Today, we hiked the St. Mary's River trail. It's about an hour hike each way, 2.5 miles, to the waterfall.
So we got there, and above the falls, we ran into some local kids who said you could jump off a ledge into a pool by the waterfall. These kids were diving head first off another rock, probably 8 feet down, into a gap about 4 feet wide. They were crazy, but it did look fun. So here's a picture of the place by the waterfall that they recommended we go check out.
It didn't look too bad from down below in the water.
But it looked pretty bad once I got to the top. It was hard to see where the edges were, it was only about 8 feet deep in the deepest spot, and it felt pretty high when I started looking down. After 15 tense minutes of contemplation, with onlookers saying things like "do it," "don't do it," and "I'm not stupid enough to do it," and with Kristen looking at me like it might be our last moment together, the situation ended anticlimactically with me going back down. The long way. I missed having Kristen's brother, Kirk, there to jump first, just to convince me that I probably wouldn't seriously hurt myself.
So if anyone else wants to go jump first sometime, hopefully it would help me work up the guts to go too. Or, if you're just interested in going on one of our future hikes with us, let us know.
6 comments:
I'm all for tagging along your hikes! Want to take an outdoor survival class with me? I can't get anyone else to. I guess no one else wants to survive when they go outside. It would be good info for when you begin your woodland hermitage.
And I didn't jump when we went to St Mary's because it really was fall-winter when we did the trail. It looks like a great spot. Maybe we can all go jump next weekend. If all your friends jump off a cliff, I've heard its easier to do. That's the message I believe my parents were attempting to impress in me.
You shoulda jumped man... Live life and such... risk personal injury and death for a moment of fun... That's the way to do it. Try driving with your eyes closed sometime it's great!
Dan:
You are the polar bear. It is your job to slowly and deliberately wade through freezing bodies of water, looking for possible deadly obstacles. It is not your job to jump first. So don't feel bad.
That's not the swimming we went to. But it looks fun. If you never end up jumping this fall, we'll do it some time when we're down there.
Come visit us. We went to New York yesterday and bartered with the intellectual property pirates in Chinatown for a new bag for Gretchen. And we went to a world famous deli. So now I feel like a real New York insider. I can show you around the town. MY town. Just playing.
But I gotta say, walking down from a cliff you intended to jump from is one of the worst feelings. It's like going back down the ladder on the high dive. Demoralizing.
That spot looks awesome. Any day I'm in town I'm up for some hiking and jumping into water. Especially if you are going to handle the "polar bear" responsibilities of checking safety.
Looks like fun. I have been thinking that we need to get out and do more stuff like that. Seriously let us know next time you go.
Jess
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