Jason vs. The Angeles National Forest: Part III

I felt lucky. I had just escaped would could have been my rocky grave...or the rocky ground in which I paralyzed myself. Either way, there was a rocky area I didn't want to be in, and I almost fell into it.

After reaching the other side of the cliff, me and Victor took a moment to reflect on what just happened. I was so tired now. Not only physically, but mentally as well. This was like an episode of Man vs. Wild. An episode where Bear Grylls gets amnesia. Me and Victor didn't really know what to do.

After my great idea of crossing the steep mountain, I had another brilliant idea. On this side of the mountain, the way down wasn't steep at all. It did have soft dirt though. Climbing down is a lot harder than climbing up, so my great idea number two, was to slide down the hill.

I went first. I started to pick up speed as I slid down. A lot of dirt and dust went into the air. I couldn't slow down very easily. Yes, I was making great time getting to the bottom, but I was losing control. It was also become steeper. I cut my arm on something that left a scar on my arm for a good 6 years. I knew I had to stop or I would probably injure myself more. I saw a small tree and was able to hang onto a branch, since the tree was angled the same way as the side of the mountain.

It didn't take long for the debris to settle. I told Victor to slide down toward the tree. Now I don't know what happened next exactly. I believe that maybe I cleared all the soft dirt and debris that slowed me down. Whatever the reason, Victor came down like a bat out of hell. He was literally bouncing and coming toward me almost twice as fast.

He smacked into me pretty hard. It winded both of us, but we had to move on. We reached the bottom area and came up upon another cliff. A very small one. Maybe 10 feet. Victor jumped down with no problems. He was given the nickname Spider-Man for a reason. I was nervous about jumping down. My legs at this point felt like Jell-O. I took a leap of faith and landed on my feet, my legs gave way. Suddenly pain covered my body. I landed my tailbone onto a rock. Its a sensation I never want to feel again.

I was so out of it at that point. Tired and dehydrated. It hurt to walk and my arm was bleeding. I actually drank from some dirty pond, just because I felt like I couldn't go on without water. We kept walking on. We were battered and bruised, like Rihanna after a date with Chris Brown. The sun was getting lower. We now started to recognize the area we were in. Success.

We walked toward where our friend parked his car, hoping he was still there. And there he was, drinking a Super Big Gulp and laughing his ass off. Me and Victor were covered in dirt, from head to toe. We were lost in that forest for nearly four hours. Four hours that I will never forget.