Aaron Tarfman, who had been missing since Tuesday has returned to his home in Southeast Portland. He’s safe and sound and was not aware of the extreme amount of concern that his absence caused among many in the community.
Aaron had written a “Farewell letter” on his personal website and judging by its tone and content, many of his close friends feared the worst.
He was spotted by PGE work crews on Faraday Road, a carfree road on the Clackamas River that Aaron has frequented several times on bike trips. The PGE crews called him after realizing who it was. Two separate search parties made up of Aaron’s friend set off this morning en route to Faraday to find him, but at around 11:00 am this morning Aaron walked into his house in the Brooklyn neighborhood to find friends buzzing about.
Elly Blue said she was just taking off her rain jacket when he walked up. “Everybody’s still a little bit in shock, but Aaron is cheerful, even laughing. He has no idea all this has been going on and was surprised people were worried about him.”
Aaron apparently just wanted to go camping up on Mt. Hood which is where he’s been for the past three days. According to Elly, he slept in restrooms to stay warm and slept at a friend’s house in Portland last night. “He just wanted to so some thinking.”
We all have done a lot of thinking these past few days. Thinking about friendship and community and being there for the ones we love. One of Aaron’s (many) friends Matt Picio shared this on the Shift list a few minutes ago:
“We all care about Aaron, and Aaron is a good friend and a valuable member of the community. He needs our continued friendship, support, and understanding. I’m very glad he is safe and back at the house.”
Pizza has been ordered and everyone is beginning to enter the next phase of confused feelings this situation has spurred.
Aaron has been in touch with family and police have been notified about his return.
If you’d like to help Aaron get back on his feet. His friends have set up the PayPal button below to accept donations (funds go through BikePortland and 100% – minus PayPal cut – to support Aaron).