Shooting the Tube

Have you ever heard of shooting the tube?  Well, in high school some of my brothers were introduced to this activity.  It involves going to the east side of Salt Lake, right where the I-80 freeway heads up Parley's Canyon.  You park at the Sons of the Utah Pioneers building and hike your way down to the creek below.  Apparently when they constructed the freeway they diverted the creek underneath by way of a huge tube.  The tube is probably over a hundred yards in length and at least 8 or 9 feet in diameter.  Where the creek meets the tube on the east side of the freeway there is a pool of water that develops, which then constantly flows down toward another pool at the bottom on the west side of the freeway.  You walk up the inside of the tube in a little under a foot of freezing cold water.  You then dam up the top pool with boards, which are always available.  Once the pool has collected a large amount of water everyone sits down (this is the worst part because it is so cold) in a line and the guy in the back removes the boards.  The collected water shoots down the tube and sends everyone in the tube sailing downward and into the pool below.  The water is so freezing that it takes your breath away...and some jerks like to splash the whole way down!  Bodies crash into each other as you fly out of the tube and into the lower pool.  Of course, the water is still coming for awhile, so it takes a little effort to get up and out of the pool.  It is better than any water slide you'll ever ride, except for the cold part.  Just before my brother Mike headed back to Boston, my brothers, sister, and I went for a run.  This was my second time, and I gotta say, a lot better than my first!  We didn't have anyone to take pictures of the actual event so we had to do some staged ones.  Both pictures are at the bottom of the tube just before it empties into the pool.  It was a good time!

P.S.  Yes, I have gained weight since I got married.