6.17.13
Daredevils, Stay Home! The temperature rises. Everybody’s heading to the water. The beaches are wonderful, but around these parts, the rivers and lakes are the cooling grace on hot summer days. Since the Blue Wall is rich in waterfalls, there are inevitably large numbers of people seeking them out as well. The water coming out of the mountains is cool and refreshing, and submerging in a pool of fresh mountain water is close to nirvana. There are those who want to climb to the top of everything, waterfalls included. A wrong step at the top of a waterfall can be, and often is, fatal. Even crossing a river a ways back from the waterfall can be hazardous, especially if there is a deep channel of swift water that you don’t realize is there until you step into it. Your feet can literally be swept from under you. Don’t ask me how I know this, but I have been young and dumb myself, just like the young men walking across a dead log above a rocky chasm at Laurel Fork