July 23rd, 2011 Team Bonda takes on Mailbox Peak

Roundtrip	6.0 miles
Elevation Gain	4100 ft
Highest Point	4926 ft

Our team was complete this weekend, as Stephanie, the long-distance bondite, joined us from San Francisco!  Though I was nervous about repeating the dreaded mailbox, the hike was altogether a great experience.  The sun was out, hurray!  We started the hike at eight am.  My brother, Apoorva, joined us, and led the bondites up.  Steph, Apoo, and I took a break at nine and ten to drink water and enjoy energy chews.  Once we were out of the "root forest" the views were spectacular!  The last bit, though steep and hot, was beautiful beyond words.  Panoramic views of Rainier, the North Cascades, the Snoqualmie Valley combined with being surrounded by wildflowers was great motivation for the last leg up.

The root forest

My time up was 2:40 minutes, and I carried 15 lbs.  On the top, we enjoyed potato patties (thank you, Ajay), Reshma's yummy sheera, cherries that a friendly hiker was sharing, and Archana's glazed bananas.  Quite the feast!  The way down was a hard as usual highlighted by: 
a. taking just as long as the way up  
b. all four bondites slipping and gracefully falling at various times, luckily unhurt except for minor bruising  
c. a bee going under Reshma's shirt and stinging her, poor thing (Resh, not the bee)! 
d. Apoo sprinting down the mountain and taking an hour nap in the car waiting for Team Bonda to finish their slow decent



Only the very beginning of the steep descent!