The P3 Mount Defiance loop makes a rectangular shape on Strava I’ve come to recognize from everyone doing it over the years. A perfect low-stakes day for me and Haram as he prepares and crams some last minute vert for his upcoming race.

My friend Haram ran the Teanaway 100, a pretty hard 100 mile ultramarathon here in Washington with around 30000 feet of gain, and did it with almost no training (no exaggeration). And he managed to place 7th out of 23 at 32.5 hours, so a pretty decent performance. His previous biggest day was running the Enchantments, a mere 18 miles with 5000 vert - pretty bonkers accomplishment if you work out the ratio of performance to time spent/effort invested.

Mailbox is an unremarkable peak for someone who’s gotten used to the scenery around North Bend and the I-90 corridor (and also done it many times), but it was a great day for friends visiting from out east. Ended up being a memorable one because it was one of those “above the clouds” type of days!