N 32° 4X.XXX W 114° 2X.XXX

from Local Treasures

N 32° 4X.XXX W 114° 2X.XXX

In the moment, I felt puckish, even a little smug. Technically, it’s a federal offense to geocache in this place (hence the X’d coordinates above), a violation of one of the various prohibitions related to the game that the government has issued. I understand the necessity of these bans in certain places. But often, the prohibitions seem so unnecessary that they smack of old-fashioned tyranny. When Rob and I realized this cache was in forbidden territory, we thought carefully about what to do. We decided to stay, to consider this foray an exercise of civil disobedience.

That was then, before I began trying to figure out the name of the mountains in the distance. I typed the location into a search engine and in .85 seconds was able to start sifting through a few of the 11,000 websites Google gathered. One included a link to the official website of the place we’d been; naturally, I clicked on it. A warning appeared; I was about to enter a Department of Defense computer system. Still miffed that the DOD dots the desert with No Trespassing signs, I considered clicking ‘okay’ and entering the military’s virtual dominion. But the notice also said that entering the site constituted “consent to monitoring” my computer, permission for “active attacks by authorized DOD entities” against my peaceable, unassuming laptop. I decided topographical curiosity was insufficient reason to risk “administrative, criminal, or other adverse action.”

I’d like to say I’m simply sulking, mortified by my quick compliance with the warning, afraid it means I’ve negated whatever high-mindedness I exhibited in the desert. But the emptying of my lungs as I read that cybernetic “do not enter” sign felt less like a symptom of petulance than of grief. I felt overcome by public sorrow, oppressed from all directions by the knowledge that the government owns forty-two percent of the land in Arizona and denies us access to much of it, that they can already search my computer, without even waiting for me to click “okay,” that both land and broadband are now places to be entered at one’s own risk, subject to penalty, after consenting to be monitored.