A few weeks ago, Bong Hill went up in a puff of smoke.
Right off the U.S. Route 33/50 bypass, the steep hillside, named for its passive involvement in marijuana-related activities, has long been known as an escape from town to party and sightsee. For many OU students, both now and then, a visit to Bong Hill on a sunny, spring quarter day signified a mini-vacation away from the dorms, the people and the noise. Up there with your friends, you could do what you wanted, say what you wanted and laugh as loud as you wanted. It was an ideal refuge away from the world.
Bong Hill was the first Athens hallmark I visited when I moved here. After a short hike up the side of the cliff, I finally understood why students would retreat to the hill to smoke, hang out and gaze out at the entirety of the town. The view of Athens from that high and that far is sublime. Gazing across the trees, streets and buildings gives you the opportunity to see all at once the small space on earth that Athens covers.
I used to love to sit back on my elbows with the sun pressed against my back, watching the town beneath me. I'd observe the people crossing the street or walking toward the fields; I'd gaze at the trucks and cars following the Hocking River around the edge of the town. For the moment, it was like watching time go on without me. And at night, the bright lights, shadowed brick buildings and the glowing clock on South Green always lent me a sense of peace and comfort, a relaxing feeling only the moon and stars can evoke.
And just beyond the edge of Bong Hill are The Caves. The enormous slats of gray stone that loom just a ten-minute walk away from the hill are ideal for a cool rest in the shade, where you can laugh and talk with your friends while gazing across the horizon at the many trees that surround the area. The numerous shades of green partnered with the sting of the sun can melt away any thoughts other than how beautiful Ohio can be.
But Bong Hill might have to go.
After both January flooding and flooding in 2004, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) declared that the Ohio Department of Transportation (District 10) must repair the large slip on the sharp hillside of Bong Hill because it was a hazard to the heavy traffic flow on the U.S. Route 33/50 bypass, according to The Athens News. I understand that the best way to fix the massive erosion is to blast the land away to prevent the slip from getting worse, but it's still sad to know that I might never be able to experience the escape of Bong Hill again.
Yet as I recall, the last time I'd been up to Bong Hill was about two years ago. I'd hiked up there with some friends one warm evening only to dodge and trip over empty beer cans. The hillside was a mess of litter and refuse. Standing in the middle of a fire pit sprinkled with broken glass, I futilely grappled for that feeling of relaxation and comfort, but it was gone. I could only look around in disgust at the utter lack of respect scattered on the ground. I'd never seen anything like that in my two years coming up to Bong Hill.
I never went back, but I wish I had. If not to clean up someone else's mess, then just to look once more over the hill and down onto the town I could abandon for only a couple of hours.
Who knows, maybe one day OU students will again be able to smoke, drink and otherwise chill out on the overlook we all so fondly call Bong Hill. Maybe we won't, and it will only remain a memory with those of us who visited and enjoyed the freedom the hill brought to us. There will be other hills, other escapes from life's schedules and routines.
But before we say goodbye to Bong Hill and focus our attention on its close neighbor, Radar Hill, let's remember that a hillside escape is only ours for the moment we sit and rest on it, and that when we leave, we need to leave it beautiful and clean for the next vacationers.
-Liza Martin is a senior journalism major. Send her an e-mail at lm258701@ohiou.edu.
17 Archives
Letter to the Editor
