[pct-l] severe dehydration danger on the trail

[Barry Teschlog]

IMO it's nothing new that folks are having all kinds of problems on their first day out.  It seems to happen every year.  


I used to be a voracious reader of trail journals "back in the day" - call it '02 to '05 and a lesser extent in '07 and '08.  Add to that what I saw first hand on my thru in '06.  


There were many, many instances of folks who seemed to be doing everything right on their prep, had previous hiking experience, etc end up having a very rough time of it out in the desert for the first time and dropping after their first day, or only making it to Mt. Laguna, or Scissors Crossing or Warner.  The attrition rate these first 100 or so miles is pretty high.  


Given how low the typical humidity is out there, and how intense the sun is, even on mild temp days (60's and 70's), I don't think folks necessarily appreciate how quickly they'll dry out, or hot the climb out of Hauser is in the afternoon sun, or how quick they'd drink their water supply, etc.  


There were also those whose knees, feet, etc gave problems as they set out from the border with a little too heavy pack, with food to take 'em to Warner Springs, and 6 liters of water - in spite of their prep, they just weren't up for it physically, ended up going very slow, and that caused 'em to run out of water.

And yes, it doesn't help to be up all night at the cabins at Morena the night before with the party crowd....

Future year hikers - learn from others experiences.  Don't make the same mistakes as those who came before you.  Go forth boldly and make entirely NEW mistakes.  OK, that last part was tongue in cheek.......


HYOY, YMMV, 2 cents, yadda, yadda, yadda.......