Not political, not bike. One giant leap for a man. Photo

[..]

Ladyfriends nephew is out in Utah working for the space program.

He's an outdoorsy guy and a buddy is a pro photographer.

[RP#62]

Nice.

-RP

[f6john]

My pucker string would be so tight I wouldn’t be able to go for a week.

[Serk]

Gorgeous picture, but I'm over here like:

[The emperor has no clothes]

My luck, I would have slipped on some loose dirt. All they would have got was a pic of me tumbling down the cliff.

[Jess from VA]

Yea, no.

I once (in my yout) climbed around and then straight up a rock face (with an unsurvivable drop), free climb (no rope, crampons, nothing).  About 15 feet to the top edge, it got very hard to find anything to hold on to at all.  Going back down was impossible.  So I concentrated and imagined that I was only 10 feet off the ground, and made it up and over.  Two dozen people on this famous promontory gasped that I had come up there at all.  I smiled and nodded but moved off quickly before the poop dropped out of my shorts.  Never again.  

Right about here.






Motorcycles are MUCH safer.  

Historical note: My 91yo mom's dad had climbed up there in his youth (in the 20's) before any guardrails and walkways were put in, and carved his name in the stone surface.  We'd always find it when the folks took us there as kids.  But John Good disappeared from rain erosion 30 years ago.

[TTG53#1717]

My 1st trip to the Grand Canyon was in February ‘94. I was 40.  A high school pal who lived in Phoenix suggested we leave after dinner and drive up through Roosevelt Lake, Sedona, Glen Canyon etc..

We were dog tired when we got there and, being stupid, I went out past the railing and looked over the edge. As I turned around to head back it suddenly became apparent that I was on ice with a thin film of gravel. Both feet slipped out and went back over the edge. My knees came down on the gravel/ice and a single hand grabbed my left wrist as I slid further towards the edge.
 

Torn jeans, bloody knees, fortunately no skid marks and I’m still here to tall the tale.

[The emperor has no clothes]

My 1st trip to the Grand Canyon was in February ‘94. I was 40.  A high school pal who lived in Phoenix suggested we leave after dinner and drive up through Roosevelt Lake, Sedona, Glen Canyon etc..

We were dog tired when we got there and, being stupid, I went out past the railing and looked over the edge. As I turned around to head back it suddenly became apparent that I was on ice with a thin film of gravel. Both feet slipped out and went back over the edge. My knees came down on the gravel/ice and a single hand grabbed my left wrist as I slid further towards the edge.
 

Torn jeans, bloody knees, fortunately no skid marks and I’m still here to tall the tale.

Whoa ! That sounds scarier than my story. In '79 me and a couple Navy buddies went to Yosemite for the weekend. After much consumption of legal and illegal substances, the next morning we took off for the top of Upper Yosemite Falls. No water, no food, just cigarettes and a frisbee that my friend wanted to throw off the top. After making it there he throws it only to have the wind blow it back on a ledge about 20 feet down. Like a dumbass he climbs down there to retrieve it and throw it again. But now, he can't get back up. I wanted to hike all the way back and get help, but was outvoted. We ended up tying a couple pair of pants together, me holding the feet of my one friend while he pulls up the other with the improvised rope.
God certainly looks out over fools. 

[msb]

Yea, no.

I once (in my yout) climbed around and then straight up a rock face (with an unsurvivable drop), free climb (no rope, crampons, nothing).  About 15 feet to the top edge, it got very hard to find anything to hold on to at all.  Going back down was impossible.  So I concentrated and imagined that I was only 10 feet off the ground, and made it up and over.  Two dozen people on this famous promontory gasped that I had come up there at all.  I smiled and nodded but moved off quickly before the poop dropped out of my shorts.  Never again.  

Right about here.






Motorcycles are MUCH safer.  

Historical note: My 91yo mom's dad had climbed up there in his youth (in the 20's) before any guardrails and walkways were put in, and carved his name in the stone surface.  We'd always find it when the folks took us there as kids.  But John Good disappeared from rain erosion 30 years ago.

Jess, that place looks somewhat familiar...like one of the overlooks I stopped at in WV when I was there in '16. I realize there's probably many just like that in WV, VA but it sure looks familiar...??

[Jess from VA]

Good eye Mike.  

That is West Virginia's Cooper's Rock State Forest, only 14 miles from the Morgantown WV Inzane.

All my people going back generations were from around those parts.  Almost none are left.

Coopers Rock State Forest received its name after a fugitive hid from the law around the spot that is now known as the infamous overlook. As a cooper by trade, the fugitive made barrels at his newly found hideout and sold to people in nearby communities.



Behind the big overlook is this little canyon, and I played there as a child.


Jess, JESS, where have you gone now?  When I find you, you're in trouble young man!!

You ain't never gonna find me.  He he he.  

Now I wonder what those copperhead snakes they warned me about look like.

[msb]

Good eye Mike.  

That is West Virginia's Cooper's Rock State Forest, only 14 miles from the Morgantown WV Inzane.

All my people going back generations were from around those parts.  Almost none are left.

Coopers Rock State Forest received its name after a fugitive hid from the law around the spot that is now known as the infamous overlook. As a cooper by trade, the fugitive made barrels at his newly found hideout and sold to people in nearby communities.



Behind the big overlook is this little canyon, and I played there as a child.


Jess, JESS, where have you gone now?  When I find you, you're in trouble young man!!

You ain't never gonna find me.  He he he.  

Thanks Jess...yup, that's the one alright. That was on my first day upon arriving, and where I discovered that the worrisome noise I had been hearing earlier while riding beneath those canopies of trees below wasn't my u-joint or wheel bearings after all...it was all the Cicadas buzzing around the treetops. I was pissed that after over 3000 miles riding trouble-free to get there, that I was having an issue on my first day there. Not until I stopped at the overlook and kept hearing that same sound, did I first learn of the mighty Cicada from a local up there, and also breath a huge sigh of relief that I wasn't going to be needing to go look for parts 


Jess, JESS, where have you gone now?  When I find you, you're in trouble young man!!
You ain't never gonna find me.  He he he. 
Even though we've only met that one time in person, why do I find it not hard to imagine you being a little rascal as a young'un 

[..]

I'll share my Grand Canyon story.

I think it was "97 or "98 and my now ex wife was working for Coca-Cola. She had to go to Las Vegas to help organize a convention. She stayed at the Bellagio and I took advantage of a cheap flight to go see her for a few days.

I touristed Vegas for 2 days and then drove out to the Hualapai reservation. Eventually I was on unpaved road skirting large mud holes in my little rental car.

I get to the parking lot and see a small group walking towards me. I ask them which way to the canyon and follow their pointed fingers.

Wow!

No fence. No nothing.

Just an edge and a drop.

I stand at the edge with my toes nearly on the edge.

It's 4,400 feet down to the river and I can see tourist helicopters flying below me.

What a view.

I slowly back up on the loose gravel surface and when I think I'm safely far enough back I start to turn.

It's at that moment a Jack Rabbit erupted from a nearby sage brush.

I was startled enough that I was very pleased I wasn't still tip toeing at the edge.

Since 2007 the Skywalk has been in place and the road is paved all the way.

[Serk]

Late 1990's, Tarynn and I were just getting serious about dating, I'd flown out to LA to rescue her from there and drive her home to Texas (She'd been flying to Texas every weekend for 6 months to see me by this point, we finally figured it was time to stop that silliness and move her here, but that's another story.)

On the drive home (That's how we knew it was true love, drove from LA to Dallas in the heat of summer in a 1984 Chevy Nova with no air conditioning, and didn't kill each other!) we stopped by the Grand Canyon for a quick look see...

She walked past the guard rail, past the "Don't do this, people die doing this" sign, grabbed a little tree to hold herself and just kinda leaned over the edge for a good look.

Dang near gave me a heart attack!

[Avanti]

When hiking the Canadian Rockys, I like there signs best. We do not rescue people we recover bodies.