Mailbox Peak 9.28.10

With an emotional week and a compressed time frame I was looking for something closer. I needed something efficient and with some elevation gain. Mailbox was the perfect fit for this day. I had hoped for some good weather so I could run the ridge to reach West Defiance (Dirtybox) which is on the Homecourt 100 and I haven't climbed as of yet. The weather was wet and very humid so I packed up some extra layers to ward off the wet. Since I was going to be on a popular trail I off loaded some extra weight that I usually carry. Even with the lower weight couldn't offset my heavy heart. It has been almost 8 years since I have done a trip with only one of my dogs. Last week's lost Beagle didn't turn up and since I had more than one report of him along side Hy 2, I finally resigned myself to the fact that I have lost my faithful partner. Since I had been keeping myself busy at work I hadn't really dealt with the loss. On Sunday before work I decided to look through years of pictures to make a folder commemorating a dog's fine life. This provided an emotional two days that took a lot out of me. Undaunted I pushed on.




     I started up the access road under dry skies and for the most part the rain stayed away. However a purposeful drizzle persisted for much of the day. I had heard of some improvements of the trail but outside of the new trailhead structure I didn't see many improvements. I had to laugh at the trailhead sign cautioning of the steep nature of the trail and topped off with the "respect your abilities " quote. Initially I felt strong, but since it was apparent I wouldn't be doing the traverse my motivation to top out on Mailbox proper waned. I really had to dig deep for motivation but managed to make my way to the summit, albeit substantially slower than previous efforts. Since the track was slippery and slow and I was carrying much more than other attempts I won't be too disappointed. Once on the summit I quickly switched to dry clothes and added a layer to thwart the blowing drizzle. After enjoying the views of the inside of a cloud I made my way back to the car. I took the descent slower than normal because of the slippery conditions. I passed a group of 4 teenagers not too far from the summit. I was very happy to see the next generation pushing their limits. I passed another 2 on the lower slopes. One of which was on his cell phone presumably calling to complain about the blasting that was heard throughout the day. I believe he was under the impression that someone was shooting close by. I let him know that more than likely it was the Fire Training Center doing some training. I stopped at the creek and had my lunch and took some time to reflect on the last week's events.


Approx 6 miles 4000' of climb 4:30 car to car