Tips for Hiking in the Desert

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Tags: CDT,continental divide trail,CDT Hike,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,AT,Appalachian Trail,Thru-Hike,AT Thru-Hike,PCT Thru-Hike,Section Hike,CDT Section Hike,Backpacking,Hiking,Desert Hiking,Six Moon Designs,Solar Umbrella,Adventure,Columbia Silver Ridge Lite,Trail,Hiker Trash

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Darwin here today with some tips for hiking in the desert [Music]

okay so it might not look like it but I'm actually in the desert right now in the high desert high mountain desert in the East Sandia Mountains right outside of Albuquerque Mexico so I am in the desert even though it doesn't really look like it I promise I am so recently I did a section of the Continental Divide Trail hiking from Lordsburg New Mexico to the Gila wilderness just south of here in a lot of desert so today I figured I'd kind of give you a few tips and tricks that I found when hiking in the desert to make sure that you're prepared you're not overheated you're protected and you're not dehydrated all right so number one long sleeves and pants so coming from doing a lot of hiking in the Midwest and on the East Coast especially on the Appalachian Trail I'm used to being able to hike all the time in shorts and if you notice a lot of through hikers will hike in running shorts so being a newbie last week whenever I set out on the Continental Divide Trail I left Lordsburg in what I typically hike in which is running shorts I soon found out about 15 miles after hiking that was a terrible idea 15 miles of threading through the desert in the Sun beating down completely scorched my legs now it's kind of my fault I didn't put any sunscreen on but regardless if I would have had my pants on I would have been a lot better protected and wouldn't have had such a bad sunburn even if you're doing a lot of hiking and high desert like here in the East Sandhya's it's still a good idea to wear long sleeves and long pants because even though you are in some shade a lot of times especially up on the ridge lines you pop out the air is thinner so you burn a lot quicker now something that I recently started hiking in especially now that I'm in New Mexico I'm out in the Sun a lot and the air is thinner is a long sleeve hiking trip so I hike in the Columbia Silver Ridge light long-sleeve which has nice sun protection and has a UPF 40 rating so not only are the long sleeves protecting me for not burning that the actual material itself is made to reflect the Sun now the pants that I typically hike in and I eventually switch to day two of my CDT hike are the cool renegade pants now the cool renegade pants are actually UPF 50 so again not only do they have that full protection on the leg from the Sun but it also reflects the Sun with that UPF 50 so those are really nice to have to just remember that when you're in the desert especially a desert like New Mexico you're in higher elevation so when you're at higher elevation the air is thinner and you burn quicker number two sunscreen so not necessarily sunscreen for your arms or your legs because if you're wearing long sleeves and long pants you have that taken care of but sunscreen for your face and for your ears even when you're wearing a hat still there's a lot of times where your face and your ears can burn very easily so just putting on a little bit of sunscreen definitely helps out with that another place that I like to apply sunscreen when I'm hiking in the desert is actually on my knuckles so when I'm grasping my trekking poles all of this isn't completely scorching some people like to hike with gloves you'll see a lot of people that are hiking like that first 700 miles of the PCT I cook like a UV protective white glove those are nice too but typically a good sunscreen helps I'm a big fan of Joshua Tree sunscreen believe it or not it's not made in Joshua Tree it's made in Michigan but that stuff is all-natural has a really high zinc in it and it also has coconut oil and a few other really great things for your skin so not only is it protecting you from the skin it's also keeping your skin nice and moist so it doesn't get dry and it doesn't burn easy I became a big fan of that stuff when I was on the Arizona Trail last October especially when I was hiking through the Grand Canyon if you watch some of that footage you'll see that it's just kind of caked all over my cheeks and my ears I really wanted to make sure my face didn't completely burn to a degree I can deal with sunburn on my arms and legs then when it's on your face and ears got it hurts

so speaking of protection for your face number three is wear a hat now most of you probably noticed I am a big fan of the mesh back trucker hat have a lot of them and typically it's what I wear when I hiked that being said in that section of the CDT that I just got back from there's a lot of times where I wish I would have had a fool brimmed hat a lot of times I actually have to use my buff and I put it over my ears because even with sunscreen and even look a little bit of shade from a hat my ears will get roasted very very easily so having a complete full brimmed hat is a really good idea and whenever I do the PCT next year in 2018 I'm going to opt for one even though I'm a big fan of these opt for much more shade protection I know there's some hiking hats would also have kind of like a little shade right here so I might check out one of those too but definitely have some sort of a hat to give your face in your head some sort of shade super-important whenever you're out in the desert number for shade it's kind of a new one for me and for a while I kind of debated if I wanted one or if I didn't want one I've heard some debate back and forth with thru-hikers have done the PCT and the CDT if they like them or they didn't like them but something like the six moons design silver shadow umbrella this thing is really excellent especially when you're on really long stretches where there's not going to be any shade at all it's really nice to be able to create your own shade so when I was out on the CDT I didn't so much use it on the trail but there are sections of the CDT where you're doing really long road walks going into Silver City I had a 13 mile road walk so this guy really helped protect me and give me some shade while I was walking down that road so definitely check these out I really like this guy I'm going to be doing a review on it soon a full review again at first I didn't really think that I would like it but after having it out on the CDT for those seven days I can tell you I utilized it quite a bit and it really saved my ass and giving me some shade and getting away from the Sun and number five probably the biggest one water again coming from the eighty I was used to carrying like a liter of water at a time because you come so close to so many Springs strains little lakes so you can constantly filter water out in the desert totally different story so a big learning curve for me was not only just carrying more water but carrying more capacity for water so when I did the section of

CDT I carried four liters so I was able to carry full readers at one time most of the time I only carried three and in the section that I did I really only needed to carry two but I had the option if I needed to carry four litres in the first day there was a 10-mile stretch starting out where there was absolutely no water

so those three litres came in really really handy now even when I got to that water source it was a cattle tank and it had a dead floating rat in it so I had to hike five more miles to get a real water source so 15 miles before I was able to fill up on water so think about that think about that in the 80 turn you know 15 mile day is like an entire day for most through hikers on the 80 so it's not being able to filter any water at all all day long so having that ability to carry extra water whenever you know that you're going to have a longer stretch without it is super important it is really easy to get dehydrated out in the desert not only in the flat desert but also in the high peaks of the desert so like in the mountains whenever you're up in higher elevation closer to the Sun and the air is thinner it dehydrates you even more so make sure you carry enough water all right so hopefully that gave you a few tips on hiking in the desert whether you're planning on doing a PCT hike or that first 700 miles is all desert a CDT hike where the first state is all desert or maybe you're just planning on coming hiking here in New Mexico or Utah hopefully those tips helped and I was happy to get out for seven days and kind of put those things to the test and kind of torture myself get sunburned not have shade be able to go really long periods without having water just so you guys don't have to so you're welcome if you ever got to change it go over and check me out on Instagram I've been posting a lot of new photos plus I posted a lot of photos from my section of the CDT so go check those out if you haven't already go ahead and like or dislike this video subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching you

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