SHELTON, Wash — Trespassers beneath Shelton's High Steel Bridge keep falling down the mountainside, and officials are sounding the alarm.
"Stay on the bridge. Please," said Cpl. Tim Ripp of Mason County Sheriff's Office. "Your loved ones are going to appreciate that you don't go off the trail because it's very, very emotional to see the families that have had to lose their loved ones on this bridge."
The warning comes after a 19-year-old man fell about 400 feet on Saturday while trying to walk in the wooded area beneath the bridge, according to Sheriff's Deputies. It's where what looks like a trail quickly turns into a dangerously steep cliff.
Somehow, the teenager had only minor injuries.
"He should buy a lottery ticket," said Ripp.
But his rope and harness rescue conjured up painful memories for two other Washingtonians we heard from-- memories of their own near-death experiences there. That includes Ripp.
"We spent several days trying to locate people that had either fallen or, unfortunately, wanted to end their lives," said Ripp, recalling one fateful day in August of 2020.
Mason County Sheriff’s Deputies will often conduct search and rescue missions to recover bodies beneath the High Steel Bridge, particularly when the Skokomish River’s levels are low.
That is what Ripp was doing on Aug. 6, four years ago.
"A boulder came down and struck another deputy in the face," he said. “He went off the cliffside, and I caught him and ended up getting injured in the process. So, hanging onto a rock and hanging on to him, my spine took a lot of injury.”
Ripp was not even sure he would be alive to tell the tale.
"I'd actually lost feeling in both arms," said Ripp.
After surgery, he was able to heal nicely in the last four years.
"I do have feeling back," said Ripp.
He was even brave enough to come back to the daunting place that caused him so much pain to work rescue missions like Saturday’s. He played a managerial role in the rescue of the teenager.
The High Steel Bridge, he said, is a sightseeing attraction, but often, people take risks by walking on its bordering terrain. It’s an issue that's been plaguing the area for decades.
In 1985, Steve Jones from Port Orchard narrowly escaped death alongside his friend, who also fell down the cliff.
"We were on the bridge and planning to throw gliders off the bridge, and the bag of gliders got caught in the wind, and now the whole bag went to the bottom. And so we thought it would be fine to hike down and try to recover our gliders," said Jones.
He was also 19 years old; the same age as the teenager on Saturday.
He hit his head as he skidded 400 feet down the mountainside.
"We-- really seriously-- thought we were going to die," said Jones.
He said his outlook on life changed forever that day. Still, he wouldn’t recommend doing what he did.
"We were very, very lucky. I feel like I was spared for a reason. So, I felt like this kid also was spared for a reason. Let's find out what it is," said Jones.
If you enter the area beside the High Steel Bridge, you could get charged with second-degree criminal trespass.
If the problem continues, a local fire chief told KING 5 that it is not out of the realm of possibility that they close the whole area down.