I drove over to Squirrel, Idaho a couple weekends back. I’d never heard of the place until Piper’s veterinarian Sarah mentioned she was born and raised there, and it’s just a few miles off Hwy 32 heading to Ashton. I swore I’d never drive that highway again since I almost died on that road and I told Sarah that I almost “bought the farm there”. She asked me “Which one?” (sigh…)
I had this great idea to mount my GoPro on the front of my truck and shoot the whole trip to Squirrel from Hwy 32. I did, but it turned out so bouncy I scrapped it. The drive is beautiful though and you can find it with this map.
There’s not much there but a big sheep ranch. I pulled over to remove my camera from the hood when this young Mexican guy walked up to me. He gestured over to a small trailer where it was obvious he was living out of and then began pointing franticly at the trailer hitch on my truck. He pointed at the sheep herd, gave the universal hand signal for “no more”, and then kept pointing at his trailer, and my hitch.
It was obvious he wanted me to get him out of town and I decided why not so I got in my truck and started to back it over to his trailer when a large truck pulling a sheep trailer shot across the field, right between us. Nobody got out of the truck, it just sat there. I got the message and mosied on down the road.
As I was driving home it sank in that this obviously illegal young guy was the property of the sheepherder and I came very close to liberating him…
Oh no, you be careful. Too many people are getting shot for no reason and that sounded like a reason. Scary!!!
glad they did not have a gun….LOL not
Looking back now, I see this as a modern day version of slavery. A young illegal given a small trailer, and some food I’m assuming, in exchange for sheep herding work. That’s ok, I suppose, but not letting him leave? Yea, it’s probably good that this old unarmed guy didn’t get involved, but maybe someone should…