28th May 2025

Exhaustion has taken over. The lack of sleep over the past week has caught up and not eating dinner last night meant I was running on empty. I was a zombie walking, slow and hesitant, too consumed with putting one leg in front of the other to take in the views around me.

By 11 we’d made it 10 miles. We stopped in a shady field and while Dan walked a two mile round trip to get water, I fell asleep using the rolled up tent as a pillow. Three hours later we were back on trail feeling better now we were somewhat rested and having consumed a bunch of calories.

The walking this afternoon was still tough and we had to navigate around several blowdowns. The final two miles to camp were all up a gruelling dirt hill. As I reached the top of the hill I got a message from Twister saying she was with a hiker with suspected heatstroke. I dumped my pack at the side of the road, handed Dan the tent so he could head on and make camp and descended the dreaded hill that I had just battled up, taking only water.

Twister coordinated with the rest of the trail family up ahead who were with a trail angel, Sprinter, and asked him to come and pick the hiker up a mile up the path. I took the hiker’s backpack and together Twister and I flanked them assessing their state. They were confused, nauseated, sweating and exhausted. Very likely heat exhaustion, especially considering how little water they had drunk in the last 48 hours. With the heat wave hitting tomorrow the best bet was to get them off trail to recover. 

We met Sprinter and helped the hiker into his van. He kindly gave Twister and me an ice cream sandwich and a soda each. As the van descended we collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. Once we had downed the last of our water and demolished the ice cream we continued on to camp just as it became dark. 

As I crashed into bed I reflected on how easily it would be to end up in the same position as that hiker. Heatstroke is a horrible illness that we’re all susceptible to, especially when covering 20 miles between water sources in 40°C (104°F) heat with next to no shade. 

Next week we would see ourselves doing exactly that, covering long stretches without water during a heat wave. These last couple of days have been insightful into what we need to consider to make it through. Water is the priority and as discovered, being underfed only makes miles harder. This final stretch of the desert will see us putting all we have learned these last few weeks to the test.