a little to far

so, several years ago just as fire season was about to start i got a letter in the mail informing me that due to budget cutbacks they were not goin to bring me back for the upcoming season. they sent this letter to about a hundred people in the local area. every one was bummed, and several worried about there lack of cash flow. so to off set the general bad mood, several of us decided to go cliff diving/jumping. normally i go to a place called monkeys canyon, but this time it was decided that we would go to a different place, fish creek. i had never been there before and was excited at the possibility of a new place to go. we load up in my buddies car and head out there. after about a 40 min drive my buddy stops the car next to this bridge and says "were here!". i get out and look over the bridge only to find a dry riverbed... this isn’t looking promising, but he insists that there is water farther up the canyon, so we grab our stuff and go. immediately i realize there is no trail, as we begin bushwhacking our way in till we get down to the river bed and start to follow it up. after about half a mile a trail appears on the west bank of the riverbed (which is still dry), which we start to follow. after making it another half mile, the dry riverbed had now narrowed to a small stream/creek that has water barely trickling down, so of course we are all giving my buddy a hard time about there not bein any water, but he insists there is more towards the top. about another 1/4 mile in we finally see some water! there is a small pool that is about 10 feet deep, and about fifteen feet all the way around. my buddy (who has been here before) says this is the first jump. so we climb up to the jumping spot which is about 20five feet above the water. now this isn’t just any normal jump. the jumping spot is on a slope, so you have to clear about 10- fifteen feet distance or you wont make it to the water. being the veteran jumper for this spot that he is, he goes first, lands perfectly in the center of the pool, comes up and swims to the side. there is cheering and clapping from all! so i step up to the spot and look out over the slope trying to gauge how far to jump, step back and jump out into the open. as soon as i am air borne i hear several expletives bein shouted from the other guys, i look down to realize what they had immediately noticed..... i had jumped to far! i brace myself as best as i can. just past the water is a stone cliff wall, that slopes a little into the waters edge into a ledge. i landed on both feet on the ledge in shin deep water, my shouts being drowned out as i immediately fell backwards in to the pool. when i finally came up for air, i just sort of floated there in the water. my whole body hurt, especially my legs. at this time, everyone else had already run down to the edge of the water to offer assistance if needed. after a few moments i swam/floated over to the edge of the water and assured every one that i was ok, just in a lot of pain. they let me sit there in the cold water for several minutes while they kept retelling each other what they saw and how they knew i had over jumped from the beginning. they all kept asking if i was ok, as i sat there hoping the water would be cold enough to numb my legs. after about 10 min. of sitting there, i told them we should continue on up the trail to the next jumping spot. they all asked if i needed to go back to the car, or go to the hospital. i reassured them that i could go on, but i would prob not move so fast. so we continued on up the trail, passing several small waterfalls and streams. after about a mile we arrived at the main jumping place, which was filled with waterfalls and several large pools, with ropes tied up so people could climb to the various jumping spots. i opted to not jump any more, and just sat in a pool of freezing cold water hoping it would keep any swelling down that i might get. after about 30 min, i told them i was goin to head back, and since it was gonna take me a lot longer to get back then them, that they could prob stay for at least another half hour and still catch up to me on the way down. so i made the long journey back to the car on my own, with them catching up to me in the last 1/2 mile. the entire ride back to my buddies place (were my car was) was completely miserable. once we arrived i had the new and exciting task of trying to drive home. normally this wouldn’t be that big a deal, except that all my vehicles were stick shifts. once i got home i grabbed some ice and laid down on the couch. several hours later my step mom came home and inquired as to what i had done this time. after a mild explanation, she made me take several anti inflammatory and some pain killers ( i have a really high pain tolerance, and usually refuse to use any of that stuff). after several days of the pain not goin away, i decided that maybe i should go to the urgent care to have them take a look. once there i found out that i didn’t break anything (prob due to my 2 gallon a week milk habit) but that i had bruised both my heels, and torn all sorts of muscle tissue in my lower leg and knee. i spent the next 2 weeks on crutches and after that just sorta limped around for a while. 2 weeks later i received another letter in the mail informing me that they had changed their mind, and were going to bring me back this season after all and that i was to report for work in 2 more weeks! lets just say that it was a very painful season... lol.