The breathtaking vertiginous slopes of the mountain of death that is Mailbox Peak.
I had a short free day, and good weather, and wanted to take the Mountain Westie out for another summit. I've heard about Mailbox Peak for a few years, but never felt the pull, particularly. It's in the new 55 Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass that I got this summer, looking for good outings for my son and I, and so I figured I'd give it a shot.
It's a relatively new climb, and I found the approach to be somewhat different than Harvey Manning describes it in the book, or approaches I've seen on the web. You exit I-90 at Exit 34, and go left (north) for half a mile or so, until you get to Middle Fork Road. Turn right on Middle Fork Road. There's talk about the road splitting, it doesn't do that, it just wanders, though at one point you make a left turn, and at the end of the paved road, about 3 miles from the freeway, is a parking lot on both sides of the road.
On the right side of the road is a gated forest road. Head up the road for about half a mile, more or less, and there's a small, unsigned trail that ducks off to the left, right before the road crosses a stream. That's your trail.
The trail is easy to follow; once the steep ascent starts, there are competing switchbacks, but they all seem to join up again.
Much is made (in the book) of this being a stiff 4000' climb, and it is, but nearly all of it is in the trees, so it's not what you'd (or I'd) call scenic, particularly. You finally break out of the trees about 800' below the summit, at a big scree slope, but then the trail wraps around to the left and back into the trees, and you don't get open spaces until a couple hundred feet from the summit. I assume that if the rocks weren't snow-covered, you could just scramble up the rocks to the summit. Now that I know what the summit is like, next time I'll try that.
Got to the summit in just about two hours (left the car at 10:00, got to the summit at 12:00) There's a LOT going on at this summit -- a mailbox and a newspaper tube, both crammed with summit books (they were all frozen, so I didn't try to find the current one to sign in) as well as an American flag, a big aluminum ladder, and a small fire hydrant, some sort of memorial to the 9/11 firefighters, I guess. I wish I'd brought my cc.com sticker to put on the mailbox. Next time.
Took a couple of photos, and headed down. The trail was pretty icy and slick until it got back into the trees; I was glad of my treking poles to keep my balance. Maisie did just fine, trotting up there and back down again.
We ran into one other person, a woman, about half an hour below the summit. Other than that, we had the mountain to ourselves. Back at the trailhead, 90 minutes down. A nice stiff 3 1/2 hours (pretty good time, considering I've got this cold), and less than an hour's drive from home!