Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

[Sheriff]

Hi, this is my first post. Thank you all for sharing info about the fire. It is heartbreaking to lose a treasure like the Gorge, we're all feeling it.

Just wanted to add to the convo that I completed the Archer Mountain Loop twice this year. An incredible amount of dead, decaying wood was on the ground of the south side of Archer, on the downhill slope toward the river. More so than any other place I've seen in the Gorge. One could step on a downed log and it would pulverize under your boot. It could not support the weight of a human. The downed, decaying wood was knee deep or hip deep and shatter-prone like this for well over a mile. That said, I'm not at all surprised that the fire took hold over there.

[windmtnpete]

Hi, this is my first post. Thank you all for sharing info about the fire. It is heartbreaking to lose a treasure like the Gorge, we're all feeling it.

Thanks for your post. I'm assuming that you are involved in law enforcement in the Gorge? I will again ask the question and I hope you can give me good information.

Has there ever been an arrest or fine given to a person in the Gorge who has used illegal fireworks?

Why is this law not applied to everyone?

Thanks!

[retired jerry]

Downed wood is not necessarily that bad.

The worst fires are spread from tree to tree with green needles. They have a lot of pitch. Like if you put a green bow on a fire it will burn vigorously.

[windmtnpete]

Hi, this is my first post. Thank you all for sharing info about the fire. It is heartbreaking to lose a treasure like the Gorge, we're all feeling it.

Thanks for your post. I'm assuming that you are involved in law enforcement in the Gorge? I will again ask the question and I hope you can give me good information.

Has there ever been an arrest or fine given to a person in the Gorge who has used illegal fireworks?

Why is this law not applied to everyone?

Thanks!

??

Hello

[sgyoung]

This is heartbreaking. I'd be more sanguine about a natural but the crass stupidity that set it off adds a moral dimension that colors my sadness with anger. Being so far away the immediate impact is diminished relative to those of you contending with the fire impacts directly but emotionally I'm probably in the same place as many here.

I don't want to wax too poetically but the Gorge changed my life. It was ten years ago, nearly exactly, that my wife (then girlfriend) and I first visited the area together. We went mostly to check out Portland, eat good vegetarian food, and get away from being grad students cloistered away in rural Ohio for a few days. Our day trip to the Gorge was spontaneous and inspired mostly by our B&B host recommending we check out Waterfall Alley. So we did. I was the proverbial tourist, although rather than flip flops my footwear was probably a pair loafers or something equally ill-suited to the outdoors. We hit all the highlights that day and made our way out to Hood River for lunch, where we stopped at Trillium Cafe. They had copies of Curious Gorge on the tables and we leafed through the pages somewhat idly. Panther Creek Falls jumped out to us - probably because it didn't actually require a hike . We have many photos of that day but most are from Panther Creek. We had the falls to ourselves (or the viewing platform, more precisely). It was so novel and different. Our corner western Ohio was all corn and soy. Hiking just wasn't a thing. I grew up in the Jersey suburbs with ubiquitous highways, strip malls, and precisely mowed lawns. The notion of just being outdoors to enjoy the simply beauty of the world was foreign to me. An unplanned day trip to the Gorge made me want to change that. So I did.

Since then my wife and I have become serious hikers, legging it up hills together all over the east coast, throughout the PNW, and in farther flung places too. We've even brought our families with us on trips to gorge and made friends through this website (hi Art!). While the Gorge was never ours to share (or anyone's really) we did share our love of the place. All of it can be traced back to that day we shruggingly decided to check out some river gorge outside Portland ten years ago. So much of my adult life has been shaped by an essentially random day trip in a beater rental car through the Gorge.

That said, I know that I'm just another annoying interloper who drops in on your home every year or two, uninvited, making traffic a little bit worse and occupying a parking spot at a trail head. But I'm also a member of Friends of the Gorge, try to do my small part to contribute to this online community, and feel a connection with the area and especially the Gorge.

I know too that recovery will happen and there is beauty in a forest repairing itself from a burn. We'll be back in the Gorge as soon circumstances allow us to travel more freely. It'll always be a special place to Christina and me, no matter how blackened by the malicious stupidity of kids.

I'm sorry for those of you who live in and near the Gorge. Beyond the ecological damage and lost trails homes and livelihoods are at risk as ash flurries settle on Portland.

[forestkeeper]

We all know it will grow back, eventually. But this is so gut wrenching! The Eagle Creek Trail #440 was my most favorite trail ever. Especially during springtime, listening to all the Eagle's "chirp, chirp, chirp," as you hiked from the trailhead to Sorenson Creek.

Skoonichuck Falls, which lies in between High Bridge and 4 1/2 Mile bridge is my favorite. Won't know if she survived the fire for months. Most likely not if the Eagle Creek fire met the Indian Creek Fire.

The whole trail will surely be missed!

[Aimless]

A tremendous amount depends on the intensity of the fire and whether it leaves islands of green trees intact amid the fire damaged areas. Low intensity fires and ground-creeping fires do far less damage. My heart tells me to hope for the best, but the rapidity with which this fire grew and the volumes of smoke and ash it is sending up are not good signs at all.

[squidvicious]

A tremendous amount depends on the intensity of the fire and whether it leaves islands of green trees intact amid the fire damaged areas.

In the press conference this morning the fire official said there is still lots of green out there, and standing if damaged large trees. It's not all a wasteland, and apparently not a continuous swath of burn.

[miah66]

Our corner western Ohio was all corn and soy. Hiking just wasn't a thing. I grew up in the Jersey suburbs with ubiquitous highways, strip malls, and precisely mowed lawns. The notion of just being outdoors to enjoy the simply beauty of the world was foreign to me. An unplanned day trip to the Gorge made me want to change that. So I did.

Since then my wife and I have become serious hikers, legging it up hills together all over the east coast, throughout the PNW, and in farther flung places too. We've even brought our families with us on trips to gorge and made friends through this website (hi Art!). While the Gorge was never ours to share (or anyone's really) we did share our love of the place. All of it can be traced back to that day we shruggingly decided to check out some river gorge outside Portland ten years ago. So much of my adult life has been shaped by an essentially random day trip in a beater rental car through the Gorge.

That said, I know that I'm just another annoying interloper who drops in on your home every year or two, uninvited, making traffic a little bit worse and occupying a parking spot at a trail head. But I'm also a member of Friends of the Gorge, try to do my small part to contribute to this online community, and feel a connection with the area and especially the Gorge.

I know too that recovery will happen and there is beauty in a forest repairing itself from a burn. We'll be back in the Gorge as soon circumstances allow us to travel more freely. It'll always be a special place to Christina and me, no matter how blackened by the malicious stupidity of kids.

I'm sorry for those of you who live in and near the Gorge. Beyond the ecological damage and lost trails homes and livelihoods are at risk as ash flurries settle on Portland.

Thanks for this! Many of us come from every corner of the world to this place FOR this place. I spent 10 years in Ohio, I know what you are saying! You have been an active member of this forum for a long time and a welcome contributor! I know that will continue to be the case in the future.

[pablo]

I wonder if Nesika Lodge is included in the historic structures they are trying to protect.

According to this list it is.

http://www.oregonlive.com/wildfires/ind ... ngere.html