My son (the bungee jumper) and a friend once “borrowed” trays from the cafeteria. They climbed to the top of Mt Sentinel, the mountain overlooking the university, and then sat on their trays and shoved. It was a 2,000 foot elevation drop down a steep mountainside full of weeds, rocks, and road cuts, and they were on a runaway train. Surprisingly, they survived, but Dan, the other guy, broke his tailbone. Bad enough to have to admit what a stupid thing he had done to cause such a painful and slightly embarrassing injury, but the thing of it was, they had done this stupid thing as a last fling before Dan left the next day for a special program — a full year of high school spent kayaking every day down rivers on every continent, all around the world. His broken tailbone would prohibit his participation, so he didn’t mention it. He bought an inflatable doughnut pillow, and went through hell for the first few weeks of kayaking.

Montanans are made of sterner stuff.