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Showing posts from August, 2008

Swim at Your Own Risk

During the time I was compiling the feature story Best of the Ohio Valley : Rivers, Waterfalls, Swimming Holes, my partner Attila and I took a hike to a rocky outcropping in West Virginia that we had eyed for years. The temperature hit something like 93 degrees that day. On the way to our destination, we eyed what looked to be a superb swimming hole. On the return hike, we ambled down to the creek and – sure enough – found a mini cascade emptying into a beautiful, deep pool surrounded by a little rock outcropping, sycamore trees and boulders. We hadn’t planned on a swim, so we took off our clothes (yes, we went skinny dipping) and I waded in far enough to see where the water was deep enough to dive. It was so cold that I surfaced yelping with shock and delight. I swam around the little pool and then returned to the rocks to air dry. It was pure bliss – one of my favorite moments of the summer. I had the thought that every kid – hell, every adult for that matter – should have the