The sunset cast a warm glow across the park benches and fencing, giving the day use area a spectrum of color not realized in the washed out afternoon sun. A slight wind hissed passed my face, and stirred the wild dirt covered blond locks that puffed out from my head. The denim of the my jeans could not hold out the slight cold of the Subaru's bumper on which I was sitting. In the distance the static like rumble of crashing water and silt could not be ignored by the few tourists who ambled across the grass by the fencing tattooed with warning signs. "So I wonder if we can sleep here..." I muttered to my best friend who sat slumped next to me in the open hatchback of his Subaru.
"Probably, I doubt any park rangers will stop by tonight, its not technically open yet" he replied with little re-asuring confidence to be found in his monotone. I glanced around the small slab of civilization drastically contrasted against the barren Oregon high desert.
"Hey do you know where we can camp?" I asked one of the tourists who stepped out of a large dirty SUV."
"Yeah, just go down this road and take a left, there should be some camp spots on the indian reservation" He replied with a accusing look as he noticed our kayaks attached to the roof of our car.
We left and drove in the dark to a small deserted campground nested among the high mesas which were now silhouetted in the increasingly endangered light. We fell asleep quickly with apprehension in our hearts. A few hours later we stood in the cold morning sun, as we endured an onslaught of mist and wind given off my a large sixty foot falls a few yards from us. Downstream lay the much more runnable horizon line of the forty-five foot Celestial falls. In a matter of minutes my hair was dripping beneath the confines of my full faced helmet. My best friend, Hunter, and I drug our kayaks to the slime cover rock shelf that was the launch point for the falls. I went first. As I squeezed into the cockpit of my yellow Jackson villain, my heart surged and fell violently in my chest. As Hunter held the back of my boat to keep my from an early entry, I visualized the next sequence of events. Seal launch, in...okay what could go wrong? Skirt could blow, paddle could break. What's the plan B then? Swim the falls? Hell no. Okay you are not going to have a fun day if that happens. "You good?" disrupted my visualization as I realized that it was time to fuck it and huck it. I ran my hands along the edge of my sprayskirt to make sure it was tight, clasped my paddle, and gave the nod for him to release me. His hand loosed and I slid forward into the twenty foot gap between me and the brown swirling water below. With a unappreciated slap, my face made contact with the water and I quickly paddle into the last eddy above the enteral edge of cascading water. Hunter scrambled quickly down a trail to the bottom of the falls to set safety, but more importantly film the sure to ensue carnage. Above in the eddy a smile creased my dirt covered lips. I heard a faint whoop, our signal to go. I paddled with complete focus into the current, each stroke taking me closer to the edge. There was a moment of awe as the banana yellow nose of my kayak crossed the horizon and I noticed the miniaturization of the landscape. I Pulled a practiced left stoked and tucked my face as tight as possible to my skirt. As I fell, I was met with complete silence among the thousands of gallons of water crashing and thundering around me. I submarined into the chaotic torrent created by the collaboration between gravity, Hydrogen, and oxygen. As oxygen was siphoned from my world, I held my breath....and waited. Within a second I burst from the surface, boat filling with water. My skirt had blown, but I managed to roll up anyways. I paddled to the edge of the amphitheater like canyon walls which the water had so diligently cut through, and leaped out onto the rock. I clung to then like the first fish to crawl out of the sea, and made my way towards where my Hunter had taken off after my boat. The sense of wonder and accomplishment soon diminished as I got my shit together and walked back toward the top to help Hunter as he decided to attempt the falls. I breathed deep, allowing the fresh water saturated air to envelop my lungs. In that moment I was completely at peace with the world, and all my fears and worries dissipated if only for a brief but appreciated moment.
