A bunch of us guys took a skip day our Senior year and went to Ravenden Springs. Their was a group from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro that was rappelling just North of Lone Rock. They had ropes dropped of the bluff and was going up and down the bluff wall. We watched them and talked to some of the students. They said their instructor brought them to Ravenden Springs all the time and he always made the first climb to check all their ropes and make sure everything was safe.
I thought that was pretty cool. They had all kinds of safety gear and good ropes. I told the guys that I wanted to go to climb just like they did. I had heard all the stories about boys jumping across the gap to Lone Rock. I thought it would be a heck of a jump to get across but it would be even harder to stop once you got on top of the rock. Then how would you get enough running room to get back across?
The next week we heard in the news that the ASU instructor had died from a fall at Ravenden Springs. He took his class back and was testing the ropes and he fell.
Moral of these stories:
Kids do stupid stuff. Parents jobs are to make sure the kids are safe.
Parents once were stupid kids!!!!!
Dennis