My short time in this stunning landscape opened my eyes to some shocking and sobering realities.
Healthline.com says adrenaline junkies are "people who enjoy intense and thrilling activities that generate an adrenaline rush." On September 2, 2017, a 15-year-old teenager among friends lit a firecracker during a burn ban and tossed it into the Eagle Creek Canyon, a narrow and stunning canyon in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. This act ignited what became known as the Eagle Creek Fire. That fire burned 50,000 acres, trapped 153 hikers six miles up the trail trying to escape the Indian Creek Fire (the two fires merged) on the other side (First responders later rescued them), lasted three months, required residents of the nearby town, Cascade Locks, to evacuate, forced salmon hatcheries to release 600,000 juvenile fish six months early, threatened significant historic structures, such as Multnomah Lodge (at Multnomah Falls), forced school closures in the Portland Metro area to the west due to unhealthy air quality and falling ash and caused significant damage to several trails and the Historic Columbia River Highway that took years to reopen. The remote nature of the fire, the narrow canyon, and the steep terrain made it difficult for firefighters to fight it. A judge ordered the teenager to pay $36 million in restitution.
The Eagle Creek trail is a cliff-side trail that runs through Eagle Creek Canyon. One of the more popular destinations is Punch Bowl Falls, aptly named because it resembles a ladle dipping into a punch bowl. The falls are two miles from the Eagle Creek trailhead. The terrain is rugged, and the spectacular canyon and numerous waterfalls make it worth the hike, but one must be careful. The conditions can be treacherous.
Notwithstanding this, many recreation enthusiasts do not pay attention to these conditions and enter the area unaware, unprepared, or knowingly aware and participating in risky activities. In this video, people filmed themselves jumping off a cliff into the pool below Punch Bowl Falls and then posted it to YouTube. Witnesses saw other people slacklining across the falls. In both cases, off-trail areas had to be accessed, damaging environmentally sensitive areas. Posting the video online encourages others to try it, further amplifying risk and environmental damage.
Nearby Cascade Locks Fire and EMS (emergency management services) is the closest emergency service, nearby as the crow flies, but challenging when first responders access the rugged terrain in the area. A search and rescue for accident victims is time-consuming, complicated, and expensive. It limits the first responder's capacity to respond to other emergencies in the area.
Further eastward along the Columbia River, the town of Hood River in the Columbia River Gorge is world famous for its wind conditions and large expanse of the Columbia River. These conditions make it an ideal location for windsurfing and kiteboarding. These outdoor recreation activities have grown into a significant economic driver for the Hood River economy, and the sailboarding community is a recognized subculture of the community. Hotels, restaurants, vacation home rentals, and equipment stores, among other activities, support the windsurfer and kiteboarder traveling into the area to recreate. On a sunny day with good wind, the river quickly gets crowded.
Inevitably, when it gets 'too crowded,' windsurfers and kiteboarders look for other places to launch and sail. Across the Columbia River from Hood River on the Washington State side of the river is the mouth of the White Salmon River. Sailboarders use its shallow delta to launch, trespassing across railroad property, removing underwater logs, disturbing the riverbed, and destroying critical salmon habitat. Others trespass across private property and on the islands in the river, disturbing and harming indigenous cultural relics and unknowingly trampling native vegetation unique to the Gorge.
One author published a book (with periodic updates) on how to find unique, unusual, and little-known places within the Gorge. One story advocates hiking into a wilderness area in a pristine creek (not along it) to find what may be the area's largest and oldest tree. Another story showed readers how to climb a tall, environmentally sensitive waterfall considered off-limits to the public.
Rock climbers cannot climb the Gorge's cliffs during peregrine falcon nesting season, but it doesn't stop some of them. Hang gliders look for easy access to tall cliffs to make the jump. Bouldering threatens the Columbia River Gorge pikas, a unique species to the area. People engaged in geocaching can unwittingly accelerate the deterioration of historic buildings and the natural environment by designing a course that can take hundreds of people into little-known areas not equipped to handle vehicle and foot traffic. Some geocaching events have 500 or more people attending.
Most people recreate responsibly, but for others, the thrill of the adrenaline rush determines where they will go and what they will do, no matter the cost to the natural environment, cultural resources, private property rights, or impacts on local residents.
Hood River is a 4-season outdoor recreation paradise. The town has so many vacation rental homes that workers who support the vacationers cannot find affordable housing. Dark streets are a condition where many of the houses on the street are dark at night because people do not live there permanently, a condition experienced in Hood River.
I lived in Hood River on a short cul-de-sac of 4 houses within walking distance of the historic downtown. I remember one summer weekend in particular. The onslaught of vacationers started arriving Thursday (a lot from Portland, 60 miles to the west), many driving expensive Mercedes Sprinter vans, sailboards on top, mountain bikes and road bikes strapped to the back. The restaurants were full, the noise level in the town increased, the waterfront packed with people heading to the river, throngs of cyclists on the roads and trails. Periodically, one could hear the high-pitched squeal of emergency vehicles attending to the latest accident and injury. I woke up early Monday morning to a noise that I thought was the recycling workers, but it was too early for them. I ventured out of bed and looked out the window. A strange fellow was emptying something into my recycling bin. Later, I discovered it was over a dozen wine bottles. Unable or unwilling to pay the town fees for garbage and recycling collection, people offloaded it to the town's residents.
Juxtaposed by this weekly influx of wealthy recreationists was another influx of poor ones. Typically young, driving a rusted-out, barely drivable (or broken down) car (often a very old Subaru), you would often see them panhandling at the side of the road. They were the hippies, the drifters of a new generation, usually outfitted with some recreation equipment and sometimes a dog. (I did see one fellow panhandling at the entrance to the Safeway Grocery Store with his cat.) I sat in my car and watched a young couple positioned at different entrances to the grocery store panhandling. They were successful, at which point they went grocery shopping and emerged a little later with a 6-pack of craft beer and snacks. Just enough to go another day to play and relax.
I encountered many younger people whose first financial priority was to buy recreation equipment. They lived to recreate. Whether it be the new mountain bike they must have, the new skis they had to get for the upcoming winter, or the replacement sails they needed for the kiteboard, it was first and foremost in their minds to recreate. Working was only a means to provide for that. The adrenaline-laced thrill was their drug.
This deeper dive into recreation gone wild revealed that perhaps the tongue-in-cheek observation of the adrenaline junkie as a peculiar animal is more accurate than I once thought.
This story was originally published on August 19, 2021.
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Next week - A new chapter in Recreation Gone Wild.
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