A 25-year-old man distraught over a breakup with his girlfriend jumped off a 200-foot cliff known at Lover's Leap early Tuesday.
Vegetation lining the cliff broke the man's fall but he was seriously injured, said Deputy Luke Schwartz, a Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department spokesman.
The man sent his dad a farewell text message before jumping off the bluff shortly after 1 a.m., Schwartz said.
The sheriff's department and several fire departments responded and were able to reach the man by boat via the Stanislaus County River.
There were two attempts to rescue the man by helicopter, but the cloudy weather derailed those attempts.
One of the first sheriff's deputy to reach the scene climbed down and reached the victim.
The man is now on suicide watch at Doctors Medical Center.
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