“Exhilaration”

Tales from the backyard…  “Exhilaration”, doing something that gives you a natural high.  It happened to me when I was undergoing mountain rescue training exercises in the park (Crater Lake NP).  The task was to repel off a cliff, my first time.  I was the last to go and I went off effortlessly.  Upon landing at the bottom I was totally psyched and started running down to the bottom of the slope.  I’m not sure if you know, but as rock debris falls off the face of the mountains, the small stuff stays at the top and as you progress down the slope, because of gravity, the size of the stones gradually gets larger and larger and eventually turns to boulders.  I had miss-anticipated the rate of descent and my speed instantly went from control, to uncontrollable.  My feet went from pebbles, to stones, to small rocks, to large rocks, to small boulders, and eventually to boulders taller than I was.  With each hop my speed became greater.  The sheer terror in my throat was immeasurable.   I was anticipating steps four or five boulders ahead of me in a frantic state to stay upright.  A fall would have brought the whole team back to extricate me from stupidity.  Somehow I made it down and another important life lesson was learned.  I have many onetime events in my life.