Tacoma father and daughter live in Portland forest for 4 years
 

PORTLAND, ORE. - A man and his 12-year-old daughter spent the last four years living in a remote hillside in Portland's Forest Park, police said.
The pair was discovered in a dense, wooded area by an Australian cross-country runner and his wife.

They reported seeing an older man with white bushy hair and a beard, and a young girl at what appeared to be a "well-established transient camp." They called police on April 28.

That afternoon, North Precinct Sgt. Michael Barkley sent four officers on all-terrain vehicles to find the pair but they didn't find them.

"We had very little to go on, " Barkley said. "There's no way you could not do everything you could because it was a report of a child living up there."

The next morning, the runner escorted police to the site.

After an hour-and-a-half hike, police found an elaborate camp dug into a steep hillside.

Under a tarp-covered, wood-framed shelter, they found sleeping bags, a partially burnt log, a Bible, a stack of old World Book Encyclopedias, rakes and other tools.

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I am glad that they let them stay together and didn't take the daughter away.

What an awesome story!

This was the only thing I didn't really like:

According to our social standards today, they would seem unacceptable, but obviously if the girl and her father were clean, well-spoken and well-educated, in good physical and mental health with no illness and no cavities even I think they were doing just fine. Granted, they probably shouldn't have just camped out in a park, but still! I think it's pretty cool they survived that long by themselves.

ETA: There are people living in much worse conditions in big cities.