Medford resident Darrell Knox never imagined a bike ride with his 6-year-old daughter would end up exposing his child to everything from illegal drug use, piles of human waste and dirty needles to people having sex in broad daylight.

Knox posted an account of his experience to social media last week to express his outrage at the condition of the Bear Creek Greenway, voicing concerns about impacts to the waterway that runs alongside the path created by community members nearly 50 years ago.

“The tents, the trash, the people shooting up on the bike path … needles everywhere, has to stop in our area,” Knox posted on the Jackson County Scanner Facebook page, where he included several photos of his daughter amid the scene.

“And our City Council members need to be held responsible for allowing this to happen. … I will be trying to hire environmental attorneys to go after them,” he said.

Knox’s post garnered almost 300 comments on the site. Knox said he moved to Southern Oregon a decade ago “for a safe place to raise a family,” and now he regrets doing so, he said.

“A year ago, my daughter started learning to ride her bicycle. There were some areas by Bear Creek that were not too bad, so we would use the path. Last weekend, I realized how much worse things have become in only a year,” he said.

“I thought, ‘We’ll park at Hawthorne (Park) and ride from Hawthorne down to Bear Creek Park.’ I don’t let her play at the playground at Hawthorne anymore, because two years ago she found needles in the sand, so we’re done with that park, but we decided we would ride bikes from one park to the other.”

Knox said the trash, needles and feces were the least of his concerns after encountering “a group of eight males sitting on the path, making people walk off path to go around them.”

“They were sitting on the path fixing dope. Not hiding it at all, they just have their needles out, without a worry in the world. We went a little farther, and there was a guy just taking a s**t right there in the open,” said the dad.

“At that point, I was like, ‘Let’s just go home.’ So we get back to the Hawthorne area, and there’s people just in their tents, door open, having sex. That’s when I pulled out my phone and just started snapping photos of everything. It dawned on me, why are we allowing our community to be held hostage?”

Knox’s Facebook post generated a lot of chatter. “When I moved here in the ‘70s, the kids and I could cool off in Bear Creek, and you could see through the water. It was very clean, even the little stream that used to flow through Bear Creek. … We could clean it up, but it just happens again overnight,” posted Cindy Vancamp.

Erica Grant-Taylor commented, “The view from the highway northbound is shocking. I know there are solutions out there because other states are doing much better than we are.”

Kurt Beckman posted, “IDK what you all are so upset about. Downtown by the waterway is sooo beautiful. The addict in their natural habitat crapping into a bucket that is dumped or has a hole that empties directly into the river …”

Matt Roberts, co-founder of the Greenway Recovery Project, a Facebook group geared toward encouraging conversation about criminal behavior and the condition of the Greenway, said the community is growing increasingly weary of issues on the path that runs from Ashland to Central Point.

“I think it is pretty apparent that the public is getting fed up with the state of affairs along the Greenway. While the city is doing what it can … the public still sees little change,” Roberts said.

“Most are still fearful of the fire risks, the crime in adjacent neighborhoods, and even downtown businesses are starting to speak up. There does seem to be a high level of frustration in the perceived lack of progress in reducing the impact the camps have on the city, but paired with that is a resignation that it is a battle that many feel will go on indefinitely with little chance of maintaining the quality of life that most either grew up with or moved to the area to enjoy.”

Roberts said much of the community is reluctant to use the Greenway.

“Few feel that it is safe. The ‘take it back’ crowd is relatively small and — for good reason — reluctant to risk physical confrontation or risk getting injured by used needles, uncontrolled dogs and more. The volume of camps appears to grow every day.”

Medford police Lt. Geoff Kirkpatrick said he was saddened to see Knox’s photo of his daughter pedaling past the tents. Kirkpatrick said police spend an overwhelming amount of time on homeless-related issues. Solutions, such as additional MPD Livability Team staff, are being worked on, but he likened the situation to “drinking from a firehose.”

“Another aspect of this, and something I don’t think anyone realizes, is that I cannot imagine what this would look like without the work that is being done every day. Because it is quite literally unimaginable,” Kirkpatrick said.

“If the Livability Team hadn’t removed over 1,000 camps in the last year-and-a-half. If parks hadn’t picked up 2,000-plus cubic yards of trash. If the Livability Team hadn’t placed close to 2,000 people in different shelter systems. Because then what would this look like? And to hear, daily, ‘Why isn’t the city doing anything?’”

Knox said he wants to push for change but is still figuring out what his plan will be.

“I am disappointed and disgruntled with my local government and the way they are handling the environment and the homeless issue. Bear Creek is a salmon run,” he said.

“This absolutely should not be allowed to happen, but I’ve called every environmental attorney in Southern Oregon and nobody wants to touch this.”

A look at the Bear Creek Greenway and the prevalence of homeless camps.