Picking up the Pace, Dropping the Camera

In 2009 I had hit a wall in finishing one of my novels. So I took several days off to take my travel trailer and go by myself to a campground in the Pisgah National Forest. I spent several days there just wandering around, taking photos, and writing. I didn't quite finish the novel, but I closed the gap so that I was able to finish the book a week after I returned. I produced a lot of fiction on that trip.

One of the things that I did was drop my camera off of a huge waterfall. I've told that story here before. In trying to get that camera out of the pool of water at the base of the falls I ended up falling and really hurting myself. I got one hell of a hematoma on my hip when I went down hard.

At any rate, the trip was, despite the dropped camera and the subsequent fall, one of the prettiest and most pleasant vacations I'd had in some time. The views still rank up there with the best I've witnessed in a while.

Here's some video footage I shot.

The falls where I dropped the camera. You can imagine my horror as it bounced right into that water and went over the event horizon. That's exactly what happened about five minutes after I shot this video. Weirdly, after drying it out, the camera kind of survived the drop and dunking, but later succumbed to the damage. It was the best camera I ever had. Alas.

This video was taken even earlier. I was enjoying the solitude and the beauty of the cove hardwood forest so much that I had to stop and record it. There's not much more peaceful than a southern Appalachian hardwood forest. It's pretty damned amazing.

Shortly before I faw down go boom.

The edge of the falls.