After my family left at the beginning of the week, I hit the ground running with things going on in the lab and preparing for the start of the school year, but I made sure to get some quality time in to watch the Olympics.
At the end of the long week, we decided to give Martin one last Arizona adventure before he returned to Florida to finish up his PhD. Our adventure of choice was Christopher Creek, and though I was just there a few weeks ago, I was excited about going back. I know I seem to have many "favorite places," but Christopher Creek is definitely high on that list. Hannah and I had the pleasure of introducing bot
h Emily Hadyon and Martin to the canyon. There were several people at the start of the canyon when we got up there, and the water was a little low, but it certainly didn't diminish our fun. We slid, jumped, and log rolled our way down the canyon to the first of the larger falls, where the bit of downclimbing required for continuing further filtered out the boys scouts and others less adventurous than ourselves. Rather than downclimbing, though, I opted for the even better alternative for getting
down: jumping of course. I've jumped off of a lot of cliffs in my day, but if I were to name my favorites, the 35' jump there near the falls is one of them. Wth my new lack of fear (enhanced by the fact that I'd jumped that one before), I easily climbed up to the ledge, waited for the cameras, and leaped off into nothingness. I love it. Haydon followed suite, and we had another great jump together. And then Martin got the courage to do it as well, and we all agreed that it was an awesome jump. Hannah refrained for this go around due to her still healing knee, but she made a great photographer.
h Emily Hadyon and Martin to the canyon. There were several people at the start of the canyon when we got up there, and the water was a little low, but it certainly didn't diminish our fun. We slid, jumped, and log rolled our way down the canyon to the first of the larger falls, where the bit of downclimbing required for continuing further filtered out the boys scouts and others less adventurous than ourselves. Rather than downclimbing, though, I opted for the even better alternative for getting
down: jumping of course. I've jumped off of a lot of cliffs in my day, but if I were to name my favorites, the 35' jump there near the falls is one of them. Wth my new lack of fear (enhanced by the fact that I'd jumped that one before), I easily climbed up to the ledge, waited for the cameras, and leaped off into nothingness. I love it. Haydon followed suite, and we had another great jump together. And then Martin got the courage to do it as well, and we all agreed that it was an awesome jump. Hannah refrained for this go around due to her still healing knee, but she made a great photographer. 
We continued on down the canyon, with all of us jumping down near the double falls and then stopping for lunch along the cool rock formations and having a ton of fun that only adventurers like us can have. Then, we finally got to the biggest of the falls. The slings that we put in last time were still there, but we didn't bring ropes, so at that point, we had two choices: hike around or jump. Since Tyler had jumped last time, I had been itching to try it as well. When I 
stepped to the edge, I got really excited. The water levels were lower, and there was no way to depth check, but since we didn't even get close to finding a bottom last time and there were no boulders at all, I felt fairly sure that it was completely safe. With slightly more trepidation than the first jumps of the day, I pushed off of the granite past the few rocks sticking over the edge and flew into space. I really can't get enough of this jumping thing. It was an excellent jump, even with the Camelback, and when I resurfaced I was all smiles. My friends who looked down at me from above didn't think the same way about the jump as I did and they climbed around. I swam through to the second falls where we had rapped through the waterfall the last time and enjoyed the ambiance of the scenery on the top of the falls while the others climbed down to meet me. Then all of us took great flying leaps into the deep pool below. It was beautiful in so many ways.Since we aren't simp
ly satisfied with easily hiking down the canyon, after we were done with the big jumps, Martin found a really nice log that we decided to turn into a bridge. The bridge didn't go anywhere, but it was fun to attempt to balance on, and we continued to drag it downstream to a tricky part of downclimbing made more difficult by the fact that we blocked the route with a log. But, as I said, we certainly do keep life interesting. Near the end of the canyon, we hiked on the opposite side of the ca
nyon than we had the last times, and played on the log that made a real bridge across the creek.... and then we jumped in one last time. At the very end of the canyon, we got in once last ounce of fun as we made a game of "who can haul themselves out of the creek on the algae covered slickrock." I'm pretty sure that Hannah won, but we eventually all made it. After one final swim section, we hit the trail that led us back to the highway. Although I could spend days in amazing canyons like Christopher Creek, we were, to quote Hannah from another trip, "almost out of water, and by water, I mean food." So, we jogged back to the car under the guise that it was good for our adventure race training, but really, it just meant that we got to food faster. Martin fired up his limo and we raced back to Payson to Tiny's restaurant for a lot of cheap, homecooked food and some amazing bread pudding for desert.
ly satisfied with easily hiking down the canyon, after we were done with the big jumps, Martin found a really nice log that we decided to turn into a bridge. The bridge didn't go anywhere, but it was fun to attempt to balance on, and we continued to drag it downstream to a tricky part of downclimbing made more difficult by the fact that we blocked the route with a log. But, as I said, we certainly do keep life interesting. Near the end of the canyon, we hiked on the opposite side of the ca
nyon than we had the last times, and played on the log that made a real bridge across the creek.... and then we jumped in one last time. At the very end of the canyon, we got in once last ounce of fun as we made a game of "who can haul themselves out of the creek on the algae covered slickrock." I'm pretty sure that Hannah won, but we eventually all made it. After one final swim section, we hit the trail that led us back to the highway. Although I could spend days in amazing canyons like Christopher Creek, we were, to quote Hannah from another trip, "almost out of water, and by water, I mean food." So, we jogged back to the car under the guise that it was good for our adventure race training, but really, it just meant that we got to food faster. Martin fired up his limo and we raced back to Payson to Tiny's restaurant for a lot of cheap, homecooked food and some amazing bread pudding for desert.The rest of the weekend was spent mostly working on the American Fire, getting things done around the house, and escaping the late summer heat by watching the Olympics and Without Limits a few times (I really love the movie, and it captures everything that I love about sports and athletes).
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