Best Go Take a Hike!

So.  California.  On the day after Universal Studios and the day before Rebekah's wedding I went up to Chantry Flats to hike to Hermit's Falls with Collin, Mallory, Jeff and Noelle.  When Grandma heard where we were headed she said "Oh, that's a good hike for thirteen year old girls!"  And I don't know if that was meant as an observation or a burn, but I took it as good news . . . listen, I'll go on a hike, I'm not scared, I hiked Philmont.  But some days, you want to go on a thirteen year old girl's hike.

And also, it's not like I'd never been to Chantry Flats either.  I'd definitely been dragged there a few times as a kid.  The parking area even looked familiar.

But if we're going to talk about parking areas, lets start with everyone assembled in Grandma's driveway.  Collin was playing us out with his air flute.

And now we drive! (imagine photos of a not too long drive to the mountains after this)

Okay!  Now that we're at that familiar Chantry Flats parking lot, everyone put on suntan lotion!

We don't want any burns!  (This isn't comedic foreshadowing to some serious sunburns.  Everyone made it out fine.)

And here's me.  Take a good look, because this is the only photo of me in this whole post.

The trailhead!  1.2 miles to lovely Hermit Falls.  (Now imagine 1.2 miles worth of mild hiking photos)

And then we arrived at the apparently famous Hermit Falls swimming hole and jumping cliffs.

It tickled us just to watch the youngsters leap.

But soon we leapt ourselves.  Here Jeff exhibits his trademark Spider-Man jump.

Collin.  Pure altitude.

This is a guy that I called Shayne all day but that wasn't his name.  Later on you'll see why I thought his name was Shayne.

Shayne was certainly the most daring diver at the hole.

Here Jeff laughs after another jumper slipped off a rock, slid down to another rock, caught himself, and jumped the rest of the way.  For a moment we were all pretty sure he was going to tumble all the way down the cliffs.

That there, that would be the guy that had the slip.  Not the guy in the foreground.  The background guy.

What other jumpers may have had over them in acrobatic skill Collin and Jeff made up for with their artistry.  Here they perform a synchronized dive known as "the Tandem."  Because, as you can see, it looks just like they're on a tandem bicycle together.

Mallory and Noelle performing a tandem jump of their own.  Your welcome to give it a name, if you'd like.  Like in those New Yorker cartoon captioning contests.

Can you see that Jeff is holding a bag of Doritos?  He wanted to have some Doritos, but he did not want them on the top of the cliff.  He wanted them down by the water.

Unexpectedly (or not), the Dorito bag burst upon impact.  Jeff emerged from the water hollerin "How'd all these chips get in the water?!"

"Shayne" performs another fine flip.  The crowd goes wild, every time.  Surely Shayne was the king of the hole that day.

Well, that was until this guy showed up, smoked a bowl with his buddy, took off his shirt, and climbed the highest rock there was, a rock I don't think a single soul had even thought to leap off of yet.

And shut

the show down.

And by "Shut the show down" I mean "inspired a new level of recklessness amongst the other jumpers."

Wow'd by the guy that had stolen his thunder, Shayne began to plot a jump of extreme lunacy.

But the thought of doing a backflip off the rocks where you have to jump out really far to make sure you don't hit rocks on the way down gave even this daredevil pause (look close and you'll see why I called Shayne "Shayne."  I think he had the only tattoo I've thought was legitimately cool)

We recognized it as our duty to help Shayne to decide not to accidentally kill himself that afternoon.  Here Jeff and Shayne are a moment after closing the No Deadly Backflip agreement with a handshake.

Behind the high jumping cliffs there was a calm little swimming hole.



Here we encountered the sage of the mountain who shared great wisdom and familiarity with all of Southern California's cliff jumping locations.  He was like the Yelp of cliff jumping.

After a few hours, we hiked back.  Collin found a stick.  People with nostalgic memories of Collin might be feeling extra nostalgic right now.

World Exclusive!  Here's a sneak peak at Jurassic Park 4.

Post-hike we replenished our energies with chili burgers and cheesebreads the Boat.

And after that?  The necessary pictures with the boat.  Hey Cathey!! (inside joke, don't worry about it)