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

[Christminster]

Again, remember these infared images are from yesterday.

[retired jerry]

Oneonta Tunnel must be post fire?

At least the tunnel didn't collapse. Must be possible to rebuild it.

[squidvicious]

Oneona Tunnel:

On the plus side, it got rid of the graffiti.
#optimist

Just drove from Portland to Ashland. Solid smoke border to border.

[Arturo]

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.

Nice commentary brother.
Looking forward to your next visit.
BTW you missed a great show in Holmdel.
3EB and SSPU rocked.

[Arturo]

That map isn't as bad as I had imagined,

I dunno man .. that looks about half of the length of the trailcentric gorge along 84.

[Dave Rappoccio]

Is Eagle Creek's High Bridge likely destabilized by this? I figure the new Tish creek bridge is and probably the other bridges, but High Bridge is the one that's going to close Eagle Creek for a long time if it can't survive this safely.

Part of me is honestly excited for the wildflowers and new views we are bound to a while down the road (Maybe Devil's Rest will actually have a view now!), but man I wish it didn't have to come with such heartbreak and loss in the meantime. I go into the gorge a minimum once per month and this has me ripped up inside.

[aircooled]

Again, remember these infared images are from yesterday.

Thanks for posting. Still no word on Nesika's fate. Trails Club members have been trying to get visuals from across the river but the smoke has been too thick. Some members were there Saturday and Sunday and removed antiquities from Nesika. We've spent the last several years clearing small trees and brush from the hill behind and adjacent to the lodge, and the walls are 12 inch block - the roof is vulnerable however. The adjacent dorms are wood.

[Lurch]

Down in the lower left of those IR photos/videos are target (TGT) coordinates in US National Grid / MGRS and elevation in meters for where the camera is looking. No real need to do elaborate Google Earth lineups

[Christminster]

As usual, It's been maddeningly hard to gather any reliable information, everything is skewed to either hype or placation, and there's the usual lack of detail. Some official makes a declaration that "the Gorge still looks like the Gorge" and then to prove it shows a video taken from a car driving on the historic highway. They only go 1/8th of a mile, only show trees directly by the highway, and the camera never turns uphill. I can't help but note that Vista Ridge does not still look like Vista Ridge, and Camp Smokey does not still look like Camp Smokey (both had fires).

Then there's a fire marshall who says that the fire didn't go as deep southward as they expected, and as evidence he says that the west end is only a half-mile deep. His only mention of the east end is that it reaches to "half a mile from Indian Springs". He doesn't mention that Indian Springs is about eight miles back.

I've also been trying to get the full story of that Tunnel Falls bivouac, starting with the fact that it couldn't have been at Tunnel Falls. Do they really mean 7 mile camp? One report mentions "the bridge at Tunnel Falls", when there is no bridge at Tunnel Falls. Another says that the original plan was to go up Eagle-Benson. What? Families and Punchbowl swimmers going up Eagle-Benson? It's as steep as Munra but twice as long, and there's frightening exposure at the beginning of it. These are only some of the contradictions. Well, granted, most of those people didn't really know where they were.

[Don Nelsen]

Is Eagle Creek's High Bridge likely destabilized by this? I figure the new Tish creek bridge is and probably the other bridges, but High Bridge is the one that's going to close Eagle Creek for a long time if it can't survive this safely.

Part of me is honestly excited for the wildflowers and new views we are bound to a while down the road (Maybe Devil's Rest will actually have a view now!), but man I wish it didn't have to come with such heartbreak and loss in the meantime. I go into the gorge a minimum once per month and this has me ripped up inside.

High Bridge is steel and though the tread may burn the structure should survive unless a tree falls on it. The new bridge at Tish is a thermoset composite with a wood tread and unless it gets extremely hot, should survive. - again, unless a tree falls on it!

dn