Oregon Hikers

http://koin.com/2017/04/11/gresham-woma ... last-week/

Car parked at fish hatchery so she could have gone up Eagle Creek, or Tanner Butte, Ruckel Creek,...

Last seen Tuesday April 4

Searchers don't even know where to look for her

That would be really helpful if someone saw her hiking on a trail so they knew where to look

White, 5'4", 110 pounds, 30 years old

(People, that would be helpful to tell someone where you're going )

.

Body found.

Said she was found near a waterfall but not which one. Probably slipped? So sad either way but I'm glad she was finally found.

They said she was new to the area, researched where to go, then went to Eagle Creek Trail. Found near trailhead. News reports are notorious for being incorrect so...

I wonder if she was led astray by anything she read here? Or if there's anything we should do different to not lead people to their death?

Not that it's possible to prevent everyone from getting into trouble but if anyone has any details about this that would lead to any lessons learned, that would be interesting.

Sad to read of a terminal outcome.

What I saw said she was about 2 1/2 miles "down the trail" (unclear if that was meant to be from the actual trailhead, from her car by the hatchery, or just a vague and inaccurate distance) but had gone a mile and a half off trail from there. The "off trail" part was repeated in numerous sources, so some form of that is probably accurate.

Some said she was near a remote waterfall, a couple reported actually in the water. She was apparently initially spotted from the air, so somewhere clear enough of trees to be seen at least.

It does not sound like she'd ever been on that trail before, but had 'researched" it. It seems odd that you'd make a decision to go off trail in an area you didn't know, especially there, but I'm also having a hard time picturing where you could get turned around and accidentally lose the trail in the area described. Though I haven't been there this year.

I wonder if she read off trail reports here, then decided to do it herself?

I don't mean to make a big deal about this. I don't think we should not do off trail reports. Maybe there's something we could do to make it more clear to people what the risk is?

It would help to have more detail about what she did and how she researched it.

retired jerry wrote:I don't mean to make a big deal about this. I don't think we should not do off trail reports. Maybe there's something we could do to make it more clear to people what the risk is?

I've thought about this a lot and even wonder about the impact of posting on-trail reports (if it's good for them it must be ok for me!) but information beats the unknown. If no one posts details, people will still see photos on social, spot bootpaths and the like, and then what?

Obviously it's important to warn people, to speak to the reality of going off trail and the specifics of that trail. There are a few climbs I've done that I don't share the route for, it's not like there's a trail to follow and making it seem accessible is no good but I'd rather have the chance to get warned / informed than just go out into the unknown if I can.

Webfoot wrote:Sad to read of a terminal outcome.

^^^THIS!!!