family escapes Eagle Creek Fire

“When I heard on the radio that a Forest Service crew was blocked by fire from reaching 143 people, I volunteered to go contact them from my position,” Steriti said Tuesday.

“Sharon had a radio and we could hear the bad news that no helicopter was going to be able to fly in supplies,” Midtlyng said.


“Never again will I go out without a little pack on me with essentials. You never know what’s going to happen.”







Escape from fire

Excellent outcome! Thanks for posting....

Wow! Just got back from 4 days off the grid, and I am just catching up on news. Glad everyone got out OK.

It has been years since I've hiked it, but back when I lived in that part of the world I hiked Eagle Ck many times. A beautiful trail, it is truely one of the gems of the Columbia River Gorge, and is extremely popular. Not a hard hike, but parts of it follow quite narrow ledges above vertical cliffs. Definitely not a trail I would want to hike in the dark without a good headlamp! Also as I recall there is no feasible way off of it until well past Tunnel Falls. Either you go back the way you came, or it's a long way out. Most folks do it as an out and back, but obviously not feasible in this case.

Very good article. It will make a good teaching point for my scouts and other students. Never go without the minimum to take care of yourself, and be prepared to help other people who are not prepared.

WOW! What a story. Glad they all made it out ok! Be prepared. It's a good motto!

Good share.

143 hikers and only one was prepared to spend the night!

Long ago I taught my wife to never leave the trialhead without being prepared to spend the night. She was resistant at first but came to see the wisdom of it. On one day trip she injured her knee and we nearly did have to spend the night. We got back around 10:30pm.

Years later (in Yosemite) she and a friend were going on a day hike. When her friend showed up at our campground ready to go, my wife asked her where her pack was. "What pack?" she answered. My wife said, "No pack, no trip." Her friend was real resistant too. Finally, she agreed and we provided her with a pack containing all the essentials.

When they returned, just before sundown, her friend was a convert. She had used half the things in the pack and was very grateful we made her take it.

Well said, Treeseeker! My brother used to think it was waste of time taking a pack when we weren't planning on being out overnight but so many times over the years the gear proved very useful to have.

Thanks for the post, it will be used to help educate scouts and their families.