Hauser Mountain Trip Report

3,808 ft

I had a unique experience hiking today that accrues from living at the edge of Anglo America (indeed, at the very SW corner).

After a successful summit of Hauser Mtn (just east of Potrero in south San Diego County), one of innumerable little mountains (at least by western standards) in San Diego County, I was hiking back to civilization when ...

...a band of perhaps one dozen hispanic men came the opposite direction along the trail, that is, heading north.

They were men in their twenties or so. I said "hola" ("hello" in Spanish) followed by "buenos dias" in order to appear friendly.

I then intentionally went down the wrong trail to mislead their leader ("coyote") so that should they try to harass me (or worse?) I would duck in the brush and head x-country to the right trail leading back to my auto miles away on route 94.

This was a very remote hike since none of the trails I was on are documented and are completely unmaintained (which is probably why they were going that way).

Unless you were born yesterday on Mars, you just have to know what they were up to.

I considered using my cell phone to notify the border patrol ... but decided against it since I personally don't mind illegal aliens so long as they don't steal jobs from Americans. They generally take work that Americans won't touch such as picking lettuce.

I watched my back carefully and decided to go class 2-3 boulder-hopping down a ravine lest somebody try to follow me (I figured they would not have the requisite climbing experience).

After discussing this incident with Edward Earl (who was not present), Edward said that the last thing an illegal alien wants is to be thrown in an American jail for a criminal offense. Thereby they try to mind their own business.

These local hikes are standard practice for me until the Forest roads open after the snowmelt and allow me to collect more counties (of course there IS Costa Rica in just one month).

This hike was a case of "living on the edge" in more ways than one!