Oops

Sometimes Carole doesn't like for me to go off hiking or backpacking by myself. She worries that I'll be off in some wild spot miles from the nearest road and get hurt and not have any help. It's possible. I used to know a guy who did a lot of that sort of thing alone and one day he fell and broke his leg. But this guy was a badass and managed to hike several miles on the broken leg back to his car and drive himself down the mountain to a hospital. He then had to promise his wife not to go out on his adventures by himself anymore. I'm not sure if that worked out for him because we lost touch.

I am aware of the things that can happen when you're pushing yourself physically off in the wilderness. But I'm generally extremely careful. Scratch that--I'm always careful. But no matter how careful you are, accidents happen. I've never really gotten hurt in the wild. In fact, I tend to get hurt here in the big city and never out in the woods.

But one time I was at a secluded waterfall all alone, taking photos of myself with my camera set on automatic timer. The rocks were slick, it being a waterfall and all that. And even though I had on good boots and was on relatively level ground...I fell. It was a brief fall, but illustrates how easy it is to get into trouble. The best thing is...I was able to record it all.

The beautiful Upper Rock Creek Falls.

"I'm not going to fall..."

"I meant to do this."