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| no partners | |  I Think I'll stick to hiking 
Last Saturday as I was working my volunteer position with the Forest Service at the Peralta Trailhead, the upper parking lot filled up by 0900 so I walked down to the lower lot to direct the incoming traffic to park at this location. Shortly, I met Kathy (slowandsteady) and Karl (bifrost) who were on their way to do some hiking around Weavers Needle. After exchanging greetings and some small talk, they geared up and walked up the road to the TH.
Soon after they left, I heard noises behind me coming from the Dacite Cliffs. As I turned and looked, I saw two BASE jumpers on their way down, but something was obviously wrong and they soon collided. More jumpers followed (6 in all) but I was running towards the Don's Camp and taking photos from my cell cam as I ran.
I watched in stunned horror as the tangled jumpers freed themselves but one had lost control of his para-glider and was falling uncontrolled into the large rocks at the base of the cliffs, while the other one was trying to land close by. The out of control jumper smacked into a large boulder very hard so I thought there would be serious injuries to follow.
A third jumper passed over the downed jumpers yelling at them to find out if they were responsive then landed close to where I was standing. I talked with him to find out if I should call 911 but he said they had responded to his calls and indicated that they were okay.
There were several adults at the Don's Camp and they were running up the slopes to aid the jumpers so I left and went back to my car parking responsibilities. That evening I watched the local news channels but was unable to get any information on the jumpers, but this was the same day that a girl died in a climbing accident.
I checked with my superiors at the Forest Service and found that BASE Jumping is not illegal in the Superstition Wilderness Area so there's nothing we can do to prevent these adrenalin junkies from obtaining the momentary high as they bail from the cliffs. |
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| On every trip into the Superstitions, I find another Gold Mine. Today the mine was filled with Memories. I can not wait for the next trip. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
