We live in the So. Cal. Desert. Every year someone dies here hiking. We had a victim a couple of months ago midday on a trail I hike. But I don’t hike it in the summer!!! And if I were to hike in the summer, it would not be midday!!
I can’t say how many times I’ve been hiking and seen people without water. Even though I do not go out in the summer, it’s plenty warm sometimes when I go. It’s frightening how unaware people of what dry, warm air can do to you when you are exerting yourself.
I’ve worked at WSMR in summer. It sure ain’t St. Tropez.
But folks don’t understand how cold it gets in the high desert at night.
The one that usually get folks here near Albuquerque is the La Luz Trail going from the foothills up to Sandia Crest at 10,678 feet. They start off in shorts and a t-shirt and, misjudging the time get stranded in the dark, and even in summer it drops into the 40’s. The number of folks they’ve hauled down suffering from exposure is impressive.
Like that European athlete who died hiking in astronomical Death Valley heat.
Try hiking in humid weather out here on the East coast. Humidity is a bitch.