1999 - Monument 83, Keith A. Jumps!

Monument 83 Cycle - Manning Park

Location of monument 83 -  Holdover Peak
My Flickr site for more pictures - 

At the border

Jon Wheatley and I took the camper van up to Manning Park and biked up the road to the Monument 83 border marker and fire lookouts. The last few kilomenters are unrelenting and certainly make for a good workout. It's about 16 km from where you park your vehicle to the lookout.

A good old road

Besides having a good ride and supper in the pub, Jon and I drove up the switch back road opposite the Manning Park Lodge to a viewpoint to spend the night. No sooner had we parked than a blue van pulled up and started to unload some large unusual looking objects. Shortly we realized that two large telescopes were being set up! It was getting dark and the sky was clear and I was excited about the possibility of looking through the telescopes, but then I didn't want to presume. Very soon we learned that the people were warmly hospitable and seemed to enjoy sharing their knowledge and equipment. They were Ken Hewitt-White and his wife. Ken is the co-host of the Cosmic Highway program. I thought I recognized his voice! Anyway, we saw the ring nebula, globular clusters, the cat's eye nebula, and three galaxies in the same field! It was a special night that I will long remember.


Keith Akenhead Jumps Out of a Perfectly Good Airplane!
Here is Keith Akenhead's account of his jump ....

A Lobster Falls From the Sky

Keith psyching himself up?

On a sunny day in late October, Keith Akenhead, our intrepid lobster, together with four other brave local lads decided to jump from the sky. A 30th birthday party excuse was all that was required to fire the youthful ambitions of Keith and the lads. Many of us harbour secret thoughts of skydiving all our lives; only some will act on them.
Such was the feeling of mixed excitement, terror and fascination of falling from heights unknown that prevailed on jump day. To those contemplating the event, there is a 180.00$ fee and a five hour mandatory first jump course that must precede one's first jump. This is to scare off any impulsive, foolish souls who, after drinking too many beer in a pub up the road decide to risk life and limb on a dare. Also, a scary and lengthy waiver must be signed while sober, also, cloud cover must be at least 3000', the minimum first jump altitude level.
Once prepared and paid, us rookies suited up the next afternoon, a beautiful, clear, windless and sunny October Sunday, perfect for jumping. At this point there is no turning back on the idea. Adrenaline takes over once inside the small jump plane, a custom built twin otter propeller plane. Jumpers have to keep still and lie on the floor to avoid releasing their spring loaded emergency parachutes inside the plane. At predetermined intervals , each jumper is ordered outside the door to grip the wing strut with their hands and hand over hand to move to the jump spot under the wing. Sometime in the next second, the instructor yells juuuump!!!! and simultaneously releases the pilot chute, a tiny parachute that begins the release of your main chute.

When I(Keith) let go of the wing strut, all I could think of was to "hold the jump arch to avoid my chute being wrapped around me" a short three seconds later the falling was stopped by a huge "whooosh" as my mammoth red and white (lobster colored) parachute gently stopped my fall and brought me vertical to the descent position.

Here the fun began. To my left lay the entire Pitt River valley, a clear and colorful fall view. To my right lay Mt. Baker, seemingly at eye level. I felt snug and safe inside the straps of my parachute, and began to turn 360 degrees to the right and left by pulling on the yellow toggle straps above my shoulders. I felt like a kid at the top of a ferris wheel for those next three minutes, the time it took for me to work my way down from the sky onto the landing field beside the Pitt Meadows airport runway. I should mention that first jumpers usually have a one way radio strapped to their chests that their ground instructors uses to guide them to their landing spot, however mine didn't work! Nevertheless, my knowledge of the contingency helped me easily guide and turn myself down without landing in the Fraser river or any of the nearby houses or telephone wires.

Looking good. :-)

As I prepared to land, I felt the excitement and pride of my first jump accomplishment overwhelmed me while at the same time a sense of sadness of "it's over already" prevailed. Landings are made safe by "flaring" the chute 15' before the ground and pulling down quickly on the yellow toggles to put your brakes on and slow the chute as much as possible. I did this okay and hit the grassy field softly and square to cheers from my support crew. (relieved family) We all arrived safe and intact, stored our chutes and retired to quaff a few cold ones and watch our exploits on video taken from the plane. Although it's not a big deal, this first jump felt like one of life's highlights, right up there with watching your children being born and seeing Everest base camp!
This superb experience is highly recommended for those lobster young at heart and brave of mind and soul who possess extra cash and want to experience a fairly safe natural high in your own back yard. See Keith A. for more details.

A sense of accomplishment.