WBRZ - Baton Rouge

SALT LAKE CITY - A U.S. Forest Service officer who came across two potentially deadly booby traps along a popular Utah hiking trail says his years of military experience as a bomb disposal technician helped him spot the devices.

James Schoeffler told The Associated Press on Wednesday he's been in the military 16 years and has disposed of countless booby traps and bombs in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

Last week while checking out a tip of suspicious activity on a hiking trail about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, Schoeffler says he spotted a trip wire made of fishing line set to send a 20-pound, spiked boulder swinging into an unsuspecting hiker.

He then located another trap set to trip someone onto sharpened wooden stakes.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor reckless endangerment.