Parkour ruining the park

While we were down in the Hocking Hills, amidst all of the buzzing crowd, there were small groups that stood apart from the rest. As we descended into the Old Man’s Cave area of the trail the first one popped into view. There was a guy hollering in what seemed a falsified Queen’s English accent at a bunch of people who were hanging on the rails of a bridge on the outside. Now, the bridge wasn’t that high above the ground, but they were hanging on like their life depended on it, and exactly like you would expect to see kids aged 5-9ish hanging on a railing. Except they weren’t kids.
These were young adults and adolescents, none of them super fit but all seemingly similar in their mediocre athletic build. As we continued down the trail we saw more and more of them, always in groups and doing random strange things. We saw them lined up off the trail preparing to run and jump through the rocks over the tunnel where the trail continues. We saw them rock hopping and running up the side of the hill towards the ridge through the restoration area which said “stay off” and “not a trail”. It seemed the longer we were hiking that a few things were certain: 1) They were doing some sort of training or simulated training, 2) They were not practicing reading signs and rules, 3) They were paying for these guys to shout at them.

Then we came up past a bridge where they were walking backwards along the arch. I’ve included the picture so you can see just what kind of obnoxious stupidity was going on in the park last weekend. Luckily we moved far past the craziness and were able to enjoy a real walk away from the madness. I’ve also included a couple of videos made by the company putting this on so that you can see what I’m talking about. I see two reasons why anyone would want this skill. Either they haven't grown up yet or they're practicing running from the cops. Or both.





So the question posed after seeing all this and learning about the company (Parkour Horizons), I had a couple of questions which I would love answered. First, how is this company or group allowed to formally come onto park property, regulated by the ODNR, and violate all the rules of the place, posting videos of their park rule violations? They even brought a video crew and set up in the rocks to make a video production out of these shenanigans. Secondly, who would pay for something like this? It’s all just one little taste of the American diversity which made itself known in Hocking Hills last weekend.