by Myth » Mon Aug 14, 2017 1:28 pm
The desert kills, and it kills pretty quickly, when temperatures soar. I have a healthy respect for it and I don’t visit the backcountry at all during the dog days. Just not worth it. And keep in mind that, for example, 105F in the afternoon is much hotter if you’re walking through open desert and the earth reflects the heat back at you.
Your body operates at 98.6-ish F. If you’re out in temperatures hotter than that, whether you are generating heat by moving, or sitting quietly in the sun, you will begin overheating if you're not using external sources to cool off. Your sweat will cool you evaporatively up to a point, as long as you stay hydrated enough to sweat, but your body's ability to cool itself becomes ineffective quickly. So at some point, faster than you think, you will die if you're out in the heat without access to shade and water. You can't will yourself to endure, either - the body, especially the brain, is made up of proteins that simply start breaking down at 105F and above, which is why the definition of heat stroke is a core temperature of 105F+.
Ed - The Maze Loop Trail was created some time in the early 2000’s as I recall so you won’t find it on the older topos or on maps based on them. There are not very many good trail maps of JT that I know of. I have the Harrison map, it is most useful as a rough overview map. Mostly I go overland down washes or things, or on the older routes, so I tend to use 7.5’ topo maps.