Just hang on!

​Hanging by a piece of sage brush that was growing out of a small plate sized rock in the middle of a 60 foot cliff. This is where the story gets good but how did I get there?
I grew up trapping small animals and varmints around the area I grew up in Colorado. So by the age of 16 I was trapping bobcats and coyotes on the mountain tops and ridges.
One day after school a couple of good friends wanted to go with me so we mounted up on mules and off we went. That day I was going to take bait up to the chief head above the cliffs. My buddies helped me carry traps and bait as we left the mules below the cliffs. Well, I’ll make this as short as possible because we were pretty much raised on the mountain and pretty salty even as kids.
I made my sets around the chief head and we decided to race back to the mules. Well my friends were older and took off down the trail we came up on. Me I was still carrying around 6-8 traps with me. Well I knew those cliffs and knew a short cut so down I ran as fast as I could. Thing was, running just inches above those cliffs the ground could be solid rock covered with a fine sand. Sure enough I slipped and down the 60 foot cliff I went! I think it was only 15 feet before my left arm snagged that sage brush and I could get my left hand and elbow on the little rock shelf. I yelled for my friends and they heard me, took them a bit to find me but find me they did. When they tell the story they thought it was funny as hell, me hang on something in the middle of that cliff, like some Remington painting.
They were brothers, strong and waspy.  The older one looked down at me and said, “if you push off, I think you will land in that cedar tree below you. Well, I looked down and yep, I think he is right but the vision in my mind of being impaled and dying in a tree stopped me from the attempt. I told them they had to get me. So they took of their belts and coats and tied stuff together and one holding on to the other they eased off the cliff to where they could reach me. The dang brush tried to snap off as I reach for the leg of my buddy. I was able to grab his ankle and pull myself up. I grabbed and pulled and climbed over both my friends to reach the top and the lower one climb over his brother, we all rested on top of that cliff.
Just one of the adventures where some should have died but I guess something else was planned for us. Many, many more adventures!