Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: August 2010
The local waterfall isn’t the most spectacular. It’s less falling water and more a jumble of rocks getting in the way.
It still fascinates me, despite its ordinariness. And I’m not the only one.
This stretch of river has always been marked as not for swimming. Which, of course, reads “swim at your own risk” to the locals. There was a story floating around of how someone had dove off one of the occasional high rocks by the waterfall into water that wasn’t quite deep enough, which explained the “no swimming” thing.
So we just didn’t go jumping off the high rocks.
Mind you, I never swam at the waterfall itself. There’s a section a bit further upstream that’s calmer and safer where my group of fellow kids went. We never had any problems of any form, and took great delight splashing around.
But in the height of summer, you will find people swimming and fishing all over the place, with the occasional brave soul or two daring the treacheries of the waterfall.
I haven’t heard any new stories floating around. Perhaps the “no swimming” thing does help keep down the problems. Or maybe it’s just that no one tells anyone when issues pop up.
Really, I don’t care too much. I stopped swimming in the river a long time ago, long before I paid enough attention to the world around me to notice the “no swimming” sign at the entrance to the park the falls are in.
These days, on the rare occasions I visit, I might perhaps dip a finger or two in, feel the water brush past me.
Oh, and look at the rocks. I like the rocks.
