On Monday Matt and I decided to take a quick ride up Hwy 130 to “the top” – as I call it. I absolutely love going up there, reminds me of my childhood, and to this day I still think it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. We have been making plans to climb Medicine Bow Peak sometime this summer. I climbed it 4 times from ages 8-11, so I wanted to see how it was at my ripe old age of 28.
Matt ended up wanting to wander around Lake Marie quite a lot, so I carefully hobbled along in my Converse sneakers and short shorts… obviously, not very well dressed for hiking! I made the mistake (??) of telling him about the United Airlines crash in 1955, so now he is absolutely determined to find the crash site and hike to it. I must admit, it is a cool idea, so I’m going along with it. But it did consume the rest of the evening… googling, mapping, etc. Which also provided me with a way to summit Medicine Bow Peak that I didn’t know existed. During my school trips up there, we always left from the Sugarloaf area. Turns out there’s a trailhead at Lake Marie that takes you all the way across the ridge to the peak. Totally excited to do this!
I was absolutely shocked at the utter lack of snow on top… last year, to the day of June 18th I drove up there with a friend, and we couldn’t leave the road due to feet and feet of snow. Definitely doesn’t bode well to the drought and fire conditions we’re seeing this summer.
Just a few photos…
So now that Matt is on a mission to find the crash site, and I’m on a mission to climb Medicine Bow Peak, I knew I needed to invest in some hiking boots. Usually I would just wear sneakers on our hikes, but since I have crappy ankles I was always worried about hurting myself and I wanted something that was waterproof. So I journeyed over to Sierra Trading Post to find something to fit my needs. I’m a sucker for pink or purple things (um, hi, have you seen my bike?!), so a pair of purple Asolo Advance GTX’s caught my eye. They were on closeout and have awesome ankle support and are purple, so I couldn’t resist! So I now own hiking boots… holy crap, sometimes I really gotta step back and chuckle over how my life has really turned around in the past few months!
Mountains and hikes, here I come!
Heidi Rides Bikes 