“Do you ever derail yourself, because of what you think is being said about you? What better time could there be, to revisit a very deep, hidden series of waterfalls. After parking the car, and walking in for a mile or so, I picked up the familiar rumble of the cascades, far below. This is where boulders, logs, & unreasonable amounts of water (normally) seem to collide. I slide down an embankment, deciding to remove my shoes, & leave them in a cache. I’m no stranger to loose embankments, unstable & slippery rocks. But they have to be re-negotiated, each and every time. The enormous gravity of what’s been cut out, & reconfigured, beats like a drum. So when I finally reached a familiar beach of stones, I fell down like a supplicant, relief washing over me. I was safe, for a moment. I’d been here before, and returned unscathed. Still jangled in my nerves by the drought conditions, I looked up at my options. A barely negotiable rock crossing, leading to trees out of reach, barely bridged by roots, dependent on hand holds, not completely reliable. In this situation, you think it through, slowing your breath, taking time to relax and abate panic. Good god, the photos were worth falling into some ravine for.”
