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Re: Desert Living.

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 1:17 am
by TradClimber
I’ve spent a fair amount of days hiking in the desert the past 40 years with temperatures above 110 degrees and some above 120. This is what I know. A person cannot survive walking in the sun even one day without water at these temperatures. People who think otherwise are delusional. My body requires a minimum of 1 liter of water an hour under these conditions just to maintain. I do not stop or rest without shade. Shade might be only a bush that you craw under and share with a BuzzTail – I’ve done that. I once carried 12 liters of water (25 pounds) for a 21 hour hike (Santa Rosa Mountains) and nearly died from dehydration. The desert is unforgiving in these situations. That said, I love hiking the desert in the summer. You don’t meet many people.

TradClimber

Re: Desert Living.

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 6:20 am
by reptilist
That's a death march Trad!
:o

Re: Desert Living.

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 8:48 am
by silent hunter
Trad My body doesn't use that much water. I can survive with room to spare 3 litr per day in 120 degree sun shine. Thats why I hike alone. Noone else can carry enoff water to stay out with me and always make me leave early. I only know one other person like me and he does it with much less than I. He is who I only hike with.


Kurt P.

Re: Desert Living.

Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 9:18 pm
by Apache Devil
I was in love with the desert from the first time I ever laid eyes on eastern Oregon's high desert as a child when we went out for a drive between Bend and Burns. Each of the deserts has it's own,,,,,,flavor, so to speak. Eastern Oregon's rolling plains, punctuated by volcanoes and rimrocks, dotted with big sagebrush, have an air of melancholy and loneliness that touches your heart and ignites your curiosity. There is so much history and mystery. Much of the country was once homesteaded by misled settlers who thought they could grow wheat and other crops there. Of course, they couldn't, and they soon deserted the desert enmasse. Now the country seems to echo with memories and the loneliness of a deserted home. The wind and sand blows across weather-silvered boards on the plains that are all that remain of those who came with their dreams and saw them broken, leaving with hearts as desolate as the land.