Two Skinned Knees

After spending the day in Santa Paula with my father-in-law, I made a quick trip down to San Clemente Beach to scope out my location for tomorrow morning's train video shoot. I found a great spot on the hill above North San Clemente Beach where I can see up the track all the way to Capistrano Beach. Here's what it looks like from there:
Before climbing up to that perch I checked out a couple of other locations down near the tracks and grabbed this shot as a southbound Amtrak passed by:

Right after I shot this I did something dumb. There was a gully between where I was standing and the trail you see in the shot (you can sort of make out the gully right along the edge of the trail). I didn't want to walk back around to get to the trail, so I decided to just jump across.

When I was 25 this wouldn't have been a problem, and I felt 25 when I jumped. Unfortunately somewhere in mid-flight I became 52 again (sort of like the clock striking midnight in Cinderella) and when I landed my knee said "no thanks, dummy" and I went down hard on both knees and my hand which was holding the camera. I managed to skin up both knees and my left knuckles, just like I did when I was 12 and falling off my skateboard.

Fortunately, the trail was empty for at least 100 yards in both directions so I didn't completely embarrass myself in front of an audience.

I'll be back out there around 8:30 tomorrow morning to catch the train as it heads south. I'll try not to jump over stuff.