Someone from Oregon "ME" - View on this James Kim event

by free2beme 38 Replies latest jw friends

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  free2beme

  I spent last Saturday about 10 miles out of Grants Pass bring some supplies to a friend who was in the search and rescue for James Kim, and talking with people who were looking for him. Being a long time resident of Oregon, I can tell you exactly where he was, as I have been down that road many many times. It is a remote location, at best, and locals mainly use it for hunting a fishing access, or maybe a chance to go motorcycle riding through the mountains. Basically, it is in the middle of no where and not something I can fathom a person from the big city even thinking would be a good route.

  As you enter this location, there are fences that are normally locked and signs that warn people not to use in the winter, as the roads are not maintained and for the most part there is no one around. What I wonder, as do many people around here, is how a person could come to this location and see this sign and warning and continue. Especially when they did not know the area and the road is not a paved, or a well maintained highway. In fact, it is mainly dirt and pot holes and nothing more then a mountain road. If you look on maps, you will also see messages about how this road is not recommended for travel, and not maintained in the winter.

  At the time of this family enter this road, the weather was terrible. It was cold, raining and snowing and not something that would make you think, "I want to take a poor mountain road in a location I do not know." That is what makes us locals wonder, "What would make someone do this?" Yet it happened last year too, and we made the news then too. Although that family was found, and when their photo was shown on the news, they ended up being wanted for a Meth warrant in Washington and went on the run and were found later. About four years ago, another man took this road and ended up being missing for almost a month and ended up being found dead as well. That also made the national news, but not as well as this one, as the person was not known. Although they did a special on Dateline NBC on it.

  Why though? Why would you challenge the outdoors of Oregon in the middle of Winter. Especially when there are quality, maintained highways, only a few miles away. Why would you do this? As much as they are trying to talk this man up, as some sort of hero for doing what he could to save his family, we are all talking around here about how this man was ridiculous to do what he did, to take such a dangerous chance. This is not a location that can accidentally be entered in to. This is not something that is user friendly looking on a map. This is not something locals recommend, and many do not even know about it. It looks terrible, it looks dangerous and yet we keep getting people who travel down it, in the winter time of Oregon, and getting lost or dying. Why? It is stupid and a waste of life.

  Do not take mountain roads in the middle of no where in Oregon, in the winter!
• 

  hubert

  Maybe it was snowing so hard that they didn't see the sign when turning onto that road, and didn't realize it was the road that the map showed a danger to?

  editted to add: Unfortunately, sometimes people do things just because they think they can, and no one can change their minds.

  Hubert
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  Merry Magdalene

  Not knowing more about it, I can only say that my ex and I were driving at night to Seattle one time ( a trip of about 8 hrs) in perfectly decent weather and still ended up taking a wrong turn, trying to figure it out on the map, thinking we could take an alternate route so as not to have to back track, getting even more messed up and lost for lack of visible markers. We finally got it all sorted out, but if it had been winter and the weather had been bad we may not have been able to do.

  Deepest condolences to the family of James Kim.

  ~Merry
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  free2beme

  That is the thing though. This road is not one you could accidentally take. It actually would take effort to find it, it is really in the middle of no where. I am not trying to down play this man, but it looks like he was just seeking a little adventure and did not realize that Oregon is not the Bay Area (which is where he is from). Oregon has a lot of areas that are in the middle of no where, and we have serious winters in the mountain area. Are one national Park, Crater Lake, has snow in parts of it all year long. A kid died there this year too, when he separated from his family, and they have to wait til the Summer to find him. It is just rough around here, outside of the cities.

  As soon as we heard they found the wife and kids, and he was gone, we knew he would not be found alive. You live here, and wake up to enough cold mornings in that time that have you running to your car in the morning, and you know that no one could survive prolonged exposure.
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  joe_black

  Let the conspiracy theories begin!
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  free2beme

  No, it is more about wondering what defines a HERO to me. A hero to me, is not someone who places their family in needless danger and then dies trying to save them. The term HERO to me, is a fireman who runs into a house that is burning to save a child and makes it out alive. This man was someone who took to many chances and paid for it.
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  Effervescent

  I grew up in Southcentral Oregon and have been on more logging roads and motorized goat trails than I can count. I think people just don't realize how quickly you can end up in BFE in Oregon. I think it's easy to not realize the danger of going out on these roads, especially in bad weather, if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Oregon may have civilization, but it's also very very wild. Like you say, every single year there's a story or two of people driving out to the middle of nowhere and getting lost. I don't think it does any good to criticize someone who's already paid the price for their bad decisions though. Hopefully if nothing else, people can simply learn from the tragedy and not find themselves in the same situation.
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  Roski

  Not sure how long this man had lived in the US - but Western logic and Korean logic (incl. behaviour/consequences) are very different.
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  What-A-Coincidence
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  JWdaughter

  Mapquest has often led me wrong. Seriously so in two cases. And you know how the weather can be around the NW. Rain, snow, dark-all roads are bad then. Yes, I am the Mr. Kim apologist, but I just think he was a green tech geek who had no idea that the entire world was not paved and wired for internet. Naive maybe? I don't think a loving parent would deliberately endanger their family-I hope! And it seems like they weren't sketchy kind of people.