Waterfalls and Dead Batteries

Laura and I decided to get away last weekend - we rented a cabin in Hocking Hills. After we had some lunch and got checked into our one room cabin we decided to get a hike in. Our cabin was within a few minute drive of the Cedar Falls area, which we had never been to, so we went for a walk there. I had my tripod and Canon 7d with me and took a few long exposures of a couple of the waterfalls on the trail. As we hiked on down along the river we were really noticing the beautiful hue of the water and the orangish stained rocks of the gorge blending with the yellow sandstone - perfect for some digital color photos - except that my camera stopped taking them. The screen flashed an error code and told me to reinstall the battery - which I did - over and over. Nothing. Finally I couldn't even get an error code. Just a hollow battery flashing on the top screen of my dslr. I tried not to let on how upset I was and reached for my Minolta X-700 loaded with Tri-X - but now all I could see were the beautiful colors everywhere.

A text to a friend assured me that modern camera batteries die a sudden death - calming my fears that my camera was malfunctioning. Good news - but no digital camera the rest of the weekend. So here are some of the precious few color shots - everything else I shot will be analogue B&W.... "Soaked" Spring is a good time to visit Hocking Hills - lots of flowing falls and water dripping out of rocks along all of the trails. 'Hocking Hills Dining Lodge' - while we waited for a cabin to be ready to check into we stopped and had some lunch at the lodge near Old Man's Cave. We were a little hesitant worrying that the food might be state-run-cafeteria-junk, but boy were we proven wrong. All the meats were smoked in house and there was an extensive beer list focusing on Ohio brews. Laura had an amazing smoked turkey sandwich and I had a brisket salad. Who would have guessed?
Anyways - to show the rest of the trip will be like the olden days - have to wait and  see what develops...