"Addie, if all of your friends jumped off a bridge into frigid water...in the dark...you would do it to wouldn't you?" These are the words that came our of Brian's mouth as Bryce and I meet him and Kim at the St. Mary Falls bridge around 10pm. This was the biggest spur of the moment plan we we had though of yet. Bryce and I had gone to Kim's campground evening program and afterwords she said, "Brian and I are going to jump of the St. Mary Falls bridge." We then decided to join them. At the begining I had every intention of chickening out when I got there. It was already starting to get dark and we could barely see the trail. We arrived to find out that Brian and Kim had already been in twice and they decided to stick around and go again with Bryce and I.
I had seen it done before...but never in the dark. This bridge is maybe 2 stories high and when one jumps off of it you are landing in what looks like a swirling vortex of water. The current is not that strong however and the current generally pushes you to shore where you can just walk out. The fact that I was dark enough that I couldn't really see the current put me at ease a little bit more. I decided to go first because I knew that if I watched everyone else i would not end up jumping. I was more worried about the water being so cold because it is feed by 3 different glaciers at least.
I climbed up on the railing and looked down...bad idea. I started to get nervous. Finally I just let lose, stepped up ontp the top and jumped off. I had twisted my body in such a way that I was able to stare at the bridge as I was falling. When I hit the water it didn't really feel cold. I was so hyped up about the jump that I didnt really notice it. I had to lean my head back far to look up at the top of the bridge where Bryce was about to jump off. As he jumped I could only see his siloutte as he too made the plunge. Byran and Kim followed soon after him. The we preceeded up the trail and out to the car and made our way back.
The trail was quiet and there was just enough moonlight for us to see the light colored stones on the pathway that were guiding us out. I thought of a great idea for a centenial program for next season...a midnight hike. That would be so cool. You are forced to use your other senses and I experienced a trail that I have been on probably 80 times in a whole new way. We are definetly going back to do that again and dragging others along for the ride. Maybe this time we will start earlier.
