Reporter Janay Wright jumps off the Crooked River High Bridge at Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint with Central Oregon Bungee Adventures earlier this month.

As I traversed the Crooked River High Bridge at Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint, I couldn’t bring myself to look over the side at the Crooked River Gorge. I was trying to steel myself as I walked toward Central Oregon Bungee Adventures‘ site, where I would be strapped into a harness with a bungee cord attached before jumping off of the 300-foot bridge.

Bungee jump participants experience a 250-foot free fall, leaving them suspended 50 feet over the Crooked River. It’s the highest commercial bungee jump operation in the United States, according to Central Oregon Bungee Adventures.

My fiancé and I celebrated my 24th birthday with a hot air balloon ride and our two-year dating anniversary by parasailing in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. A decade prior, I skydived near Banff, Canada. Now we were bungee jumping two days before my 30th birthday.

Of all the extreme sports I had participated in, bungee jumping was the most terrifying.

A life lesson on facing fear

“This is a participation sport,” said James Scott, founder of Central Oregon Bungee Adventures, as he briefed us on what was to come.

I breathed a sigh of relief as Scott said he had bungee-jumped more than 300 times, BASE-jumped and skydived and that he was still scared every time he jumped off a bridge.

Everyone who jumps off a bridge is afraid, Scott said, and if they aren’t, there is something wrong.

“Bravery is not the absence of fear, but the action in the face of fear,” he said, quoting former professional NHL hockey player Mark Messier.

Take this jump and apply it to the rest of your life, he said. If there’s a job you want to apply for, a degree you want to pursue or a country you want to visit, take what you learn here and apply it going forward, Scott said.

Making the 250-foot jump

I stepped into the harness and Scott pulled it so tight I couldn’t stand fully upright. But I felt secure.

When it was my turn, they called my name and I climbed the short ladder up to the platform, which was covered in synthetic turf. An employee attached the bungee cord to the front of my harness and another motioned for me to walk to the front of the platform.

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They asked me to walk all the way to the edge, where there was a metal bar the height of my waist about a foot away from the 300-foot drop below.

I didn’t look down.

I looked straight ahead toward the Cascades and tried to embody more confidence than I felt. I knew if I didn’t jump by the end of the countdown, I might never make the leap.

Free falling

“One… two… bungee — ”

As the last word came out of the mouth of the man next to me on the platform, I was already free falling.

I was immediately reminded of the intense, out-of-control feeling of falling through the sky while skydiving. As soon as it started, I was ready for it to be over. At one point, the bungee cord was directly in front of me and I was tempted to grab a hold of it, but I remembered Scott’s instructions at the beginning, that we were supposed to push the cord away.

I was so nervous I couldn’t take a full breath. I waited for the cord to reach bottom so that I could breathe again.

Later, a friend would tell me I was the only silent bungee jumper in the group. The other four jumpers ahead of me screamed at the top, middle or bottom of the jump.

There wasn’t a moment of rest when I reached the end of the rope because I was instantly flung up in the air again. After several smaller and smaller bounces, I was finally hanging by the rope in the middle of my chest, my head and feet putting an uncomfortable amount of pressure on the middle of my back.

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The crew on the platform lowered another rope down to me, which I attached to my harness. As they started reeling me back up, I could comfortably sit upright and take in my surroundings.

A once-in-a-lifetime experience

Later, I’d share my favorite moment of the jump was sitting upright in the harness, suspended above the Crooked River in the middle of the gorge. If only I could have enjoyed the view longer.

Minutes later, I was back on top of the Crooked River High Bridge.

I had yet to experience the adrenaline rush that was to come.

For the next seven hours, I was on a high. I felt slightly on edge, like something bad was about to happen. But every thought that came to mind was awash in adrenaline-riddled, rose-colored glasses.

There was nothing I couldn’t accomplish.

And that’s an ethos I’ll bring with me in all areas of my life going forward, as per Scott’s advice.

What: Bungee jumping with Central Oregon Bungee Adventures

When: May-October

Where: Crooked River High Bridge at Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint, 12797 US-97, Culver

Cost: $149 

Contact: oregonbungee.com, 541-668-5867