Dillon's 8th Grade Graduation gift: diving off a perfectly good 150' tall bridge!
When Dillon graduated from Middle School he asked for a sky-diving trip but Dad quickly killed that idea, so his second choice was bungee jumping. Eight months
later we finally made the adventure a reality. We found a professional bungee jump company in LA that used an old abandoned bridge as a jumping base. The bridge had been
built as part of a 1934 road project joining the Wrightwood snow resorts to Southern California but the heavy rains & rock slides washed-out the roads, leaving the
complete bridge alone in the canyons.
In April 2010 we drove up to the San Gabriel Mountains in Azusa and spent the night at a cheap motel called the Colonial Inn, buying sub sandwiches & donuts
for the early morning start. Still dark at 6am we met the tour group, drove 15 minutes into the mountains, and began our 10-mile hike. We started at the 2500 feet
elevation walking on well-worn trails across the rocks & sand alongside the canyon walls. The mountain stream ran down the center of the hike and the water was fast,
waist-high, and very cold at 6am. We had six water crossings in the 2-hour hike to get up to the bridge and had a great hike but it was a bit uncomfortable walking in
cold soggy boots.
Once we arrived at the bridge Dillon & his buddy Dakota got in harnesses and took turns diving off the bridge: swan dive, backwards fall, dead-man's
plunge, & ankle-harness free-fall. Dad, Nicole, & Chris were the wimpy photographers. The boys loved the experience (but were a bit sore from being tossed around in
the air) jumping five times. Our early group had 20 jumpers all of whom were at least 25 years old so Dillon was by far the youngest in the group of crazies. After a
couple hours of diving we packed-up our gear & headed down the mountain trails. We were far braver crossing the stream and by the time two hours had passed we were
completely exhausted. Wet boots, gravel in our feet, sunburned, & knees aching from the constantly changing terrain. A quick trip to In N Out for Double-Double's and
then we were on our way back home for some much-needed Motrin & sleep.
