My last blog was about hiking in the desert at night.  I have another question for you.

Why would anyone want to hike in sweltering temperatures in the daytime?  In temperatures that are well over 100 degrees?

In fact, the temperatures in the California desert over the last two weeks have been the highest in recorded history.  One day it reached 124 degrees.  Everyday over the last two weeks the high temperature for the day has been over 115 degrees.

Why, you may ask, would any sane human being go hiking in this kind of weather.

The operative word in the question above is “sane”.   No sane person would.

And then there was Neil – that’s me.

I can’t resist a challenge.  I can’t resist doing something a little bit different.  And, as I have mentioned before, I love to hike.

Frankly, I have been missing my normal hiking routine.  Because of the extremely hot weather that we have been having in the desert this July I have not hiked at all.

I have played pickleball, golf, gone swimming and dancing, but I have not hiked.

After spending an hour hiking in the dark last night, I said to myself I have to get out there and resume my hiking.  I love hiking in the desert mountains and terrain.  It is so interesting, beautiful, stark, scenic, secluded, dramatic with majestic rock formations, challenging and great exercise.

So, this morning I went hiking.

I did not go on an easy hike.  No, I went on a challenging one.  I started on the Art Smith Trail in the Santa Rosa Mountains in Palm Desert California.  After hiking mostly uphill for about an hour, putting one foot before the other, I branched off onto the Hopalong Cassidy Trail.

I ended up taking about 2 hours to traverse 3+ miles of somewhat challenging terrain.

To be honest, the hike was not a walk in the park.  For a number of reasons.  One, I have not hiked for a while, so I was not in the shape I should be in.  two, I did this between 8am and 10am in the morning when the temperatures were around 100 degrees.  It has hot.  I mean it was really hot.  In addition, the trail is at times super narrow, with steep drop offs and significant elevation changes – a lot of ups and downs, with lots of rocks.

But most striking to me was that the trail was desolate.  I never saw another hiker.  Not only did I not see another hiker, but I never saw even a foot print of another hiker.  I saw plenty of footprints on the Art Smith Trail, but never saw a footprint of a human on the Hopalong Cassidy Trail.

What I did see a lot of were the footprints of big horn sheep.  The trail often has lots of wildlife, from lizards, birds, coyotes, rattle snakes, and big horn sheep.  But today I did not see any big horn sheep, coyotes or rattle snakes.

This hike raises some questions in my mind.

I ask myself what were the lessons learned from this hike.

On the positive side, I loved getting back out hiking, being in nature.  Such an invigorating experience.  As I reflect on my day, I am really glad I did the hike.  i say this after spending some time recovering from the hike – downing two bottles of fluids with electrolytes, having a really good breakfast, taking a wonderfully long shower, and gulping down one Aleve pill.

On the lessons learned side, I have to admit that if I am going to hike in the desert in the middle of the summer heat, do so at 5:30am not 8am.

Secondly, I love to hike alone and I do it all the time.  I am well equipped with my ten essentials, first aid kit, extra clothing, tons of water.  I also absolutely will not hike without my trusted hiking poles.  I use them a lot for balance and for judging the distance in any uphill step or downhill step.

Having said that, I must admit that crazy things can happen when you are out in the wilds.  A variety of things could happen to you even if you are very well prepared, in good shape, and very aware of your surroundings.  For example, I never put ear pieces in my ears to listen to my many audiobooks, even though I love the books I listen to.  The reason I don’t put ear pieces in my ears is that I want to make sure that I am constantly listening for any sounds around me.  I want to be acutely aware of any noise or disturbance while I am traversing the desert.

Other than my cell phone I have no way of notifying anyone if I should have a problem or should need some help.  I need to look into what other ways there are for notifying people who care about you where I am and whether I need help at any given time.

Final point.  Thank goodness for UBER.  I often leave my car at the trailhead of a hike, knowing that I will be hiking in one direction and not returning.  I often plan at the end of my one way hikes on connecting with UBER via its app, so that I can get a lift back to my vehicle which I parked at the beginning of my hike.  this way I don’t have to retrace my steps. I hate to retrace my steps.  I would rather hike 3 miles and get an UBER to give me lift back to my car, than hike 1.5 miles and turnaround, retrace my steps to my car.

Bottom line.  I am making a pledge to myself to investigate all the different options available to me on how I can alert someone if, by chance, I ever find myself in trouble or could use some help.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST