Beating the heat

What do you folks do to beat the heat in the dog days of summer like now? Do you stop backpacking for awhile? Do you hike in higher elevations? Do you suck it up and hike in the heat? Where I live any place with high enough elevation to be a comfortable temperature would be a prohibitively long drive, and coastal areas with cool temperatures would be even further.

Get up high, or head to the coast!

The hard core desert hikers around here get up well before sunrise to do some vigorous canyon hiking, seeing more and more people with the same mindset. We see the regulars kind of flowing with the seasons all year round. We have several canyon routes that keep us in shade for quite a while during the morning hours and after 47 years of hiking here are acclimated somewhat to this desert.

But very few backpack in the desert this time of year. We live at the very base of the mountains so we can walk up to high elevations and big, shady trees with no diving. There are five mountain ranges surrounding us and exponentially more the further out we travel. They are called sky islands for their juxtaposition with the surrounding desert. Right out our door sits about 400 square miles of this terrain that is all connected.
For most of us here hiking the mid day hours is not something we seek out and we really try to avoid that. It’s just too hot and that can creep up on one fast. Lots of water, some salty snacks and much care and caution. Be safe out there.

Go somewhere cool and reduce mileage. Get to elevation and/or get to water and camp close to the trail (or at the campground you drove to). If it is too hot and sticky, I'll stay home with AC.

When the weather makes it too dangerous or simply too arduous and uncomfortable to backpack, I wait for better weather or go somewhere else that has better weather. If everywhere with better weather is too far away, then it sounds to me like waiting is the smart option for you.

I generally just don't backpack in the summer. I don't enjoy it at all, I just sweat from the time I get up until the time I stop, and I don't sleep well. I'm pretty much a two-season backpacker these days.

We like to hike in all seasons but don’t like backpacking in winter or summer. The monsoon season is extremely active right now. It’s unpredictable. We baked a cake in our sun oven in the morning about 10:00 or 11:00. By 2pm it poured rain and later that evening more rain. It rained hard this morning about 6am. The ferocious lightning storms accompanying the rain along with the flash floods that shoot out of the watersheds are very dangerous. After getting our hiking fix we head back to the ranch. Lol some small cacti are in glorious bloom with the bees on them now so we got back much later than usual this time of year with a lot of images. The desert looks almost dead then the monsoons come and a couple days later it’s brilliant green with blooms. Every day is different.

For us, Spring and Fall are the seasons for backpacking and camping but we’ll dayhike multiple times a week all year round.