"If we would only see that all limitations are self-imposed and chosen out of fear, we would leap at once." ~Adyashanti
Turns out my dog is a badass. I think she was as surprised as I was.
The long awaited visit to The House on the Rock was imminent and we all loaded up for a full days outing. The decision was made to make a visit to Pewit's Nest (one of the beautiful nature areas Liz frequents) on the way in order to get some pictures and give Mischief a chance to run before her long wait in the car.
We arrived at the park and wandered down to the stream. It was a stunning little river valley with a steep narrow gorge and, being a warm weekend day at the end of summer, full of people enjoying the park.
Mischief happily splashes in the cool water.
We hiked the short way up to the top of the gorge to get a few shot and discovered a pack of thrill seekers warming up to do some slack-lining and diving into the pool below. The cliff was quite high (30-40' according to the internet) and the opening narrow. I immediately started taking shots of them and promising copies, and Mischief made fast friends with the lot of them.
The group as we found them, hanging out on a steep path just above the thick root that served as the diving board.
And the slack-liner of course.
I promised a series of shots of the backflip dive he was warming up for...
At this point Mischief got excited and started down the steep hill to follow him... you can see her ears as she came into the shot.
The next moment I will never forget for the rest of my life...
Mischief started scrabbling down the hill and as I shouted frantically for her to stop she lost her footing and we all watched in horror as she fell sideways out of sight through the foliage hiding the view of the drop.
I screamed and turned to scramble up the cliff so I could sprint down to where she fell as we heard the splash of her landing. One of the girls was just above me and she reached for my camera so I could run unencumbered. I gratefully thrust my camera into her hands as I turned and at that moment we heard a voice shout happily from below "Shes OK!" A relieved cheer burst from the crowd and before I knew it she was back at the top (with the help of our new friends) and ready to go again!
Before this all started Liz had gone back down to get a different view of the cliff diving and saw it all from below. Turns out, just after she disappeared through the foliage she managed to catch an out thrust rock and launch herself off the cliff in a more controlled dive. From below, with her slip being hidden from the foliage, it apparently appeared intentional all along. It wasn't until she came back up to join us at the top that she realized it was not and was subsequently as shaken as the rest of us.
Mischief was now a hero and a bad ass and was subsequently secured to a tree until we moved on as she was waaay to eager to repeat her stunt! It took me about an hour to calm down.
Mischief the hero bad ass getting loves from the shaken witnesses.
The slack-lining attempt. He unfortunately didn't get much further than this.
Kody the Kliffdiver who Mischief followed into the abyss.
The whole crew posing with Mischief before we moved on.
We continued on the path to the other side of the gorge and let Mischief run off her adrenaline while we took some shots of the incredible scenes around us and I got my own adrenaline under control.
