Along the border

Sunrise was a dull grey today, but I still took the dogs out for a two-mile walk capped with a dip in the stockpond for Minnie.  The pond is slowly drying up, revealing a two-foot dry bank now.

Skies were overcast all day, accompanied with a cool breeze.  I took Zeke and Sweetie out to the border at 3pm as planned, just to see what kind of border wall construction is going on there.  I had heard that cottonwoods were getting cut down to make way for the wall.

I parked across the road from an access point on BLM land a little less than a mile from the border.  Roads here are hard-packed dirt roads.  Mobile homes and pre-fab rectangular ranch houses dot the landscape.  It's horse and cattle country here. There are signs stating that only US government vehicles can access the Border road, so I stayed on BLM land.  I wore a bright red fleece jacket to purposefully stand out and not surprise any US Border Patrol agents who may be along the border.

A Nodak helicopter swooped over the border, circling near me and then turning around.  Had I set off sensors?  I'm allowed to hike here.  No signs otherwise warn of trespassing for those walking on BLM land.

The dogs were enticed by three white-tailed deer grazing right at the border. I called them back and they listened.  While there has been some clearing along the border, there wasn't much disturbance other than from dead grass that had been bent flat to the ground from the floods two months ago.  The river was actually low-flowing and calm here, snaking north under budding cottonwoods.  I saw no construction anywhere.  It was still the same iron-wrought fence on either side of the river, with hedgehogs right across the river and flood plain.

I let the dogs drink river water before walking back to the car.  This was a short 2.2-mile hike across grassland.

I topped off my visit with a drive-through of Kings Ranch estates, the first post 2007 development near the border and AZ92.  This was once rolling hills and washes with open grazing to the north.  Now many more homes have been built here since I last walked through the area several years ago when Sammy was still around.  Home owners here have an intimate view of Thompson peak and the southern Huachucas.

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It was on my drive back home that NPR announced that former mayor of South Bend, IN, Pete Buttigieg, has dropped out of the presidential race after a poor showing in South Carolina.  He had been my choice for next president.  Now I'm back to ground zero.

Many new cases of the novel coronavirus have been detected in new countries.  Iran and Italy are the two centers for catching the disease; travelers then spread the virus back to their countries.