That’s what it looked like this morning at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I walked out into the desert to take photos, rejoicing at the lightning, until one bolt hit about 200 feet away.
You know, I can run pretty fast when I have to.
It was a change from yesterday, when Organ Pipe staff hauled me along on a survey of vehicluar damage to the Monument along the border, most but not all of it done by smugglers of pot or people. Some of it is being done by the law enforcement people who chase them. It was 104 degrees yesterday at eleven a.m., reasonably comfortable considering it all, not all that unusual hiking weather for me in fact, and yet I looked at the mountains off in the distance and felt my soul shrivel. I tried to imagine being an enthusiastic 22-year-old from Oaxaca or Tamaulipas, used to heat but accustomed to finding water every half mile, and being confronted with this sign:
And 60 miles of death past it. And many of them not doing this for the first time. Imagine a life in which a sixty-mile hike in triple-digit temperatures, a one in ten chance of dying at least, is something you would think reasonable to face more than once in order to pick lettuce for five bucks an hour or less.
More to write, more to write. It’s been a productive few days. And daunting. I did get to Quitobaquito yesterday. (Having a life in which I can look at areas closed to the public and ask to be escorted there by government officials, and have it happen? Pretty cool.) The springs are still there, and still wet and fringed with tules, and they edge up against a construction site now. But more later. Internet acccess will be sporadic over the next few days, coinciding more or less precisely with coffeeshop access.
Man, I’m jealous! And appreciative - this is investigative blogging at its best. (Uh, there *is* such a thing as investigative blogging, right?) Keep dodging them lightning bolts.
Yep. I knew it wouldn’t be too long before you posted something that made me officially homesick. There are few things in the world I love as much as saquaros with a range of spiky mountains behind them.
An awful lot of clouds in that photo, and obvious rain in the distance, though…. My mother tells me monsoon season has arrived very early this year. It’s probably another sign of screwed up weather patterns, but I’m always glad when Arizona gets rain.