My graduation gift to Matt was a bungee jumping trip. After lots of research, I decided
The Bridge to Nowhere was the place to go. And after revealing the gift to him, he talked me into jumping at least once too. I bought him a 3 jump package, and myself a 1 jump package, and we were good to go.
After all the stressful interviews in San Diego, Matt was ready for some fun. My parents decided to tag along when they heard about our planned adventure. So the four of us (and their little dog Honey) left Solana Beach at 5:30 Saturday morning, and headed up toward LA. We met up with Bungee America and filled out all the paper work. Then we caravanned to
The Angeles National Forest to the start of a 5 hour rugged hike through the San Gabriel Canyon to the Bridge to Nowhere. We had to traverse over some big boulders, and cross a river with a fairly strong current that came almost up to my waist in places several times. Honey was quite a trooper, always behind the heals of the person in front urging them on. She was also very tolerant of being carried across the river multiple times. The hike through the canyon was beautiful and fun, but the real fun was yet to come.
At the top, they went through a 30 minute course where they taught us how to use the equipment, and explained the various types of jumps as well as how to pull people up using teamwork and the pully system they had set up. We watched a few people jump and then I decided it was my turn. I put on a harness, and climbed over the bridge to the platform with my heart racing. Since I was going to do a back dive, I stood on the platform with my back to the canyon as they counted down – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . BUNGEE - and I jumped off the bridge. I learned two things about myself at that moment. One, I’m a screamer. And two, bungee jumping is an incredible awesome amazing experience. The first breathless words out of my mouth when they pulled me back up were, “I think I have to do that again!!” So after a couple more people jumped, I was back over the bridge standing on the platform again. This time I was going to do “the elevator” where you just hop back instead of jumping and you fall straight down. They claimed it was even more of a rush. And they were right!! Wow, totally exhilarating!! I’m so glad Matt talked me into jumping!! I think everyone needs to try it at least once. But my recommendation is to buy *at least* a 2 jump package, because once is not enough!!
We had to wait around on the bridge for a few hours as everyone else jumped. They have 4 different size bungee cords: one for light-weights, one for medium-weights, one for heavy-weights, and one for super heavy-weights (that I was told is affectingly referred to as “the anaconda” LOL). Of course Matt was one of the only people that needed the anaconda, so we had to wait for everyone else to jump before they hooked up his bungee. As we waited, we hung out on the bridge together, ate our lunches, rubbed sun block on each other, helped pull people up with the pully system, played with Honey and the big yellow lab the jump master brought, and watched other people in the group jump. Finally it was Matt's turn. He started with the front dive, which he said was the most fun. For his second jump, he chose the elevator, which had been my second jump as well. He ended with the ankle harness jump where you start standing on the platform and dive off head first and bounce around with your head facing the river and rocks below. My man has guts too, because he really dove off with some force. Unfortunately, the ankle harness cut into his ankles a bit and hurt a lot, but it sure looked fun!!
We ended the day with a 5 mile hike back to the truck and then went to a little dive of a Mexican place that had fantastic food. An incredible day and absolutely something I’d do again!
