Oregon groups create a path for people of color to feel safe on wilderness trails

Volunteer hike leader Tyrone Wilson assembles his group in a circle before they venture off on a five-mile trip on the Upper Rogue River Trail in southern Oregon. He knows each person’s name and their ability to traverse a narrow path on a cliff overlooking the Takelma Gorge. More important, he understands their sometimes wavering comfort level when wandering in the wilderness.

Wilson, a Black actor with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, as well as the founders of Portland-based Unlikely Hikers, OutGrown and People of Color Outdoors want to make recreational public land feel more welcoming to people who are more afraid of encountering a person with a prejudice than a mountain lion.

Since 2015, Wilson has spent Mondays, the day the festival’s theaters are closed, gathering colleagues and community members to experience the beauty and benefits of being outdoors.

Whether the plan is to meander through a series of meadows along the Pacific Crest Trail on Mount Ashland in the spring or through dense forest with dazzling leaves in the fall or snowshoe at Crater Lake National Park, Wilson reassures everyone that he knows the path is safe. He vows they will have fun and feel supported, and they will never be alone, in the dark or lost in the woods.

He repeats his promise: Everyone stays together and no hiker will ever be left behind.

“I am an unlikely hiker, in culture, body and anything that would traditionally be considered the visual ideal of a hiker,” says Wilson, 64. “And I’ve given all my efforts to attract people to Monday Hike who don’t think the outdoors belongs to them. It has been a real effort.”

He reassures friends that day hiking on a popular trail with likeminded people is more predictable — “has fewer unknowns,” he says — than being in a city “where you might be mistaken for someone else.”

Actor Jeremy Gallardo, who stars as Romeo in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” this season, was inspired by Wilson to explore more of the outdoors. Early this week, he and most of the play’s cast spent an afternoon relaxing on the Rogue River.

“I love going out with groups,” Gallardo says. “It’s a good reminder of what’s outside of the theater in Oregon. Sometimes when you’re inside those buildings doing four shows a week, you can lose track of time” and seasons.

Kyle Weismann-Yee, a fifth-generation Chinese American living in Portland, and his family have explored more places since they joined the nonprofit organization People of Color Outdoors, which leads nature-centered activities, from biking and canoeing to birdwatching and rock climbing, around the Portland area.

His son now aspires to be a biologist and has made friendships through the organization’s youth programs. And, Weismann-Yee and his wife, Gennie, enjoy being with people who he says share or understand their experiences. The group also “helps people who might not know where to go, who to go with, or who feel knowledgeable about the ecosystem,” he says.

Studies show that communing in nature, from slow wildflower walks to strenuous hikes, counters some of the stress and other health risks associated with sedentary lifestyles. Adults and children get exercise and are more relaxed, which allows them to create special memories and connections.

Another benefit of spending time in nature, says Pamela Slaughter of People of Color Outdoors, is it lets you take a break from urban life, from “seeing someone suffering on the sidewalk or hearing sirens,” she says. “In nature, the fragrance of a flower, a birdsong or a butterfly gets your attention and you’re totally focused on the moment.”

And yet despite the known benefits, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and the Governor’s Task Force on the Outdoors acknowledge that people of color are underrepresented as visitors to state parks.

Oregon groups are hoping to change that by creating communities of hesitant hikers willing to take the first step.

Slaughter, 66, grew up in Portland and founded People of Color Outdoors (POCO) and the youth program POCO Guardians in 2017 to help hikers of all ages, nationalities and socioeconomic backgrounds feel safe enjoying rivers, mountains and trails, or just picnicking in a group.

“It’s hard to be in Oregon and not feel safe to be outdoors because you know what you’re missing,” she says. “Being in a caring community allows people to feel welcome within the group, which allows them to exhale and just be.”

Hike leaders like Wilson say people of color know Oregon’s history as a sundown state, where nonwhite people who were not a part of the community were warned not to be seen in public after sunset, and they are aware that white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members once marched in downtown parades.

Although Oregon’s sundown rules are no longer enforced, Slaughter, who is Black, says that “doesn’t mean everyone feels welcomed and safe.”

Slaughter’s group was walking in a single file in Oxbow Regional Park in September 2022 when two white hikers turned their back on the group and Slaughter says she heard a woman say, “I don’t want to see them here.”

Joining the group that day was the daughter of the late Estella Ehelbe, the first Black woman to lead Multnomah County Parks, who is credited with keeping Oxbow Park’s old-growth forest intact.

“Everyone has experienced at least something mild on the trail and they know it could have been worse,” says Slaughter, who recalled the 2020 incident of a multiracial family harassed and trapped at a campsite near Forks, Washington.

“Everyone who read that story had their concerns reinforced,” she says. “I’m not saying it’s terrifying to go to a state park, but it’s a risk. And if you’re going by yourself, it feels like a bigger risk.”

Oregon’s Bias Crimes Reports cite incidents when runners and dog walkers of color were chased and shoved to the ground in parks, and campers were driven out of campsites, among other hate crimes.

Slaughter fell in love with the outdoors in her youth while playing on her uncle’s small farm in Portland and attending summer camp where she practiced navigating by natural landmarks the way her hero, Civil War scout, abolitionist and social activist Harriet Tubman would have.

As an adult, Slaughter said her Black friends, who had experienced verbal threats or physical attacks or just didn’t want to be stared at on the trail, would not join her on outdoor adventures. Instead of being discouraged, she started a Portland chapter of the nationwide Outdoor Afro group, then later founded People of Color Outdoors.

“We have members who have come a long way from just hiking and now lead activities like kayaking,” Slaughter says. The group lends members tents for its backpacking and camping trips, and a grant allowed them to give away sleeping bags.

Jessica Carrillo Alatorre, executive director of Portland-based OutGrown, which offers programs like Hike it Baby and Bring it Outside for people of all ages and abilities, says a way to be more welcoming is to listen to a person’s past experiences and how changes can be made to improve future outings.

“By creating space for people to find their own joy, we allow them to build a more authentic and long-lasting love for the beautiful, wonderful and healing natural spaces around us,” she says.

Mauricio Valadrian moved to Portland from Colombia and joined Outgrown to experience Oregon’s natural scenery. He is now a board member and says the organization helped him realize “we were all born with an inherent connection to nature,” and the only difference is “the shape that this connection took” based on everyone’s unique cultural context and familial values, and later, life experience.

Carrillo Alatorre offers these suggestions of simple acts to make everyone feel welcomed outdoors:

• Invite friends and acquaintances to join you outside, especially if those friends don’t often spend time outside. Eat a meal outside, share something from your garden, go for a walk around the neighborhood together. Ask about their experience getting outside and what they like or don’t like about it.
• Visit local trails, parks and nearby green spaces. Does it feel safe and inviting to you? If not, why not? Can you write a message to a city or county representative to suggest improvements? Can you do something like a clean up or other effort to help it feel more inviting?
• If you feel protective of how a space is used, pause and think about why. How can you empower and inspire others to care about the space in the same way you do while making room for different cultural connections and ways of being?

— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

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