Leon Turnbull Photography

On November 12, 1987, my best friend at the time and I boarded a boat and sailed across the waters from Victoria to Vancouver British Columbia, arriving at BC Place stadium sometime in the afternoon. Where are you now, Jim? I was 19. We had no tickets. For $100 each, we found a scalper and bought a couple. At that time, $100 was a lot of money for a concert. They were floor seats. We got into the stadium and got up close to the stage. We had a great position, very close to the stage. We were excited! We waited for the event in great anticipation. It was our first time seeing our favorite band U2, on the Joshua Tree tour. The first opening band played, I have no recollection who they were. The second opening band (again, no recollection) started to play. I cannot remember the exact timing, if it was during the second band or after they played and before U2 came on stage (probably the latter), but at that time you could all of a sudden sense a sudden change and tension in the crowd. This tension grew by the minute. All of sudden, within seconds, the crowd rushed to the stage, and we were crushed. I soon lost my friend in the madness, and did not see him again until after the concert. I could not breathe. I could not go forward, backwards, or sideways. I was trapped. Everyone was trying to get up closer to the stage. This was before U2 even came on stage! I had to get out of there. For those that wanted out, the crowd was lifting people up high and pushing them hand over hand to the front. These were mostly girls, but not all. It was my only way out of there. I convinced the guys beside me to lift me up and the crowd lifted me to the front. I could finally breathe again. I got over to the side and much further back, away from the frenzy, and I enjoyed a terrific show from one of my all time favorite bands, and not the last one. I don’t really remember any songs they played, mostly all I remember is the frenzy of the crowd, though I do remember they ended with “40”.

Little did I know that my future brother-in-law Sean would be at his first U2 concert two days later in the Bay area. I beat him by two days. Now 30 years later, Sean, my wife Tara (who was too young to see them on the Joshua Tree tour but nonetheless has seen them a number of times – including with me when she was 7 months pregnant with our firstborn), and I return to see U2 again on the Joshua Tree anniversary tour in the Bay area (and for about the same price as those scalped tickets in 1987). At first, we thought we had good seats, further back but looking directly at the stage. When we got there, however, we found that there was a huge housing structure right in the middle of the field. We could only see half the stage, and would not be able to see the band at all during the first five songs (actually, much more than that). This structure apparently was requested by the band at the last minute. Thankfully, they were offering everyone in this seating area new tickets. They turned out to be excellent seats, we were right at the side and very close to the stage. They couldn’t have been better seats, really. We had a great time and it was a great concert. Many of the songs were incredibly powerful, most notably Bullet The Blue Sky. Some songs, though, were just meh (are they getting too old for this?). One thing for certain is that I am too old for this. We did not get home until 2:45AM, a couple hours sleep, and then I had to get up for work in the morning. Ugh. Where is my coffee!?!?

Anyway, I thought you might like that story. It has nothing to do with waterfalls. I did dream once that I flew with Bono and the band in a helicopter to New York Canyon Falls where they wanted to make a video for their song, New York. But sadly, that never came to reality.

Since we are reminiscing, here is an old photo of Upper Heath Falls from last year. I was excited to finally get to this 40 ft. high falls last year and get a good photo of it. However, I still haven’t found what I am looking for with regard to the lower Heath Falls. I do not have a good photo of it at high flow, or some of the other ones in this general area. As I mentioned in my previous post, I tried to get down to it last week, but came across too much snow, still up to 8 feet of snow in this canyon! I was unable to get to Heath Falls at high flow. It is not too late, however, to try again later this spring. I just may do that.