Two Guys Walking

I was driving through the desert yesterday when I saw the first guy. He was walking the same direction I was going, about 200 feet off the highway and well into the desert. He had a backpack slung over his shoulder and he was walking as opposed to soliciting a ride. The desert at this point was huge, nothing on the landscape for many miles, not even mountains, and I wondered why he was there.

I spotted the second guy about twenty miles down the road. He was in the same general position off the road as the first guy, heading in the same direction, but he had nothing but the dirty clothes he was wearing. He was also walking with his head down, like the first guy, and I know why: he was watching for rattlesnakes.

I had the most convoluted moment as I spotted this second guy. I’d already considered my duties as a fellow human being to the first guy. Should I have stopped and invaded his privacy and offered him a ride or supplies. He had a backpack, and he could have been at the side of the road with his thumb out, but he wasn’t.

But here I was speeding through the desert at 75mph, in traffic, when the second guy appeared on my right. To stop I would have had to perform a panic stop with my worn brakes and backed up a quarter mile.

I didn’t, and I should have. I could have given him water and food, or offered him a ride. What is it that makes these guys venture out into the desert like that?

I really hope they made it across…

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Categorized as Havasu

2 comments

  1. I used to pick up hikers back in the day, because my husbands brother used to hike all the time, and I would have liked to think someone would pick him up. Now I don’t because you may end up dead.

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