By Weatherbug & XRN   Tue, Sep 30, 2008

The foothills of the Sandia and Monzano mountains that run along the eastern border of Albuquerque, NM hold a lot of hidden Geocaches! Every street that dead ends into these foothills seems to have trails that branch out and connect with numerous other trails. A few of these trails can take you to the high ridgeline that runs north and south where the Ridge Trail follows this rough high country for several miles.

The Albuquerque area is in a “high desert” environment, while back in the canyons and higher elevations presents a mixture of vegetation, with Juniper trees in the lower elevations and various pines up high. A few tiny streams flow through many of the canyons, only to be swallowed up by the dry sandy arroyos extending toward the city to the west. To be sure, there are no swamps or streams containing alligators in this territory!

As my wife and I were returning from some tough caches far back in these foothills, we came upon a young man by surprise. He looked very clean cut, well dressed, and with new hiking boots on. We were not at all suspicious as he approached, until he asked us for some water. We both carry a couple of water bottles along with our hip packs when hiking. His manor of speech when asking for some water immediately put us on alert! We wondered at the time if he was on drugs and would be a threat. We also carry pepper spray on our hip pack belts where we can get to it fast. I felt for mine and was reassured that it was handy if needed.

The more we talked with him, while he guzzled water from one of my canteens, the more we realized that he “didn’t have a full set of marbles upstairs”! What clinched that thought was his explanation for being out in the mountain wilderness all day. He said that he liked wildlife and was searching for alligators!

As he handed back my now empty canteen, he thanked us and said he should head for home. But he started back toward the mountain wilderness instead of westward toward the housing areas. So I stopped him and asked him where he lived. He pointed back toward the mountains and said “I guess its back in there somewhere”. We explained that there were no houses back that way and that we could help him get home. He was glad to follow us toward some housing and remained very pleasant and cooperative.

Once we got to the edge of some housing where there was a street sign, I whipped out my cell phone and dialed 911. I explained to him that a nice police man would come to take him home. He seemed fine with this, so we were pretty reassured that he was not a run away or had a warrant on him. The police dispatch sent a cop to find us and see what was up with this strange young man. While waiting in the shade near the street corner we took out the two apples we also carried with us. Giving one of them to him made him look confused and he asked us how he was supposed to eat it. We suspected that his mother must always peel and cut apple slices for him to eat. So I chomped into the apple and tore off a big bite, replying, “Just take a big bite like I did”. As we were finishing our apples the police car showed up, with a female cop. This was good, as she seemed to be less threatening to him. We assured her that he didn’t seem to be on drugs and was mentally about like a three year old, in our opinion.

As she asked him to show her his I.D., he pulled out a very fat wallet that contained about 50 or so wallet sized cards. He obviously had been collecting them for some time and was very proud of them. The police woman finally found an I.D. card mixed in the pile and called it into the dispatch. There was apparently no answer, so she coaxed him into the car promising him some more food and soda.

We had to assume that he would eventually get back home to someone who cared about him very much. His neat appearance and brand new hiking boots showed that he was well taken care of by someone.

With that experience under our belts for the day, we decided not to hike back into the wilderness after another cache. It was still another mile of trails to where we had parked our car. The cold drinks from the cooler in our car trunk sure tasted good by then! This was a rewarding Geocaching experience for us. That poor “kid” would have had a hard time surviving a night back in the wilderness we agreed. So we “chalked” this encounter up as possibly saving a life!