I had been jumping and helping crew with Over the Edge Bungee (out of Stanley, Idaho) to help fill my adrenaline needs. We had discussed the 1,053 foot (321 meter) Royal Gorge Bridge as the ultimate destination while packing bungee cords, carabiners, etc.
Link below:
Music by Sittser
Baranof 24 Hour Endurance Run - Sitka, AK
Note: This is a blog that I missed posting. The run was in November 2010.
I
t is currently 2:25 am and I am assisting Matthew Shepard and his Baranof 24 hour Endurance Run in Sitka, Alaska. This is a fund raiser for the American Diabetes Association. Matthew has completed just over 35 miles and 20 laps around the 1.75 mile loop that has become his domain. Lap #1 started at 6pm. Lap #21 is drawing to a close. He is now alternating running and walking.
Matthew Shepard
Now about 4am. Conditions have been horrid. Those outside the bubble will not realize how much more is involved in an event with these conditions for Matthew. A strong breeze with gusts to 25-30 mph and rain, a constant wall of water to slush through. We are used to unkind conditions here in the rainforest but this is mother nature being purely wicked and evil.
I met Matthew when he contacted me regarding my involvement with diabetes and the crazy array of events I seem to immerse myself in. This 24 hour run is tied in with the Rome marathon which he and some friends will be running in March for the American Diabetes Association. Their website is
. His interest and desire to do great things for diabtetes is due to having a girlfriend, Kate, who has diabetes. His interest in extreme events is due to....? It is a cool passion and that is why I am involved in this event. With recent knee surgery I am unable to run but will walk some laps with Matthew and I am happy to be invovled in extreme stuff on our remote island in Alaska.
We had set up run base camp at the Sitka Fire Hall. About every 18-19 minutes Matthew would cruise by, wet but determined. As the lap count began to mount, Matthew would deal with cramps, sore muscles, feet that were beginning to look like an experiment and the ever present squallish weather bearing down on a runner with a mission.
By 6am the conditions were pounding Matthew and he made the wise decision to cut the run short. It had been 12 hours since he had taken those first steps heading up Lake street. The Baranof 24 Hour Endurance Run would fall short of the goal but was a valiant effort by Matthew. I am encouraged by his event (and others) who are dedicated to assisting in efforts to cure and/or improve the lives of those with diabetes (and other causes).
No trails, no gym, and no roads meant close to no exercise and additional challenge to achieving reasonable blood sugars. I maintained some weak level of sanity with repeated loops around the perimeter of the vessel. The desperately lacking track was open all day and all night. Perfect for laps at 1am.
Hotshot!
My junior year in high school I occupied a small section of the bench during our high school basketball season. I occupied that spot all season. Yes, this was the jv team and not the highly regarded and competitive senior team. I enjoyed basketball, or at least some aspects of it but I was not highly refined in a sport where I was way too short and generally lacking in overall ability. The coaches did have some gleaming hopes for my bball future, though. I clung to some of those same hopes knowing that in the ideal world I could be a superstar or at least maybe escape the clutch of the bench and play enough to break a sweat or score more than 2 points in a game.
in Los Angeles for a Hotshot competition
Basketball had been a wake-up call for me and those involved in my little world. During a year of junior high basketball I had a coach from hell, or some appalling community close to hell. He had a knack for working us to the puke zone and beyond. While holding back tears and feeling the vomit gurgling in my stomach, I occupied the bench all season. While we all suffered through workouts that were beyond anything a junior higher should endure, I seemed to be having an extra measure of struggle on the court. In a small world of perfect storms, my pancreas had just thrown in the towel. Thank goodness for parents that knew that weight loss, off of a thin boy, and a thirst that only type 1 newbie’s would truly comprehend and understand, earmarked me for a hospital check up. My blood sugar was in the neighborhood of 550? and my life, and those close to me would be forever changed.
Those gleaming hopes of the coaches, maybe a few members of the team, my father and me were hinged on the fact that I had an extreme ability to shoot the basketball. While I saw almost zero playing time I was one of the best shooters on the planet. I would compete in the Pepsi Hotshot Basketball Contest and placed in the top 8 in the United States (in my age group) one year and top 24 the year before while traveling around the country competing during half time of NBA games. Talk about pressure! That pressure does wonders for blood sugars. The Hotshot program treated its athletes well and also bestowed travel vouchers, so that my parents could cringe and gasp, while their son competed on a national level, with crowds in the range of 10,000 people. I was able to use my talent in a manner much different than expected. Sometimes life is not what it seems or should be but venturing onto the road less traveled or maybe a path that has never been traveled can be the best experience.
Sometimes Life is Stranger than Fiction
Video involving the shoe incident
Life can be stranger than fiction
The link above tells most of the story:
* Dave does a rather unusual bungee jump
* Dave somehow loses his shoe in the process
* A boat scoops up his shoe and saves the day
Rather charming headlines but ohhhh, there is so much more to that story….
Glenn's Ferry Bridge
The first ‘stranger’ aspect comes in the fact that I was even able to post a youtube video.
We were joined on the Glenn’s Ferry bridge by a good # of adrenaline seekers. One of them was Tom (last name escapes me). I did not realize till well after the jump that he was filming many of the bungee jumps or that someone below was snapping photos. Eventually, I found out about possible footage so I contacted Tom and he gladly shared that he would send footage my way. He was in the process of piecing the short segments of footage together into a longer loop. Sounded good to me. Time crept forward with no footage. No rush, but I was curious if he had the camera rolling when I did the most unusual jump I have ever done.
My Shoe, in flight
A year would roll by……….then it became 2 years. I would eventually receive the prized footage but would not be able to open the main footage. No success after many different attempts I closed the file but was glad for some short segments and a handful of photos. One of which miraculously caught my shoe incident.
2 more years would pass and after the piece of junk laptop was replaced by a slightly newer version of technology I would again, stumble across the unknown file that sat amidst a random bungee pile . I had forgotten about the lost and yet to be opened file and accidentally clicked on the attachment. 4 years after the jump I had my surprise footage. If you catch the video, the boat that rescue's my shoe was the only boat we saw that day and they were only in the area for my jump. They left after their heroic retrieval.
On April 1, 1974, a clear, beautiful morning, Porky Oliver Bickar of Sitka woke up early to see Mt. Edgecumbe through the window in all its glory. Porky whispered to his wife, Patty: "This is it. We've gotta do it today." Patty smiled sweetly, kissed Porky on the forehead, and said, "Don’t make an ass of yourself."
Porky rushed to his shop (you can see the name of his shop on Old Blue) and started calling helicopter charters. He called three charters, but when they heard his plan they respectfully declined. One said he was afraid of a white-out (snow), but since the weather was absolutely clear that didn't wash. Finally, with the help of Harry Sulser, the owner of Sitka's Pioneer Bar, Porky struck pay dirt with Temsco's Earl Walker in Petersburg. Although his chopper was fog-bound, Earl loved the idea and said he would be on the way to Sitka as soon as he could see one more telephone pole.
In the meantime, Porky made up two manila rope slings about 150 feet long...each holding about 50 old car tires. He also gathered up a batch of oily rags, a gallon of sterno, a lot of diesel oil, and a dozen smoke bombs. (He didn't want us to mention where he got those. OK, Pork.)
When Earl and his chopper arrived at the old PBY and Goose turnaround (Sitka didn't have an airport then), Porky, Earl, Larry Nelson, and Ken Stedman first loaded up the incendiaries. When Earl and Porky got off the ground and hovered the chopper, Larry and Ken hooked one sling of tires to the chopper and off they went toward Mt. Edgecumbe (with FAA "legal" clearance, of course).
Within just a few minutes, Porky and Earl were flying over Mt. Edgecumbe. They could see for miles--just water and islands--with Baranof Island to the east and the open North Pacific to the west.
Porky and Earl dropped the tires into the up-til-now extinct volcano, then swung around and set the chopper down. Porky got out and unloaded all the fuel...just the right stuff to make a lot of black, smoky fire.
When Earl lifted off headed back to Sitka for the next load of tires, Porky stacked the first load in a big circle, poured on the fuel, and started to spray-paint a huge message in the snow with 50-foot letters: APRIL FOOL. When Earl returned and dumped 50 more tires into Mt. Edgecumbe, the two boys finished the arrangement...set the whole mess ablaze...and happily headed back to Sitka.
On the way back, Earl asked the FAA tower for clearance, and Homer Sutter (the controller) said "I'll bring you in as low and inconspicuously as possible...and, by the way, the son of a gun looks fantastic!" Earl set the chopper down. Mission accomplished...
Although Porky had remembered to notify both the FAA and the Sitka Police (he was a member of the police commission), he somehow forgot to notify the Coast Guard. While Mt. Edgecumbe was busy spewing out its black smoke, the Coast Guard Commander called for a chopper to investigate and sent a whale boat over to check things out. The chopper pilot radioed back to the commander that all he saw was a bunch of smoldering tires and a big April Fool sign in the snow. This was after the commander had called the Admiral in Juneau about the apparent crisis.
Jimmy Johnson, Vice President of Alaska Airlines, had also heard about Mt. Edgecumbe's activity, and called Sitka to instruct their departing plane to fly over the mountain to give all the passengers a bird’s eye view of it all. And, in the meantime, the Sitka radio station and police station phones were ringing off the hook.
We later found out that Porky's April Fool's Day caper had made AP news...worldwide.
Link to Porky's caper on the Museum of Hoaxes website:
Nearly 12,000 volunteers and adoring fans holding signs crowded streets for the full-on transformation of the city so Miles, who has been battling lymphoblastic leukemia since he was 20 months old, could spend the day with Batman at his side. This was coordinated by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Miles' cancer is in remission.
Batkid's adventures captured the hearts of residents and transfixed the nation on social media. He has also captured the hearts of many who are dealing with a wide variety of different medical conditions. Sometimes we need our hearts stirred. Sometimes we need encouragement and sometimes we need the right mindset, the right attitude. While she is not donning a comic book hero custom (that I am aware of), Anne Marie Hospod recently shared, "I did not choose diabetes. But I can choose life". She shares that life changing attitude in her blog. Well worth the read!
Hunter estimates that up to 8,000 soldiers, sailors and aviators were stationed in Sitka, along with a few hundred private contractors and a contingent of Marines. This in a town of only 2,000.
R.I.P. Mario Richard
I am guessing that if I said "Mario Richard" the response of almost everyone would be "who?" I would have said "who" not long ago, but my friend google would share with me that Mario might help me scratch off another empty box on my adventure tick list. I found Moab Base Adventures and thought that I would email Mario regarding a new airborne challenge, off the canyon cliffs of Moab, Utah.
Mario Richard - Photo by Hunter Imagery
Moab Base Adventures is one of only two companies I know of that offer tandem base jumps. I have jumped with Tandem Base (Twin Falls, Idaho). Rather crazy to step off of the platform on the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho (486 feet). Leaping with out a back up parachute does take a different mind set.
A couple of emails gravited into phone calls to possibly set up a jump date in October. October was approaching, but a date was not set........or would ever be set. On August 18, Richard and his wife, rock climber and base jumper, Steph Davis took a cable car to Sasso Pordoi in the Dolomites of Italy. They would be making wingsuit flights and had made the same jump three times the day before. Something went wrong in-flight, and Richard hit a cliff close to the Piccolo Pordoi towers . Davis would land, alone.
Mario Richard in a tandem base jump near Moab, Utah - Photo by Hunter Imagery
On the fatal jump, the Alpine rescue service believe that he miscalulated by only three meters. He was 47.
Richard had 20 years of B.A.S.E jumping experience and over 2000 B.A.S.E jumps all over the world. Richard moved to Moab in 2007 and soon met Davis. They married in 2011, atop the majestic Parriott Mesa outside Moab, and celebrated by running and leaping off the meas and gliding to earth with parachutes.
I am sorry to hear of the passing of Mario Richard. I am inspired by the life he chose to live and I regret not having made a cliff reservation, for earlier on the calendar. Take full advantage of life and the opportunities that you have. Life can change in the blink of an eye.
The Crew Chief is the CEO, the boss and leader of the team. They provide the overall direction for the crew and have to be ready to make decisions, even unpopular ones. They must always think of the racer, and balance with that the crew needs.
The Edge of Night
I turned off the jeep headlights and was immediately immersed in darkness. My eyes tried to adjust and make sense of my new surroundings. My head tried to make some sense of what I was about to do. Fail.......
Above me dangled a lone source of human connection. The source was a glow stick suspended off of a fairly tall bridge. I marveled at what a unique, rather cool sight it was, also at the amazing opportunities I have had to live life and take on different adventures. The list would grow this evening.
I flipped on a headlight and prepared myself for what was next. Just a few
hours ago I had received a short phone call inviting me to join the adventurous group for the evening,
at a bridge,
on a catwalk,
to do a bungee jump
in the dark.
Not really the kind of 'invitation' you get every day.
My bungee partner, Matt and I were on our way-
to the bridge,
to spend a long evening,
on a rather freaky, narrow catwalk
in order to leap into the world of blackness
Catwalk and River
stellar jump during the day!
The catwalk, far above the churning Snake River, is one of my favorite spots on the planet! While it is understandably frightening for some to even imagine standing on a small ledge overlooking a rushing river, this type of adventure feeds my spirit and defines the crazy adventure seeker that I am....sorry Mom and Dad!
A click of the carabiner and a screw of the gate and I was hooked into the bungee cord. Since bungee jumping is not a totally new adventure for me, I decided to explore a new challenge for this jump. Instead of the carabiner locked in front of me, I had it secured at my back instead. As I climbed the beam, high above the flowing river below, I hung before I let go and 5,4,3, 2, 1 dropped into the darkness of the night.
Luckily, because there were only a few night time dare devils, we all got to take multiple jumps. We had glow sticks attached at the end of the retrieval rope.
You can barely make out the glow sticks below
The evening was one of those rare experiences that makes me who I am: a seeker of new challenges, new adventures and learning to live life to the fullest (and sometimes scariest)! Wonder what crazy adventure will top this!