Well summer is late for leaving. Due to nonclimbing domestic duties I was left with a half day hike. I went up Mailbox, catching up with friends, and the berries were still good, and the views were great except for the little cloud forming on the top. Nice to see the mailbox replaced, and sad that someone would take the original one. There is now a fire hydrant there that must have been helo'd in and the five dogs at the top were very happy. Nice weather, and the trail was good all the way, well as good as it can be when going straight up. There were more cars at the trailhead than I have seen in the past. TTT

Take Exit 34 off I-90, turn right onto SE Middle Fork Rd and continue on until the road turns to gravel. Parking is immediately before the road turns to gravel, and trail starts as another gated logging road on the right. The first logging road indicated on the Green Trails Map 206S to the left did not appear visible to us. Once you pass over a creek that feeds under the road take the unmarked trail to the left. We accidentally continued on for a bit as we weren’t sure if this was the trail until we hit the fork in the road (road gets quite overgrown at this point) and turned back to access the trail once we realized we’d gone too far. Once on the trail, you pass over a clear-cut area with a few mosquitoes and follow the creek up for a small bit and then get ready for an advanced version of Tiger Mountain’s cable trail. The trail is in pretty good shape most of the way up but it is steep so poles are a must. There seem to be some trails that veer off the main trail and then come back on, which was somewhat confusing. Reference points seem hard to come by, it always seems like you are almost at the top. As you near the top you re-enter a bushy section with more mosquitoes and you start to get some great views of Rainier and Snoqualmie Valley. You then hit a rock pile with some more great views including downtown Seattle and I-90 corridor. At the top of the rock pile you can see Mt. Si and the final peak you need to get to in order to reach the top of Mailbox peak (and I guess the newly replaced mailbox). We ended up turning around at this point as it was getting late and we were nervous about how long it would take to get down the steep trail. It turns out you can avoid the rock-pile if you stay on the trail to the left. If you have pets watch out for fleas as our miniature dachshund had two fleas on him, and then he had an even worse experience getting stung by a wasp on the way down, but he survived the ordeal just fine. Going down actually was better than the cable trail at Tiger since there wasn’t all the lose gravel so we made record time. Next time we’ll need to make it all the way to the mailbox. Great workout!

Aug 26 02- Three of us guys hiked up Mailbox Peak and replaced the mailbox which had mysteriously dissapeared. After our own personal investigation, we conclude there is no possible way nature could have removed the box. But, no matter, there's a new mailbox up there now, with a peak register in it. That trail is STEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a beautiful, clear day today ascending Mailbox. I won’t go into the strenuous effort, steepness of trail, bugs, etc. that most people are familiar with with this hike. What I will share is my disappointment when reaching the top and finding out that the infamous “Mailbox” was gone. It used to be that a mailbox just sat on the summit’s top on the rocks with all it’s books, poems, cards, etc. for all to share. As a labor of love someone put in the most current mailbox, on a post set securely in the rocks which dared the elements.... but was not enough for someone to vandalize. A friend and I, with a couple of other hikers, looked over the sides of the summit for any evidence of this beloved icon. We chalked it up to someone walking off with it (which would have been quite the feat). Anyway, if you’re planning on hiking up and looking forward to this reward...... I’m sad to say that it’s not there..... Until someone gives of themselves another labor of love.

Someone has taken the mailbox and post. From talking to others on the route, it has been removed only in the last two weeks. Does someone like the name Garcia better?