A dozen years ago I happened upon a book in the middle of a dirt road surrounding a cotton field. It was a Bible. In Spanish.

I still wonder why someone who had likely carried it with them across the US-Mexico border suddenly dropped it and left it behind. Were they being chased by border patrol or some law enforcement agency? I will never know for sure.

But it got me to thinking about all of the random things trail runners find discarded in the woods, like they'll magically disappear.