Chiricahuas and Smugglers

[raisingarizona13]

I've been really wanting to explore the Chiricahuas for some time now and just recently started doing some actual research. It looks incredible up in there but I keep hearing about the dangers related to drug smugglers. How bad is it really? I imagine that they don't really want anything to do with backpackers.

Does anyone in here have experience spending time up there and what are your thoughts?

Thanks

[Alston_Neal]

That place is a vortex of weirdness.

Weirder than here?

[LindaAnn]

@Alston_Neal It’s a different kind of weird.

[Pivo]

@Alston_Neal It’s a different kind of weird.

Category 1-5 Weird, is what NOAA uses.

[rcorfman]

@LindaAnn
More so than Bisbee?

[raisingarizona13]

@rcorfman

Bisbee is a good kind of weird I hear.

[PatrickL]

A more respectable weird than South Mountain, that’s for sure

[gummo]

@LindaAnn
You must have some good stories to tell about South Mtn. The weirdest people that I've seen hiking was Glacier National Park. Fear of bears makes people stupid - mostly because we are sheltered and out of touch with nature.

[SJFL]

This is completely anecdotal, but I was up there a couple weeks ago for three days/two nights and hiked ~30 miles without running into any traffic or signs of it. A couple months ago I was in the Huachucas on the Lyle Canyon trail and that was a whole different story. The trail was littered up and down with cans. Very sad. Didn't run into anyone. But may have heard traffic during the night.

[hikeaz]

US border agent kills man on rugged trail in Arizona
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-bo ... li=BBnbfcL

[chumley]

@hikeaz Well that article missing 100% of the story! Do journalists still know what the five W’s are?

[big_load]

@hikeaz Well that article missing 100% of the story! Do journalists still know what the five W’s are?

I'm glad it wasn't me. But I agree, the article doesn't tell me much more than that. (Well, it doesn't really even tell me that. I infer my continued existence from being asked to cook dinner.)

[PatrickL]

@chumley This is actually top notch journalism, just peep the Fox News video planted in the middle of the article

[xsproutx]

@PatrickL
Gotta love the comparison to an active invasion with bombings in Ukraine to... migrants looking for jobs in the states? Parents trying to send their kids to relatives in the states for a better life? Yes, illegal but.... a bit different. (note, he also said "potential invasion" but the invasion actually started years ago...)

But yeah. Well written story that's quite relevant to the topic here; if you're undocumented, you may well get killed by the border patrol? Assuming OP is a citizen, I still stand by my previous comments.

[RedRoxx44]

Skeleton Canyon forever on the list. Was open, then closed, some other legend around it besides the Geronimo/Crook surrender site. Rumors of smugglers, rumors of old area ranching operations in assisting said smuggling, Rumors of a glider painted by a laser sight flying over, rumor of a glider pilot and student downed in that area years ago fatally; the forest service and the Douglas border patrol office told me flat out years ago folks not welcome there despite being mostly on forest land.
I've hiked part of the Geronimo trail mainly to an area of one of the first photos of a jaguar in the US, but not since the area burned. Trying to access from Az and New Mexico side has been a no go ( and looking down the double barrel shotgun of an agitated New Mexico rancher years back kinda quashed that access.)
So, it's still on the list but not anytime soon.

[Mountain_Rat]

@xsproutx
If you're crossing the border illegally anywhere along Cochise County, you aren't looking for a job or a better life. You do that in Santa Cruz and Yuma, and not into wilderness areas, but on well traveled roads where you're likely to get your ride into a processing center. Let's be realistic.

[big_load]

Skeleton Canyon forever on the list. Was open, then closed, some other legend around it besides the Geronimo/Crook surrender site

Yes, as I understand it was used by rustlers since AZ was settled. Mexican police killed rustlers there in 1879 and of course there was one events leading up to the OK Corral shootout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_Canyon_massacres

[hikeaz]

@hikeaz Well that article missing 100% of the story! Do journalists still know what the five W’s are?

Source = AP = S.N.A.F.U..

[chumley]

@hikeaz
Well AP can mean anything really. That's just how it was distributed in this case. Could be a local Douglas paper that put it out on the AP wire. But it would be nice if some enterprising young reporter somewhere asked a few questions and wrote a follow-up.

[Alston_Neal]

but on well traveled roads where you're likely to get your ride into a processing center. Let's be realistic.

Wait a sec, if you're crossing the border illegally and don't want to be caught, then why would you want to get a ride to the processing center. I'm confused.

[RedRoxx44]

Depends, the drug runners or coyotes once they have delivered the goods, if they have a clean sheet they want to go back for the next assignment. Border patrol will pick them up, take them to processing, usually stopping and getting them burger and fries, then once thru holding they are deported. They get their next assignment and go again. Usually they try to move them to another route. One border patrol agent told me he caught one guy three times in the same canyon in a week.
Another off roader hiker I was talking to near the border was telling me a few guys separated from their group offered him some significant money to take them to Phoenix. He thought about the legal implications and turned them down.