HIGH
PLACES
By Steve Chism
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Some friends of mine and I ride ATVs around and about the
mountains of the Cape Region of Baja California Sur.
Sometimes we go solo and other times in groups as large as
20. Most of the time we start out with a destination in
mind. Sometimes it works out and other times not. We've been
to ranchos
that have existed for 200 years or more and operate much
the same as they did back then. Many of these ranchos have
all of the animals you would expect to see on a farm from
cows to geese. We've seen tame deer, quail, playful raccoons
and a flock of pugnacious ostriches. Needless to say we kept
our distance from them! We've also been to gold mines,
Indian cave paintings and kitchen miden sites, mountain
streams and water falls, abandoned ranchos, marine fossil
beds and various other places worth seeing.
One
trip in particular was especially memorable. It happened one
winter day when a friend came by early in the morning to ask
me to go for a ride with him later that afternoon. He said
he'd found something interesting to show me. When I asked
what it was he said, "Don't worry, you'll like
it!" We started off from Hotel Buena Vista Beach Resort
around 3:30 PM. Now in the winter this gives us only about 2½
hours more of daylight. So I knew our destination must be
pretty close to home. We took off toward the mountains up an
arroyo that I had driven in several times. We went up as far
as we could on our ATVs until huge boulders and the exposed
granite backbone of the mountain stopped traffic. I asked my
friend, "What now?" "We climb", he said,
"Not far."
So,
we climbed up 20 or 30 yards of boulders and rock face. We
came to a flat area about 60 yards long and 40 yards wide.
There was a granite wall in front of us, with a very steep,
rocky hill on one side and a heavily brushed palm grove on
the other. I asked again, "Where in hell are we
going?" "Come on", he said and went over to
the palm grove. He poked around the edge for a minute. Then
he said, "Here!" and disappeared into the palms. I
followed, discovering a winding path through the palms where
thorns had been pruned off the fronds and the heavy brush
cut from the center of the path. If you bent over a little
you could walk easily right through.
We
walked about 15 yards through the palms and came to another
flat area which appeared to be an orchard. We found
ourselves gazing at oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, papaya,
avocados, guava, mangos and sugar cane. What a surprise! But
an even bigger surprise was the drip irrigation system! The
water supply for the orchard came from above, down the face
of a steep cliff in a black plastic pipe. We had no idea
where the source was located. We ate a couple of grapefruit.
They were excellent! My friend picked a dozen or so to take
home.
My friend's visits to the orchard continued throughout
the winter. One day when he went up to replenish his supply,
he encountered an old man up on an old rickety wooden ladder
picking fruit. He introduced himself and told the old man
what he'd been doing over the past few months. He then
offered to pay for the fruit he'd taken so far. The old man
said, "You're welcome to take what you want. My family
has more than they can use!" The old man also told him
that he had no way to market the fruit anyway and didn't
have a ladder tall enough to harvest everything from the
tops of the trees. My friend continued to visit the orchard
on a regular basis until the only fruit left was out of
reach.
The following summer, my friend made a trip to the USA.
When he returned in late fall he had an 18 foot Orchard
Ladder strapped to the top of his car. I asked, "What
are you going to do with that?" "Give it to the
old man up at the orchard.", he said. So in December a
couple of us got together and moved the ladder up to the
orchard. We left it propped up so that the old man would
find it.
Late in January my friend asked me if I thought the old
man was dead. "Why?", I asked. "Because I
haven't seen him all winter and I'm the only one using the
new Orchard Ladder.", he said. But he continued his
regular weekly raids. One day he went up to the orchard and
encountered the old man on the top of the old rickety ladder
picking fruit.( Now you have to understand that this old
ladder is not just RICKETY
... it's definitely a hazard to your health!) My
friend and the old man talked for a bit. Then my friend
asked the old man why he didn't use the new Orchard Ladder.
"Don't you like it?", he asked. "Yes, it's a
fine ladder!", the old man replied, "But, it's not
mine señor! "
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