This hike at Gorge State Park in North Carolina was only 3 miles round trip (felt much longer in the end though) so I decided to haul out the big guns. Brought the 1D as well as a 17-40 and 70-200. There'd be cliffjumping and waterfall sliding so I wanted to fire off some action shots.
The first falls we hiked to, Hidden Falls, but there wasn't much more there to do other than swim at the base of the falls. Plus there were a bunch of ppl and there was much more exciting stuff to do, so we passed it up and kept going. A little farther down the trail was a ginormous waterfall, Rainbow Falls. The waterfall fell along the right side, and there was a cliff off to the left. The drop was about 25 feet or so, and boy it looked fun! Plus some people had jumped beforehand and survived to tell the tale, so that was a good sign. No shallow boulders or downed tree trunks to dodge on the way down. Always a plus.
The hike to the cliff is perhaps more exciting than the jump itself! You gotta hike, climb, scramble, and crawl your way over dirt and leaves, even shimmy down a sheer rock wall by holding onto nothing but a long handy root. One slip and you plummet a good 40 feet or so into the crevasse below. Gives you that extra edge of excitement, y'know? At the bottom of that root is the ledge you walk out on, leading to the top of this jump.
I wound up jumping it five times. The first time was a regular jump, just to get a feel for the cliff. How long is the drop? How far does the rock extend away from the wall below you? Are there any outcroppings to avoid? etc.
The next two jumps were front flips. For some reason I did a half twist on my second front flip. Made it fancier than I was expecting. The next two jumps I jumped with two other friends. The three of us went all at once. That was also lots of fun. It was juicier to have the energy of multiple people soaring side-by-side through the air simultaneously.
There's a number of photographers in the group. One girl in particular loooooves to take photos. She takes photos of everything. All the time. I handed her my 1D, showed her the basics, and let her have some fun with it. She definitely enjoyed it. A few other people had a chance to play with the big camera as well and I was glad. Plus I get some cool shots of me as a free bonus. ;)
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