I underestimated the height of the bridge, and when I jumped my chin slammed on my knee, pinning my tongue between my teeth and severing the tip. Spitting out the rubbery chunk of flesh, blood spilled down my chin and splattered onto the rocks forming ornate red patterns like a riverside Jackson Pollock painting. Blood matted my chin and trickled inside my waders. Stooping at the creek’s edge, I took a gulp of water, swished it in my mouth and spit it back into the creek. The current quickly washed the crimson mixture downstream. 

Until then, I thought I was clever. Nebraska’s stream access laws say that bridges provide legal access to streams and rivers. Property rights advocates complicated this, creating legislation that allows landowners to build high fences directly up to bridges. But nowhere in the regulations does it say anything about jumping from bridges… 

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