PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Maryland teenager who was a star athlete but apparently did not know how to swim drowned at a popular but dangerous area of the Clackamas River in Oregon.
The Oregonian reported that 18-year-old Walter Dines died Tuesday after leaping into the river at High Rocks swimming hole, the first drowning since lifeguards were posted there in 2002.
The Clackamas, like many Oregon rivers, runs cold in spring and summer with runoff from melting mountain snowpacks.
The Portland newspaper said Dines visited Ocean City, Md., last week with classmates from North County High School in suburban Baltimore. But they said Dines avoided the ocean because he was afraid of the water.