Teen and Stepfather Die on Hike in Near-Record Texas Heat
The three had been hiking on the Marufo Vega Trail, which “winds through extremely rugged desert and rocky cliffs within the hottest part of Big Bend National Park,” the officials’ statement said. It added that hikers on the trail did not have access to shade or water, making it “dangerous to attempt in the heat of summer.”
The authorities said the three hikers were from Florida, but did not give their names. The 21-year-old brother who survived has returned home, officials said on Monday.
Several other hikers have succumbed to extreme heat in the United States in recent years. The death of two experienced hikers and their 1-year-old daughter in the Sierra National Forest of California in 2021 confounded investigators for two months, until officials determined that they had died from the effects of heat stroke and possible dehydration in 110-degree weather.
Last July, a 22-year-old man died, reportedly of heat exhaustion, after he ran out of water while hiking in the Badlands of South Dakota. In September, another hiker died, and five more were rescued after suffering from extreme heat in Arizona. In April, a man died on a hiking trail in Lakeside, Calif., after suffering symptoms of heat exhaustion.
The recent heat has been dangerous in cities, too. Ambulance crews in the Tulsa region experienced their highest daily call volume ever last week, a spokesman said. And the Dallas medical examiner’s office is investigating whether the heat played a role in the death of a 66-year-old postal worker, Eugene Gates Jr., who collapsed last week during an excessive heart warning.
Mr. Gates’s mail route spanned 400 homes and eight miles, said his wife, Carla Gates. On Tuesday morning, he had gotten an early start, as usual, and packed a cooler with ice water. A couple of hours after sunrise, he texted his wife to tell her that it was already 88 degrees outside, she said.
“If you go out, be careful,” he wrote. It was his last message to her.
The early-summer heat has been brutal even in places where residents are used to hot summers. At Main Street Mowing in the northern suburbs of Dallas, business always picks up when temperatures hit the triple digits, said Tanner Maxson, who owns the business. This year, though, the calls are coming in late June, not July or August.
Source: The New York Times
