Adventure doesn’t rest even if I am not traveling. It is a
mindset, one that I have developed and learned through the years. Even though I
do not have a car right now and I haven’t really been off campus much I still
find ways to have a good time. I was invited to hang out with my camp friends
and go on a hike that led to a waterfall we could climb. Seems fun to me.
On the way to the hike a torrent of rain hit us as fast as a
bag of bricks would if they fell from a bucket in the sky. The rainstorm seemed
apocalyptic, as do most rainstorms in the south from the perspective of a
western desert dweller like myself. Then out of the rain we saw a car with the
words “Jesus is coming” written on the back. The irony of the timing was
fantastic. Apparently they thought it was an apocalyptic rainstorm too.
Fortunately we were going the opposite direction of the
storm and where we ended up there was no rain. The hike was relaxing and quite
fun. All of us seemed to have a good time. The waterfall was beautiful.
Now I like climbing probably a little more than the next
guy, but I do get freaked out sometimes, mostly due to falls I have had from me
being stupid. A lot of times I second-guess the smartness of a climbing
situation nowadays. Yeah I know, how boring. This looked like a good time to
invoke the smartness. But then again you only do live once. I was the only one
barefoot but decided that wasn’t a problem and I started going up with everyone
else.
Yeah this wasn’t a hard climb, and I never actually got that
high, but the last time I was on a waterfall climbing, the stakes were
literally higher and it wasn’t a good time. I look back on it as a time of
great epicness but at the time…nope. That in mind, I didn’t push it on these
rocks. They were pretty slippery and there was no nice pool to land in at the
bottom. If there was, then I start doing one of my favorite sports, cliff
jumping, and life would be most excellent.
Just rocks sat at the bottom of this fall, and a pool about
5 inches deep at the maximum depth. So when we kept climbing higher I went to
the side where I could cling to the very strong root systems tightly. I
loosened up after my foot slipped and my weight went on the roots. Then I
realized they would hold me and then life became a lot more cavalier. Now I
felt I could be like a monkey and a parkour athlete all at the same time.
Or not. There was mud. On my way down, off to the side I
tried my new idea. Yeah…I had to get back in the water at the bottom to clean
myself off. Reminded that it had just rained by the mud on me, I had another
excuse to sit in the falls again.
All in all it was a very fun trip. I had more energy than a
squirrel on crack so I decided to run up the trail. I hate stairs. I hate
running too. I didn’t make it more than two corners before I was panting and
waiting for everyone else.
Adventure doesn’t follow me wherever I go. I have to decide
to make it happen. So maybe I will have more to blog about this year.
