Mailbox Peak

If anyone follows my trip reports, you know that I like to do one-day hikes/climbs with epic elevation gains. Well, I'm getting ready for the most epic of all next month, and there is no better prep than Mailbox, so...Wednesday evening found me pounding my way up it.

I don't expect much from Mailbox, but even by Mailboxian standards, the trail is in awful shape. There's deep mud just after you turn off the road trail onto the real trail. There's deep mud when you hit the pine forest part of the trail. There's deep mud when you first come out of the trees. The only relief is in the early steep parts of the trail and over the final stretch when you re-enter the trees behind the first rock field. People are hiking above the trail, causing massive erosion (not that I'm blaming anyone - I did the exact same thing to avoid sinking ankle deep into thick, sucking mud).

I am blaming people, though, for leaving trash all over the trail. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir on this site, but it was maddening to see beer bottles and beer cans, along with bags of dog poop on and near the trail (memo to hikers with dogs: bagging it is only half the battle - the other half is HAULING THE BAG OUT).

I could see work on the new trail beginning. I wish instead of turning Mailbox into Mt. Si East, all that time and energy and money could have gone into improving the drainage on the current trail. It's sad that a uniquely brutal peak enjoyed by a realtively select few to whip themselves into shape for bigger, badder destinations is about to get turned into what will likely be a more pedestrian experience for the inevitable masses that will flock there.

I'll be sticking to the old trail, and much like Si, this will become a winter and mid-week destination only for me once the new trail is complete.