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.