Lake Serene, 2nd beach and Mailbox Peak - July training

The July training consisted of a day hike, a full loaded trip to 2nd beach and the hardest hike so far, Mailbox peak.

I will start with a quick review of the 2nd beach hike with almost 45 lbs in my backpack. Besides a full loaded backpack, me and Jen were carrying a cooler that we bought the day of the trip to try to carry more food in less space... bad idea. At this point I cant remember the hike too much but just the stupid cooler and how difficult the handles were and how the cooler wheels didnt do any good at this trail. After doing this trail every July for the last 3 years (including a hike on it at 2 AM), I still can say that the trail is a beginner's trail: just a 1.5 mile to the beach and then a walk in the sand. The 1.5 mile starts with a steep increase for only .25 miles and then a level segment for .75 miles and then a drop to the beach for .50 miles. Lots of stairs which become very painful on the return to the car. The most difficult part when carrying weight is the walk on the beach. Depending on where you are camping you might have to walk a maximum of 3 miles to find a good camping spot and that extra weight and sand is just a bad combination.

Lake Serene was the day hike of the week. Located in Hwy 2 by the town of Index, this is one of my favorite hikes since I have visited the state of Washington in 2005. The views of the lake at the end of the trail are just great with mount Index in the background and depending on what time of the year you visit you may catch the lake either frozen, surrounded by snow or appetizing for a bath. The hike is pretty steep and has multiple switch backs and lots of stairs. Last time I visited the trail, the avalanches wiped out multiple sections of the trail but everything was back to normal by now. There are beautiful views of waterfalls on the way down and you can also take a 0.5 mile detour to Bridal Falls if you have the time. You will find the Y at around 1.5 miles into the Lake Serene Hike. Once you are pass a very nice bridge and the lower waterfall, the difficult sections are starting to become pretty noticeable... 1300 feet in about 1.5 miles with lots and lots of stairs. Once you are out of the woods consider yourself pretty close to the lake but get ready to enjoy a nice snack with the great views by the lake. Overall a great hike to practice carrying weight and just for general workout. I was brought here when I didnt hike at all so it might something like on the challenging side of beginners hikes. We were in the trailhead by 530pm and out by 930 pm including a 30 min snack stop.

The challenge of the month was Mailbox peak. On my opinion, this is really just a workout hike. It is a lot of work but dont expect a great reward once you are in top... probably the same views as some of the moderate hikes around or even worse. There is a lot of elevation gain in such a short distance so you will get little to no breaks without a slope. The beginning starts with a decent slope but as you get halfway through the hike the trail becomes hard to find, steeper and with some unstable terrain. Be aware of the section where the trail starts to disappear on you: look up trying to find the white diamonds stuck to the trees in the distance and make smart choices on the way you are going to get there because there is no defined trail to get to those trail markers. By this time of the year, the trail was really muddy and made this section of the hike very difficult. After you are out of the woods, you will start hiking in more clear areas until you get to a pile of granite rock where the trail goes to the left around the pile. You could go up the boulders to meet with the trail but be cautious as some of the boulders are loose. Once at the top of the boulders, you see what it looks like the top of the hike just to realize that after climbing around another 800 feet there is another 600 to go to make it to the real summit and man those last feet feel difficult with a big slope and the sun on you. Once in the summit, you get to relax and take pics with the famous mailbox and maybe consider hiking to the close by mountains via the trail connecting Mailbox peak and other nearby peaks. This is not a beginners hike and probably not a hike to do expecting to see great views. I saw a lot of people on the way down that were coming up at noon and maybe prepared for a regular 'Rattlesnake' hike but this is nothing like that... you really wanted to lie to make some of them feel good when they had another 2000 ft left and they asked: 'are we almost there?'

Here is the recall:
2nd Beach: Difficulty: 1.5/5
Lake Serene: Great workout hike. Difficulty: 3.5/5
Mailbox Peak: What a work! Difficulty: 5/5