the peak. I don't think there's a trail built to/from the fire center to this route.

[thelawgoddess]

thanks! hopefully i can find it next time.

[specialed]

Could you please post a pitch by pitch topo with exact GPS coordinates for Mt. Si too.

 

 

[spicoli11]

woops....what happened??

[Iapetus999]

Could you please post a pitch by pitch topo with exact GPS coordinates for Mt. Si too.

 

 

No but I'm going to post one for my Rainier summit climb next week!

If the battery holds out.

[Alpinfox]

Could you please post a pitch by pitch topo with exact GPS coordinates for Mt. Si too.

 

 

No but I'm going to post one for my Rainier summit climb next week!

 

A summit climb? I can't wait!

[Iapetus999]

Could you please post a pitch by pitch topo with exact GPS coordinates for Mt. Si too.

 

 

No but I'm going to post one for my Rainier summit climb next week!

 

A summit climb? I can't wait!

 

Yep. The Big One. Should be fun.

[TeleRoss]

 

Good thing the GPS held out, it might have turned epic.

WTF?

[Kitergal]

yeah..I laughed that he brought it too..but it's a new toy! He was trying it out! It's actually a pretty freak'in cool gizmo! It'll come in handy for other trips!!

[Iapetus999]

I also brought my Mom in case I had a boo-boo.

 

Jesus fuck people it's just a cool little doodad. There's a free program called Sporttracks that you can download that will plot your route on any kind of map...street, topo, and a couple different satellites. I use it mostly for plotting my running routes. I thought it would be kewl to take hiking.

[TeleRoss]

My running route is simple.

Start: my apt.

Finish: Teddy's

total dist: .3 mi

[Iapetus999]

My running route is simple.

Start: my apt.

Finish: Teddy's

total dist: .3 mi

If I knew where that was I might join ya (send me a sat overlaid with streets...you can make one here: http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/...&polyline=)

 

[Marko]

Yet another fine photo from Mailbox Peak:

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=12756&sort=1&cat=509&page=1

[specialed]

Good way to try out a new gizmo. GPS can save your ass. I've wished I've had one at times. Whiteout, glacier, big holes, seracs, shit like that. I mean it was no mailbox peak, but I digress.