A quick hike up a short trail

I told Kevin that I wouldn't come by the hospital until later in the afternoon because I wanted to take the dogs on a short hike, for their sake and mine. Weather was still cold in the morning, but by 11pm the thermostat reached 60F. I drove up Carr Canyon road (the road to the peak was closed) but parked in the first parking lot on the right. A small ATV convention was getting started, but the dogs and I walked unmolested on the illegal trail.

I hadn't been on this trail for a good ten months. Several diseased oaks had fallen over the trail. Sara and Sammy seemed to remember this trai, as Sara, as usual, kept her nose close to the ground. I chose this area because it's a short trail and I would be within cell phone range the entire time.

This is a popular illegal trail, as border crossers come down from the Crest Trail into Ramsey Canyon and follow a well-trodden trail through manzanitas and scrub oaks to Carr Canyon a few miles south. This is where they get picked up and taken quickly out of the forest to points north. Ranch homes are within view from this trail. The trail didn't look too badly trashed until I made it over the first ridge and approached Ramsey canyon.

And then I hit my first pile of discarded backpacks, weather-worn plastic bottles, and sunbleached clothes that faded into the terrain. The dogs wanted to hike on, but I stopped at the first trash mound, picked up three small backpacks of trash and called for the dogs to come back and return back to the car. We may have gone 2.5 miles total.

Snow melt was already trickling down the intermittent Carr waterfall. Sunlight reflected brilliantly in the water. I dropped off the trash at the USFS trashbins. We were back home a little over an hour later. This was enough for the dogs as they came back panting and wanting water.

I made it to the hospital by 3pm. His roommate, the dying man Walter, had been sent home to die as per his wishes. His bed had been sanitized. Two hours later a new roommate came in, a young illegal escorted by a US Border Patrol agent. The man had been found dehydrated and injured in the western Huachucas with two others who were in another room.

Kevin couldn't wait to tell a friend about "being under USBP guard." The agent never left the illegal's presence. We chatted a bit with the agent but I didn't want to distract him. The illegal ate a full meal with the agent. A look at the man seemed to reveal some bruises on his head. He didn't look to be in good spirits, and I didn't attempt to talk to the man. Our hospital bill is going to be high even for our share of the bill, and it's a bit disconcerting to know that the illegals in the hospital are being taken care of by the rest of us paying patients. (And this hospital repeatedly gets cited for overcharging patients). But what's the other option? Carrying dead Mexicans down the mountain trails? With two mean storms coming our way off the California coast, these three Mexicans are lucky to have been rescued in time.