S1E13: Don't Die Today: Heat in the Desert

UNCORRECTED TRANSCRIPT

0:00:00 - (Alicia Pike): This podcast was made possible by the generous support of our Patreon patrons. They provide us with the resources we need to produce each episode. You can join them at 90 miles from needles.com patreon.

0:00:25 - (Bouse Parker): The sun is a giant blowtorch aimed at your face. There ain't no shade nowhere. Let's hope you brought enough water. It's time for 90 miles from needles, the Desert Protection podcast with your hosts Chris Clarke and Alicia Pike.

0:00:44 - (Chris Clarke): Heatwave is expected to continue throughout the US this week, and experts say it's likely dozens of other heat records will be set in the coming days. The first person died last Wednesday, August.

0:00:56 - (Chris Clarke): 18, while hiking near Red Cathedral along.

0:00:59 - (Chris Clarke): The Golden Canyon Trail in Death Valley National Park.

0:01:02 - (Chris Clarke): 60 year old Lawrence standback of San Francisco collapsed and died on the trail.

0:01:07 - (Chris Clarke): National park staff received a report of.

0:01:09 - (Chris Clarke): Suspected heatstroke and CPR in progress at 01:40 p.m. Another person died along the same trail.

0:01:16 - (News Anchor): 52 year olds there reached triple digits by 10:00 a.m. In the summer Saturday. The National Park Service says 52 year old Blake Chaplin was found near the Manly Beacon formation.

0:01:25 - (News Anchor): His death is under investigation this afternoon. We've received the final autopsy report for the 31 year old Boston woman who died while hiking on Camelback Mountain.

0:01:34 - (News Anchor): The medical examiner says that Angela Tremonte's death was accidental, the result of heat exposure. A sad reminder to always take proper precautions. Breaking news out of Palm Springs, where a body has been found near the North Lichen hiking trail at the end of Ramon Road. This was the scene around nine tonight when the investigation was just getting underway. The body was first reported around eight tonight. Not clear if the person was a hiker or perhaps dead time after collapsing in triple digit heat along the Pacific Crest Trail.

0:02:06 - (News Anchor): It started around 1130 this morning on the Pacific Crest Trail near highway 74.

0:02:11 - (News Anchor): They said the woman was with another.

0:02:13 - (News Anchor): Hiker when she passed out. She was pronounced dead on scene.

0:02:16 - (News Anchor): One hiker died. Another is in critical condition after getting stranded in extreme temperatures of the weekend. It happened on Saturday. Cal Fire says it received a distress call from Borrego Springs, and when they arrived, crews found that two on a trail, one hiker died at the scene. A Brego Springs firefighter also collapsed during that rescue officials say the temperatures there reached upwards of 115 degrees just that day alone.

0:02:42 - (Chris Clarke): July 7 BaDWater, California, a highlight of Death Valley National park, or maybe I should say low light. We are 282ft below sea level. Though it is the beginning of July, a heat wave that socked in the entire western United States has passed within the last few days. And so at 07:00 p.m. The temperature here at Badwater was down all the way to 122 degrees fahrenheit, about 50 1. Should have brought a sweater.

0:03:14 - (Chris Clarke): I am about a half mile from the pavement now, and that's about as far as I'm going to let myself get from the pavement. Still reasonably comfortable, however, the encrusted salt that has coalesced after thousands of years of concentration and drainage from the Amargosa river and its tributaries here is doing a really good job of reflecting the sunlight. And even though the sun's at a very low angle over the Panamint mountains right now, the effect is not unlike being in a convection oven, complete with convection window.

0:03:48 - (Chris Clarke): When it's 122 degrees out and the wind is the same temperature, a breeze can actually make you feel like your hairs are being singed off your forearms. I think this is the first time I've ever been by myself at Badwater. On the road in from Shoshone, I saw no other vehicles until I got to Badwater, and there was one in the parking lot, and that one left about 20 seconds after I arrived. Those of you who are looking for a way to enjoy the California desert without the crowds, all you have to.

0:04:20 - (Chris Clarke): Do is risk your life. Hi, and welcome to 90 miles from needles. That last little bit of death defying audio was recorded July 7, 2021, in Death Valley National park in the Badwater basin. At 282ft below sea level, it is the lowest point in the western hemisphere that isn't completely covered by saltwater. I was in Death Valley National park on a work trip, and as it turns out, July 7, 2022, a year since we recorded that and the day when many of you will be hearing this. I will be in bad water again.

0:05:01 - (Chris Clarke): We will see if this yearly custom of mine becomes an annual traditional I have a conflicted relationship with heat. As we'll discuss in this episode, I recognize the danger that extreme heat poses to those of us who go outside. I don't take that heat lightly. I don't take the danger lightly. I do revel in it in a way that might well be similar to the way a BASE jumper revels in jumping off an extremely tall cliff.

0:05:30 - (Chris Clarke): Heat is incredibly dangerous, as the first set of clips you heard underscores, I am not immune to those dangers, nor are you. Heat can sneak up on you. It takes away your sound logic first and then your strength. We're going to spend a lot of time in this episode talking about the threats that eat poses because those are really important. And your paying attention could save your life or the life of someone you love.

0:05:59 - (Chris Clarke): And that relationship, for me, is conflicted. I don't want to get sunburned in any ecosystem. And yet I'm really glad the sun is there. I'm really glad the heat is here. And our goal is to make sure we all can enjoy the heat for many years to come. About ten years ago, I had this train of thought that has changed my life. I was thinking about somebody that had just gone out of my life who used to complain a lot about the heat.

0:06:34 - (Chris Clarke): I am not gonna begrudge them that. I think if you're unhappy, you don't have to just suck it up. You can express yourself. But to me, it was like when I lived in the city, and I would be commuting by subway. The platform is crowded, and we're all waiting, and we all want to be somewhere else, and there's somebody on the platform that's just looking at their watch going, this is horrible. I just. I can't believe how late the train is. It's a frustration that we all feel, but there's a point at which when you complain, you're making it worse for everybody around you.

0:07:11 - (Chris Clarke): That was definitely the case with this person and their complaints about the heat. And I was thinking about that, how it could be 103 degrees out, and I wouldn't notice being uncomfortable until they started to complain. So I thought, I wonder if that works in reverse. I wonder if I was just sort of existing in 103 degree heat, which is not really all that big here in the desert.

0:07:38 - (Chris Clarke): It's downright comfortable.

0:07:40 - (Chris Clarke): 103 degree heat. You might not notice it in the desert once you're used to the desert.

0:07:44 - (Chris Clarke): Yeah.

0:07:45 - (Chris Clarke): But if someone started around me saying, God, I love this heat, would I feel better? Would I? Instead of responding negatively to a complaint, would I respond positively to a statement of pleasure? That was interesting to think about, and there wasn't anybody around.

0:08:03 - (Alicia Pike): Nobody would play that game with you.

0:08:05 - (Chris Clarke): Nope. So I did it with myself, and I thought, I'm going to just whenever I start noticing heat, I'm going to tell myself that I love the heat.

0:08:14 - (Alicia Pike): But does your body really love the heat? That's what always gets me, is that your molecular structures, they can only function up until about 115, and then they start dying. Your body will literally be complaining to tell you, this is unsafe. You might not want to stay out here for too long.

0:08:30 - (Chris Clarke): 115 is pushing it for sure.

0:08:31 - (Alicia Pike): Yeah.

0:08:32 - (Chris Clarke): 113 degrees fahrenheit was my threshold for not being able to function. And up to 112, I could drive in a car that didn't have air conditioning and endure and survive and make good decisions about driving, for the most part. And then 113 seemed to be where I would just go into panic. Survival mode.

0:08:54 - (Alicia Pike): Shit ain't fun anymore.

0:08:55 - (Chris Clarke): Yeah. Now that I started to tell myself for the last ten years that I enjoy the heat, that's gone up to around 118. And yes, if the air temperature is higher than your body temperature, it's really important to do things like hydrating and replenishing your electrolytes and staying out of the direct sun and all this kind of stuff. And we can talk about that. But one of the reasons that I got out to Badwater on this particular day was just to see what it felt like. I hadn't really been outside of the built environment when it was more than 120 degrees.

0:09:32 - (Chris Clarke): And it was remarkable. It was an ecstatic experience. And I am not advocating that people go out and do this willy nilly. There were a lot of things that I had that made it almost safe. I had my car keys. The car had a half a tank of gas. It was definitely enough to get to an air conditioned motel room or to a place with iced drinks and salty snacks. I deliberately did not push myself, said, I'm going to walk away from the car until it stops being completely fun.

0:10:05 - (Alicia Pike): Okay. We were all worried about you. You remember that, right? Like, we were all very worried about you doing that. Yeah.

0:10:10 - (Chris Clarke): Yep. But I feel like, if I'm describing the desert as a writer, if I am advocating for the desert, there's a range of experiences I need to have in order to really do it. Fair enough, effectively and authentically. And I have no interest in sacrificing myself for the cause. When I'm out hiking, I'm the one that says, this four foot dry fall is a little bit much for me. Let's turn around. That's what I do. So it was never, in this particular instance, about safety, other than the drive there, which was the most dangerous part of the whole day.

0:10:44 - (Alicia Pike): Yeah. Getting in and getting out.

0:10:47 - (Chris Clarke): But that said, we should talk about how you keep yourself alive when it's warmer than you want it to be. And this includes a bunch of things that you need to make sure and do, and it also includes a few things that you need to make sure and not do.

0:11:02 - (Alicia Pike): True. I mean, water, obviously, top of the list, I think, most of the year, a gallon per person per day. And in the summertime, if you're moving, it's two gallons per person. Per day, minimum that you should be consuming, not just having on hand in case. And then something I've learned about water consumption out here in the desert is starting your day already hydrated is really important. If you go out into the desert after a night of drinking and you want to go for that morning hike, and your lips are a little chapped in the morning, you might want to chug that one gallon of water before you leave the house.

0:11:39 - (Alicia Pike): Because if you go out into this heat and this desert environment already dehydrated, you get heat illness first, and then heat stroke comes after that. And the symptoms of heat illness are very unpleasant.

0:11:54 - (Bouse Parker): General symptoms of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, painful muscle cramps, extreme weakness and fatigue, nausea or vomiting, dizziness or headache. Body temperature normal or slightly high, fainting. Pulse fast and weak. Breathing fast and shallow, clammy, pale, cool, or moist skin.

0:12:14 - (Alicia Pike): I do not recommend pushing yourself into that zone. And it happens to us every summer because you do get used to the heat. And so you start to push yourself a little bit further. And like for me, I get really grumpy. I feel extremely short tempered, and dizzy is another. You get just a little light headed. And then if you're hungry at all, you're going to lose your appetite. You're not going to be able to eat for hours, right?

0:12:38 - (Alicia Pike): And once you've entered that state, it can take you three days to a week for your body to recover from what you just did in ten minutes. It doesn't take but ten to 20 minutes to get yourself from heat illness to heat stroke.

0:12:54 - (Bouse Parker): Symptoms of heat stroke, no sweating because the body cannot release heat or cool down. Mental confusion, delirium, convulsions, dizziness. Hot and dry skin. Muscles may twitch uncontrollably. Pulse can be rapid and weak. Throbbing headache, shallow breathing, seizures, fits, unconsciousness, and coma. Body temperature may range from 100 to 104 degrees f or higher within 15 minutes. Heatstroke is usually fatal unless emergency medical treatment is provided promptly, and then death.

0:13:26 - (Alicia Pike): Is the next step. So being hydrated and paying very close attention to what your body is telling you is the first and foremost piece of advice. Things that you should do and should not do well. You should not go out dehydrated, and you should remain hydrated all times.

0:13:41 - (Chris Clarke): Right. And that leads us to the second thing that you need to do. Because if you're drinking all that water, you run a risk of developing what is called hyponatremia, which means that your electrolytes are running low.

0:13:54 - (Bouse Parker): Hyponatremia signs and symptoms may include nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, loss of energy, drowsiness and fatigue, restlessness and irritability, muscle weakness, spasms or cramps, seizures and coma.

0:14:09 - (Chris Clarke): And so if you're looking for an excuse to eat an entire bag of chips by yourself, that would be the time. You're out on a desert hike and it's a little bit warmer than you expected and you have enough water and you're drinking water, you want to replace the salts that you're sweating out. And sodium chloride is one of the most important ones. Potassium and all that kind of stuff. Sure. Add those on. If you have an electrolyte drink or a salt tablet or something like that, take it, but salty snacks will do it. I was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon about 20 years ago, and we were getting ready to hike out, and it was hot in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, even though there was snow on the north rim and went to the ranger talk at Phantom Ranch the evening before we were going to start hiking out this 5000 foot climb.

0:14:56 - (Chris Clarke): And ranger Pam, who was legendary, she talked about the importance of making sure that you stopped to eat salty snacks. The importance of making sure that when your legs started to feel like lactic acid was building up, that's the muscle aches and fatigue, that you find a shady spot and lie down and put your feet up on a rock somewhere and just let gravity help the lymph system drain some of that lactic acid out, it helps the flow and your.

0:15:25 - (Alicia Pike): Limbs tend to swell up. So that really helps.

0:15:28 - (Chris Clarke): Yep. And then some of the best advice I've ever heard in my life is something that ranger Pam told the group that night, which is testosterone is not an electrolyte replacement. And what that means is if you're tired, you rest.

0:15:46 - (Alicia Pike): You have to listen to your body.

0:15:48 - (Chris Clarke): If you get to the trailhead and it's really hot and you're thinking, maybe this isn't a good idea, and you're not feeling 100%, you don't hike.

0:15:59 - (Alicia Pike): Listen to that. I know that humans have a tendency to say, yeah, it's really hot, but I drove all this way. I planned this trip. Those expectations that you set up for yourself need to be ignored when your body is telling you something. And I'm personally speaking from experience here, I've pushed past that threshold enough times that I have damn near killed myself out here in the desert, and it will sneak up on you. So as soon as you hear that in your head, listen to it.

0:16:30 - (Chris Clarke): I think one of the biggest dangers in this regard is if you are in a group of human males between the ages of 18 and 40. None of them is going to want to be the one that says, I don't think this is a good idea. That was always my job. One of the reasons that I have made it to as old as I am is that I was, on occasion, willing to say, I'll wait here, guys.

0:16:54 - (Alicia Pike): Yeah. It's not just men. Let me just say from my own personal experience.

0:16:57 - (Chris Clarke): Okay, fair enough.

0:16:58 - (Alicia Pike): Tad and I were leading a group of friends through the Boy Scout trail. We were doing the through hike. So we were starting in Indian Cove, Rattlesnake Canyon, Indiana, going the hard way. We've done it both directions. And yeah, uphill is definitely, I think it's somewhere in the seven to 800 elevation change. And we were in the first third of the hike and we had a mix. It was pretty much 50 50 men and women.

0:17:23 - (Alicia Pike): And we always come over prepared just in case someone starts to overheat or didn't bring enough food or didn't bring enough water. Tad and I are always packing extra for our friends. And I noticed my friend, female, started to fall behind. I fell back and I'm checking on her and I'm asking how she's doing. And she's a very talkative and bubbly and friendly person. And she had gotten very quiet. So that was the first thing that I noticed and that she was slowing down. I remember walking behind her, seeing her take her spray bottle and dump it on her head. And I'm going to.

0:17:59 - (Alicia Pike): She just wasted an entire hike's worth of water dumping it on her head. You start to make really bad decisions. So I start talking to her, and she's not confessing that she's not feeling well, but I can tell just by looking at her, she started to break out in red, splotchy rashes on her biceps. So I said, everybody, we need to sit down and we need to take a break. And we had just hit the canyon where one of the canyon walls was providing a little sliver of shade. And I got her in there, and I bring cotton like scarves and oversized bandanas, and I bring spray bottles of water and I bring extra water. So I moistened one of the cotton towels and I laid that over her and she. Oh, and she said she was very open. I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to slow down the group. It's really important to pay attention not only to yourself, but to your friends, because they will try and just push through it.

0:18:53 - (Chris Clarke): Yeah.

0:18:53 - (Alicia Pike): Thinking to themselves, if everybody else is doing okay and keeping going, then I should too. And that is not true. We move as quickly as the slowest member of our group. There's never going to be anybody who needs to struggle to keep up. We will move as quickly as the slowest member in order to keep everybody together and everybody safe.

0:19:12 - (Chris Clarke): Right.

0:19:13 - (Alicia Pike): So men or women? Doesn't matter. Everybody can be. Your mental state can be usurped by the heat really quick.

0:19:19 - (Chris Clarke): Yep. Yeah. Which is why it's important. And this is not just when it's hot, it's for pretty much any reason. When you're hiking in, well, anywhere, if it's more than a couple of people, you make sure that there's somebody who is a fit able hiker, who is bringing up the rear run and sweep.

0:19:38 - (Alicia Pike): That's me. I was at the back.

0:19:40 - (Chris Clarke): And because anything can go wrong, one of the reasons that I like to hike alone is that whole toxic masculinity is striking. I'm going to be embarrassed if I say I'm too hot to continue hiking. I've gotten a lot better about that, and I've recognized that being chicken shit is a survival strategy.

0:19:57 - (Alicia Pike): Yeah, but it's also a spiritual thing. I know that we both feel like going into nature is akin to going to church on Sundays for some people. So when you get to that place with nature, it doesn't matter how long you're there or how far you drove or how much time you spent, it's just getting there and being there was enough. And you don't have to push yourself.

0:20:18 - (Chris Clarke): Right. And hiking in the desert in January is kind of like going to unitarian church and hiking in the desert in July. August is like going to baptist church.

0:20:29 - (Alicia Pike): And we'll be back after the break. And we're back.

0:22:08 - (Chris Clarke): How are you going to carry a gallon of water on a hike? It's tough. I have gone on hikes with people, some of them listening to this podcast, who are new to desert hiking and bring an amount of water that would be absolutely ample for a hike in the Santa Monica mountains or in the Sierra Nevada on a nice day. By the time you hear this, we will have a link on our website at 90 milesfrontles.com to buy some branded water bottle swag in a size that is getting close to what you'd want for a desert hike in a time when it is not quite so blisteringly hot a liter. So, you know, if you wanted to buy six of them, then that'd be about right. We're happy to sell you those. They support the podcast.

0:22:55 - (Chris Clarke): Really. I think a better approach is to use. Just to explain what I'm talking about, I will use a common brand name. There are a bunch of different companies that make hiking water reservoirs, like camelbak is what everybody thinks of.

0:23:10 - (Alicia Pike): I like the term dromedary bag.

0:23:13 - (Chris Clarke): The dromedary bag. But basically some way that you can have three or four liters of water on your back that you can just keep sipping out of the hose. The hose is right in front of your face.

0:23:27 - (Alicia Pike): An important thing to note is one gallon of water weighs eight pounds.

0:23:31 - (Chris Clarke): Yep.

0:23:32 - (Alicia Pike): So that's an extra 16 pounds that you need to account for carrying. And I personally have old injuries I have to deal with and I have a 20 pound weight limit. So hiking in the desert is very challenging for me because the weight of a pack that I need to do a long day hike in good conditions is 30 pounds, and that's mostly water and food. Also, when you're hiking in the heat, when you come to your halfway point of water, no matter what your intentions were for your hike, that's your turnaround time when half your water is gone.

0:24:06 - (Chris Clarke): Yep. Yeah, absolutely. I think ultralight hiking gear has a lot of purposes, and one of them is for day hikes in the desert so that you can carry enough water. But absolutely drink when you're thirsty. Don't believe the thing about by the time you're thirsty, it's already too late. That is marketing b's for sports drinks. Thirst is a fine tuned method for knowing when you need to drink water. Drink when you're thirsty. It's easier if you've got something to sip on that's right in front of your face. Which is why I really like hiking backpack bladders of whatever brand.

0:24:45 - (Alicia Pike): I'm not going to shy away from doing an unpaid ad for camelback. That's the brand that I've used for 20 years. I love having the hose right there next to you. And I have tried other brands, but Camelbak reliably doesn't leak. Their designs are intuitive, and it doesn't sound like you'd need to be intuitive to design a bag of water. But when you have a bladder that lasts and not your bladder bladder, but a bag of water that lasts 1015 years and serves you well, it's a good investment.

0:25:16 - (Chris Clarke): Yep. And hey, if Camelbak decided to send us a case of camelback bladders, we could get them away to our Patreons.

0:25:23 - (Alicia Pike): We certainly would love to spread the water love.

0:25:25 - (Chris Clarke): one really important thing, and I think this one's hard for a lot of people to cope with. But if you are planning a desert hike when it's warm, do not bring your goddamn dog. And I am saying this about 10ft from my desert dog, Heart of the Mojave, in the presence of my beloved co host who has an entire pack of desert dogs. And first off, a lot of places where dogs are not allowed on trail, even if it's a really comfortable temperature.

0:26:03 - (Alicia Pike): For the record, dogs are not allowed on any trail in Joshua Tree National park. They are allowed on roads. And the oasis of Marloop, that's like the only trail that I know of that they're legally allowed on.

0:26:14 - (Chris Clarke): Yep, there are places in other national parks where dogs are allowed. It's your job to do the research, but don't even bother if it is between May and October. Do not bring your dog on the trail, even if it is a short hike. Even if your dog has happily done 13 miles hikes, 

0:26:35 - (Alicia Pike): even if your dog. Is wearing special booties.

0:26:36 - (Chris Clarke): And you should only consider letting your dog outside in the desert pretty much if they're wearing special booties. If you're going anywhere that's paved. Heart could sell her feet to the mining industry. She could walk on gold ore and crush it. Yeah, we still are very conscious of the fact that when it's 100 degrees out, the soil temperature is 130.

0:26:58 - (Alicia Pike): Ugh. My little scout biscuit, he just turned a year old. So his first summer he was between infant and three months. So he was completely sheltered from the desert. And this is his first real summer getting out. And it's been pretty moderate this year. It was over 110 yesterday at our house, but that was the first day that I've seen it's getting excessively hot. But poor little scout. Just putting myself out there is vulnerable like everybody else. I know the desert, know the heat. I know our limitations.

0:27:32 - (Alicia Pike): I'll be dipped. I took them out on a little walk and we didn't get very far. And it's sand. It's where out in the creosote flats. And scout starts doing the dance where they hold one paw up for about 3 seconds and they put it down and they hold up another paw and then they put it down and then they. He was so cute. He was rolling onto his butt cheeks and trying to just put his little back. Feet up. So he was sitting like rolled up with his little.

0:27:57 - (Alicia Pike): His heels were touching the ground, but his little feet were up. And I said, okay, buddy, let's turn around and run home. Not that far from the house, but, like, it's hot, so you got to pay attention to your dogs. Yeah.

0:28:10 - (Chris Clarke): And lastly, even at night, this time of year is when the snakes are out, and most of the snakes are not going to bother you. But if your dog isn't either trepidatious or trained to avoid rattlesnakes, it can end in tears. So just don't bring your dog on a hike.

0:28:30 - (Alicia Pike): I'm 100% sure that every year that I've lived out here, I've seen a news report that a dog has died every single year. Inside Joshua Tree National Park, a popular hike, the 49 palms oasis. People think it's a short and easy hike to do in the morning, but every year, you get a dog that dies on that trail, and booties or no booties, that intense heat. And something about that 49 poms hike is that there's zero shade on the way in and out. And if you haven't been on the trail, you don't know that. And it's heartbreaking that someone loses their.

0:29:04 - (Alicia Pike): Their buddy every year.

0:29:07 - (Chris Clarke): Yeah. Similarly with same park, the lost Palms Oasis trail.

0:29:11 - (Alicia Pike): I almost heat stroked and died on that the last time I went on that trail, and it wasn't even somewhere.

0:29:16 - (Chris Clarke): Were you wearing your booties?

0:29:18 - (Alicia Pike): I had my booties on, and I had my cotton scarfs and everything. I had to retreat under a boulder and stay there until I calmed down. That was rough.

0:29:27 - (Chris Clarke): That's a great trail, too. It's just gorgeous.

0:29:29 - (Alicia Pike): It's one that you never want to come back on because you just feel like you can keep going, and it's just so beautiful. But I felt like I wasn't going to come back forever.

0:29:38 - (Chris Clarke): Have you made it to the oasis?

0:29:40 - (Alicia Pike): Mm hmm.

0:29:40 - (Chris Clarke): Okay.

0:29:40 - (Alicia Pike): Yeah.

0:29:42 - (Chris Clarke): Is there anything else we're missing about desert safety Hiking? I think letting people know where you're going, letting people know where you are and sticking to your schedule is a good idea. I have a locator beacon that allows me to text lara with my whereabouts, and I can set it up to ping her every hour or 3 hours with my exact location so that she can get a sense of what I'm doing.

0:30:12 - (Alicia Pike): For me, satellite beacons are. That's a little pricey. So that's out of my range of equipment that I would keep on hand. That's cost prohibitive for a lot of people. But I always have one solid contact back at home, and for me, it's my mom. She cares very much about me, so she's paying attention so find your person back at home who's not with you on the trip. And I have always given her the same data.

0:30:36 - (Alicia Pike): This is where I'm going. So she has my schedule of events. This is the time I intend to be home, and I will send you a message that I've returned safely. Three really important data sets. When you're leaving, when you're coming back, and where you're going. That can narrow down where a search and rescue crew may need to look for you. That's how you want to give that data. And it has worked so wonderfully every time. Because if I'm an hour past check in, she's texting.

0:31:03 - (Alicia Pike): Is everything okay? Are you okay? And that's what you want. Because if it takes people a couple of days to realize that you're missing, you're not just missing anymore. You very well could be dead.

0:31:12 - (Chris Clarke): Yep. And you bring up something that's another really good reason to be especially careful this time of year in the desert if you're doing any kind of walking around outside. And that is search and rescue folks also get injured. They go through a lot to go out and find people that weren't prepared, that got in over their heads, and they will keep looking for you until it's beyond not safe. And we do not want to put these folks at risk unnecessarily because they're doing an important, heroic job.

0:31:50 - (Alicia Pike): Absolutely. And they're volunteers out here, these are not paid. These are people doing it on their own time. They train on their own time. They come and rescue you on their own time. They get up and leave their lives to descend deep into the desert to try and find these folks. I think one of the other important aspects about hiking or being in the desert in the summer, and advice that I would give is your clothing choices.

0:32:16 - (Alicia Pike): I moved from San Diego where when it was hot, we'd wear shorts and tank tops to air, get air around and air out. But if you look at the Middle east clothing styles, it's not strictly religious or cultural. It's environmental. Those long white cotton dresses that men and women wear are like the pinnacle of desert clothing. I tend to wear my long sleeves year round. Even when it's 122 outside, I put on a sunshirt, a real thin bamboo or cotton top that just protects my skin from the sun.

0:32:54 - (Alicia Pike): I cover up, and it seems antithetical, too. It's hot. You want to take your clothes off. But a trick that I developed because we are homesteading, so we have to work on stuff year round, whether we like it or not, if something breaks, we don't call in the repairman, we repair it ourselves. And several years ago, I developed this formula where I would put on my clothes wet, wring out my shirt in the sink. I'd get it totally soaked and then put it on. And that's hard. It's very uncomfortable. But then when you go outside and it's 122, it's like your own personal air conditioner.

0:33:29 - (Alicia Pike): And within ten to 20 minutes, my clothes are completely dry. And that's my memo to go inside, get my shirt wet again, hydrate, and then I can come back out. And that's how I regulate my outdoor time is once my shirt is bone dry, I'm go get wet again.

0:33:46 - (Chris Clarke): Yep. Also, choice of hat is really important. You want something with a brim that covers the back of your neck. I tend to go with ridiculous scala cowboy hats. Actually, the one in our logo is based on one that I like to wear, but even those don't have a big enough brim. They're better than nothing. There is no hat that is too wide brimmed and dorky for you to wear it as a safety precaution. On a desert hike, heat is an issue.

0:34:14 - (Chris Clarke): Air circulation is an issue. You don't want to get overheated and just have all the heat reflecting off the ground onto the brim of your hat and then radiating back in your face. Having a little bit of breathability is important, but you want to wear something, and a hat can mean the difference between life and death, even just in your being able to see things in the desert and not have just a ton of glare hitting your eyeballs from the bright sky. Hats are important and you want shade on the back of your neck. I think the best way to sum all this up is that we thoroughly understand the desire to go hiking in the desert during the hottest part of the year, challenging oneself.

0:34:56 - (Alicia Pike): And it's also, this is when nobody's out here. As a resident, I love the summer the most because it's quiet, the roads are empty, all the places you want to go. Us locals all know that the summertime is the time to go where you won't have to wait in a two hour line to get food at our favorite eateries. Yep, but that's also a draw for people. It's quiet out there this time of year, so let's go.

0:35:20 - (Chris Clarke): But just think about this. You're listening to a podcast put out by two of the most avid desert hikers you are ever going to meet, and neither of us is going to do a ten mile hike anytime before, maybe mid October.

0:35:37 - (Alicia Pike): That's some spring, fall, and winter business.

0:35:39 - (Chris Clarke): Yeah, a couple miles. If you're in good shape, that can be fine. Depends on the temperature. The piece that we played that I recorded at Badwater last summer, a mile was my absolute limit. It was a half mile out from the car and a half a mile back, and I was ready to sit down and drink a bunch of water and get in the air conditioning by the time that 1 mile hike was over. Part of why we like the desert is because it is the way it is. And part of the way it is is hot.

0:36:07 - (Chris Clarke): It's not all deserts. There are cold deserts. The great basin desert doesn't.

0:36:11 - (Alicia Pike): I don't know, Chris. Speak for yourself about liking the heat. I'm just always saying you like the heat.

0:36:16 - (Chris Clarke): I was leaving room for people not liking the heat, but we like the desert the way it is.

0:36:20 - (Alicia Pike): Yeah.

0:36:21 - (Chris Clarke): And one of the reasons it is the way it is.

0:36:23 - (Alicia Pike): Okay, okay. Fair enough. Fair enough.

0:36:25 - (Chris Clarke): And so when you move here, you have to be ready for the heat, and you have to have strategies for making it livable. There's a reason that people in hot countries have traditions like the siesta, where everything stops for 3 hours in the middle of the day. It's something that I think we should adopt here because I like to take a nap in the middle of the day. I like to sit around and drink cold, tasty things and not get much done. I like that when it's not hot, too.

0:37:00 - (Chris Clarke): The desert is hot. It's getting hotter. We don't know what that means yet. If there was ever a reason to work to keep climate change from getting worse, the desert provides one. People that come here that don't adjust their expectations end up damaging the desert, or they end up damaging themselves. Or both. And we would like to prevent both of those.

0:37:25 - (Alicia Pike): All right, that's all for this time. I'm Alicia pike.

0:37:28 - (Chris Clarke): And I'm Chris Clarke.

0:37:30 - (Alicia Pike): This has been 90 miles from needles.

0:37:39 - (Bouse Parker): This episode of 90 Miles from needles was produced by Alicia pike and Chris Clark. Editing by Chris. Podcast artwork by our good friend Martin Moncha. Theme music is by Brightside Studio. Other music by slipstream. Follow us on Twitter or on Instagram at 90 mifrome needles and on facebook@facebook.com. 90 miles from needles. Listen to us at 90 milesfromneedles.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our newest Patreon supporter, Mike Stillman. Support this podcast by visiting us at nine 0 mile from needles.com

0:38:15 - (Bouse Parker): Patreon and making a monthly pledge of as little as $5. Our Patreon supporters enjoy privileges, including early access to this episode and an exclusive Joshua Tree National park campout in September 2022. Crucial support for this podcast came from Tad Coffin and Laura Rozell, all characters on this podcast. Podcast will show you something different from either your shadow at morning striding behind you, or your shadow at evening rising to meet you. I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

0:38:45 - (Bouse Parker): This is Bowse Parker reminding you that testosterone is not an electrolyte replacement. See you next time.

0:39:58 - (Chris Clarke): Sit heart, sit. Good dog.