Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 14 year old and stepfather die in Texas Big Bend NP

It's a rotten job, but I will. The Link Nazis gonna be Big Mad:

Consider this a Public Service Announcement.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-park-death-texas-heat-wave/70354915007/

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/t...-dead-at-big-bend-national-park/3284057/

Amen! I have Lifestraws in all my bags now too. I’ll never be caught without water like I was ONCE!

Good clothes that don’t absorb moisture like jeans but keep me warm are more important as I get older too. I wear a hat 365 so that’s a given for me.

Heat can kill! Here in the sunny south (Mississippi), the heat and the humidity can and will suck the life out of you. So easy to get dehydrated and your electrolytes outta wack. We’re expecting 99 -100* actual temps later in the week. Heat index was 103* today. Known and worked with people who didn’t make it after working outdoors in excessive heat. Go back and watch “Cool Hand Luke” and Luke succumbing to a heat stroke. Vivid depiction.
One guy I worked with died at the age of 42. Did yard work on a hot day, got too hot. Went to his swimming pool to cool down and didn’t make it. Another friend’s SIL worked for city water works on a hot day repairing a water main in a dug up hole. No air stirring and he stayed too long in the heat. He was in his mid twenties and left a wife and son. Two a days in football practice in August can also turn deadly.

My very first thought was....."who thinks that would be fun in the summertime in a desert?" They drove all the way from Florida to do it as well! Boggles the mind.

Very sad and a horrible way to die.

The first year I lived in Idaho I hunted coyotes in SW Idaho's Owyhee Desert. Headed out hiking on a scorching hot day, blistering sunshine backpack, food, water etc.. I pondered why - between my back and my backpack was moist - felt really good in the super dry desert. Taking drinks along the way from the backpack drink tube , then - no water came out, checked and the water keeping my back moist was from the water bladder leaking. Duh.
5-6 miles in - now a long hot walk back to the truck where I thankfully had more water.
Wasn't anywhere near dying but it was a small window into what it would be like to die of thirst.

Probably smok'n weed.

"Let's go for a hike in 110 degree heat with no shade!", said me never.

Step Dad was stupidly ignorant.

Check out the post titled "WARNING!!!"

Link to story there!

I lived and worked a couple hours drive north of Havasu City, right on the river.

A not unusual day in Aug 2005. And not the hottest we saw there. Ranger at the station up the road said their official type thermometer, not a patio bird one, read 126-128 depending on when one look while standing there viewing it. Checking the National Weather service on really hot days, we were usually in second place behind Furnace Creek in Death Valley.

Paper here was reporting they didn’t have any water with them

For one, Big Bend is "high desert" and quite mountainous.,
Too many touristas expect to see "desert" as vast expanses of sand and cactus and seem to think, "This isn't that bad!"

Just like hard, dry cold, you don't realize you're in trouble until it's too late.
Same with hard, dry heat, FAFO!

CBP quite often is called upon to extract the mummified remains of illegals that didn't make it!

I chopped out and painted property lines for the USFS in 1998 in north Louisiana in the summer. Starting in June that year it was over 100F every day. Several times I was saved by getting to a creek and refilling my jugs. I have no idea how much water I drank. When the sweat running down face wasn't salty or my urine turned brown I was in trouble. It was unbelievable the recovery I could make when I got to my truck and could drink up a bunch of Gatorade that I added salt to and eat honey buns and salted Vienna sausage. I'm not sure the salt, potassium, and sugar depletion isn't as bad as the heat.

One day I was in serious trouble and out of water a mile from my truck behind me and a mile to my ATV I had dropped off ahead of me. I saw a little glimmer of water off to my right and darned if it wasn't a spring running out of the ground and running a few feet and then back into the ground. I drank until I was waterlogged and refilled my jug and made it. A mile doesn't sound like much but it's a bunch when you're overheated and dehydrated.

Accidently I found a method of staying relatively cool. One day I had a long line to chop and I knew I was going to be quite a while getting back to the truck. The only milk jugs I had were frozen solid so I tied 2 onto my belt, one on each hip. I had a machete a paint brush and 2 cans of paint and took off on foot chopping and painting in 100 degree heat. I drank the jug water as it melted and knocked out about 2 miles of chopping brush scraping trees and painting. Never did really get hot, there's a lot of blood flow through your hip area and the frozen jugs worked on that and drinking the cold water helped a bunch.

I think starting out early when it is cool and working into the heat makes a difference. If you jump out of air conditioning into noonday heat it is a hard adjustment.

We didn't have AC growing up. The house wasn't even insulated. I remember sitting in Mom's Studebaker while she shopped, sweat pouring down my face. Worked with Pop summers building houses. Never suffered but the guy from Alaska nearly died one day. We built him some shade with saw horses and plywood. He noted you can always put on more clothes but can't take but so many off. Profound. He left Texas and sleeping in the garage on an army cot for good.

As we all know, heat is nothing to mess with.

It's not always clear as to why some people do what the do and get into hazardous situations.

Maybe some just really aren't aware and are truly innocent and ignorant.

But some seem to have something to prove either to themselves or others and continuously engage in hazardous activities.

I don’t think they tend to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

If they are not out challenging cars in traffic on a bicycle they find other stupid schit to do just so they can get online and boast about it.

See for example:

I rode 50 miles with a heat index hiking its way to one hundred ten

OR

Who knew that asphalt shingles could scald the skin on your ass through blue jeans?

I grew up in the 50's in East Texas!
No A/C!!!
You bathed before going to bed and bathed when you got up!
I can remember crawling out of bed and sprawling out on the old linoleum floor because it was cooler!

When you got undressed, you couldn't just pull your underwear and socks off. You literally had roll them down your legs.
Washed jeans took hours to dry hanging on the clothesline!
When pantyhose came out, mom had to wash hers and put them in the refrigerator so they wouldn't mildew before they dried! 😖
Pop was a part time farrier! Seen him wipe sweat so he could see to nail the shoe!

One of, if not THE, most dangerous trails in Big Bend National Park.........they paid the price of admission for the Darwin Award Banquet.

If it's over 85 and sunny, I don't even go for a neighborhood walk with my dog.

Every August, they have a huge, bike ride in Wichita Falls, TX called the "Hotter 'N Hell Hundred"!
Thousands show up each year to ride, sweat, pass out and scrape knees!

Well written and fuggin hilarious