10. Medicine Bow Peak

Mile: 1,452

“I guess I’ll swing down this road and see what’s there, Doug did say it was cool,” I thought to myself. Two hours later I was standing on top of Medicine Bow Peak at 12,014 feet elevation overlooking the northern end of the Medicine Bow Mountain range. “Well, this doesn’t suck too bad does it?” I hollered over to Gordon Brown and his wife Mallory. They just shook their heads. I met them first while getting out of Pearl (my van) in the parking lot and I asked Gordon before I even knew his name if it was too late to start the hike to the summit with the ritual of mountain storms in the afternoon. I have heard people use the term “monsoon season” several times in the last week referencing summer in the mountains. Gordon looked up from getting his pack out of his SUV, “I don’t know man, I’m not from here.” We both turned and looked up at the mountain seeing a few dark clouds circling above it’s peak. “Yeah I’m not sure if it’s smart to go for it or not since it’s already 1:00pm, maybe I’ll see you up there if I decide to go for it.” I said. “Sounds good, enjoy the hike” he piped over his shoulder as he and Mallory started off. 

I stopped and asked a few people how long it took them to hike to the summit. I got answers ranging from “a little over an hour” to “phew! two and a half hours up!”. I figured I could do it in an hour maybe a tad bit over an hour if I really went for it. I mean, Pinnacle mountain in Little Rock has a sign that says you should plan on it being a 3 hour round trip. That’s hilarious. Matt and I used to run to the top in under 20 minutes, run down in less than 20 minutes, and run the base trail around back to the truck keeping the whole trip under an hour. So I wasn’t stressed. I strapped my fly fishing vest on, threw my Tenkara rod in my backpack with some Lara Bars, water, my down jacket, and my rain jacket. I learned from Matt a week before that you never go into the mountains without a warm jacket and a rain jacket no matter what the weather says it’s going to do. I have since followed that advice and it has already kept me warm and dry by doing so only a week into my adventure. I was a man on a mission, up and down before the lightning got there was the goal. I was flying down the trail until I hit the uphill. I had somehow forgotten that my body is not quite acclimated to the elevation yet. I was taking two breathes for every one that I should have been taking while going at that pace. But soon I found a pace that fit my “flat lander” lunges and kept my stride making my way up to the first little pass at the base of the incline to the peak. 

The hike was not a hard hike. I was just unsure of the weather. When I reached the pass there was Gordon and his wife. I found out they were from Virginia and really awesome people. So we started up the incline together. The three of us hiked to the top talking as we went. We ran up on some people from Texarkana believe it or not and chatted for a bit. One of them had even heard the name Mason White, one of my good buddies in Texarkana, but couldn’t put a face to his name. It amazes me how small the world is. Just the other day I ran into Drew Wilson, a tattoo artist from Fayetteville, AR and his fly fishing lady Katie. We talked fly fishing and he gave me a few spots to hit when I make it to Yellowstone along with some of his cool swag he’s made. He’s more than just a tattoo artist, he’s got some great stuff. But anyway, good people. Ohh and I went ahead and got my first tattoo while we were sitting there in the parking lot. That’s sanitary right?  

After a quick trek over some mountain top snow we made it to the peak. We were blessed with great weather and only a raindrop or two the whole time!  

Mountains are made to be climbed. Peaks are elevated to be stood upon. That’s all there is to it. 

On the way down I had to throw a few dry flies on one of the lakes there. I mean, I can’t just walk past a body of water and not throw at it. Don’t be silly. 

Ohh and no, I was just kidding about the tattoo. But that would’ve been a great story to get my first one. Maybe the next time I run into a tattoo artist from Arkansas who loves fly fishing. We’ll see.