#5 Bungee Jump! -- CHECK!

Hang-gliding, parasailing, ziplining? Done. Jumping out of a plane? Easy. Bunjee-jumping off the Bridge to Nowhere in the Los Angeles National Forest? Piece of cake. Even weeks after I did it, I can easily describe the few seconds of pure exhilaration jumping off that bridge and bouncing around like a rag doll. I had practically been prepping myself to do this for almost a year since I started my blog. No way was I going to back down. However, when the 5am alarm went off that morning and we finally got to the starting point after a 30 minute long and windy road, there was one thing that I dreaded and wasn’t prepared for. The five mile hike to the bridge. Five mile hike through the forest, crossing rivers, and climbing rocks in the middle of the rain? NO WAY.

Don’t get me wrong. I have complete respect for runners, hikers, and military people who love doing that kind of craziness. But I’ve just never been a stamina type of person. I’m pretty good with the quick bursts of speed in basketball, interval training at the gym, or even bursts of energy in volleyball or tennis. But the whole consistent pacing and distance just doesn’t work for me. I found that not even a mile into the trail where I had already fallen into the river a few times, but definitely after the two hours climbing up the mountains, I felt my heart was going to explode in my chest. I was already reciting my “Last Will and Testament” to my sisters as they give me evil eyes for dragging them along with me...

We digress. Long story short, I almost died in the mountains, my group lost the trail and the guide on the way back and could have been eaten by lions had we not mustered up everything we learned about tracking footprints from “Lost”, froze our extremities off in the rain (How did we pick the one weekend where it was actually raining in Southern California?!)… oh yeah, and bungee jumped off the 100-foot bridge over a running river. Twice. J

                       

 Team Bungee!

Honestly, it really isn’t that scary. I mean, you definitely feel that stomach drop when you look out and dive into a river, and then snap back with the whiplash and almost hit your head as you’re flung back to the bridge you just jumped off of, and then you feel like a yo-yo bouncing around in the middle of a canyon… so it’s actually a lot of fun and I found myself laughing as I hung in the air (well, that’s after you hear my constant and piercing screams as seen in the video).  So I encourage all to go try it. And do it backwards—that’s even more fun! J