Kevin seemed to have no fear of heights at all and over the years I’ve held my breath many times as his lack of fear was demonstrated. 

The first time it came to my attention was at Yellowstone Park when he was about 5 years old.  The Yellowstone River has carved out a canyon several thousand feet deep that is known as the “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone”.  As we were touring the park, we came across one of the canyon overlooks and decided to take a closer look.  This particular overlook was a very small area of about 100 square feet perched on an overhang with a three-rail fence made of 1-inch iron pipe around the perimeter.  Beyond the fence was a vertical drop of over 1000 feet.  Also, to get to this overlook, one has to negotiate about 30 feet of a three-foot wide path with vertical drops on both sides – on both sides of the path was the iron pipe fence.  Kevin, his mother, and I started down the path.  Kevin’s mother and I were a little tentative and kept both hands on the fence.  Kevin, however, had no fear and he pushed past us and ran out to the overlook.  My heart was in my throat as I hollered for him to slow down and wait for us.  He didn’t slow up – he continued to run.  When he reached the edge of the overlook, he jumped up with his feet on the bottom rail and leaned over the top rail which was about waist high and looked straight down to the bottom of the canyon over 1000 feet below.  I was sure my heart had stopped.  I continued to grope along as fast as I could while hanging on to the fence with white knuckles until I finally reached him.  He looked up with excitement in his eyes and said, “Let’s throw a rock.”

When Kevin was about 16, we went swimming at the American River with my brother Paul and two of his sons.  When we arrived, we spotted an area that looked pretty good - there were already some people swimming there.  There was a huge tree hanging over the river and a 25-foot long rope was hanging down from one of the branches.  The kids were having a blast on this rope – dragging it way up the bank, running back down and swinging across the water until they were 10 feet above the water at the end of the swing.  At that point they would let go and come crashing down into the river.  The kids eventually became tired of the rope and soon one of the kids climbed the tree until he was about 30 feet high, then jumped into the river.  The other kids then all attempted to beat this stunt.  Several of them equaled the stunt but nobody beat him.  A couple of rafters saw the action and stopped to also try the jump.  Kevin waited until last.  I wanted to caution him but didn’t want to embarrass him in front of everyone so I kept quiet.  Kevin soon got much higher than any of the others.  At one point, the next branch was higher than he could reach and I breathed a sigh of relief that he was as high as he could get.  He quietly surveyed the situation, however, jumped up in the air, grabbed the next branch, and pulled himself up to the next level before I could protest. I’m not sure how high, but I’d swear he eventually was more than 50 feet above the water.  He finally stopped just long enough for everyone to see where he was, waved at everyone below, and jumped into the river.  No one attempted to beat his jump.

In June of 1980, Kevin and I made a motorcycle trip to Glacier Park with my brother Ken and his wife Sharon.  On the way back we stopped at Hungry Horse Dam which is a concrete arch dam about 550 feet high.  We were all standing around on top of the dam waiting for the elevator to take us to the bottom to tour the power plant area.  I was standing beside Kevin and we were both leaning against the railing, which was about 6 inches wide, and a little more than waist high.  As we were shooting the breeze, discussing our adventures, Kevin casually reached behind himself, put both hands on top of the railing, jumped up slightly, and sat on the railing with his butt hanging over the edge and his back to the 550-foot drop.  My heart stopped and I almost fell down my knees got so weak.  Kevin was surprised that I was bothered but when I asked him to get down, he did.