Narrative Essay On Arizona Heat

Despite having lived in Georgia for the past couple of years and having dealt with the immense heat and humidity there, I was still unprepared for the heat of the Arizona summer. As an experienced hiker, I thought of myself as experienced enough to deal with the heat and smart enough to not have to worry about it. I would find out all too soon that I was neither experienced enough nor smart enough to deal with the Arizona heat. I left my house at four in the morning, reasoning that since I had left so early I would be able to get out to the trail, do the hike, and get back, all before it became too hot. There was an accident on the road and I had to go about twenty minutes out of my way in order to reach the highway. After forty minutes on the road I reached the trail I wanted to hike only to find out it had been closed. It was about five in the morning at this point and I decided to go to a different trail about a half hour away so I would be able to still hike before heading back home. I wish I had …show more content…
“Okay, no problem,” I thought, “I have Asprin in the car, I’ll get some when I get back,” I continued to forge my way down the trail, albeit at a slightly quicker pace now. I began to feel thirsty as the dry dust caked my throat and the sun beat down on me. I reached for my water before realizing that I had recycled it at the summit. “Fuck!” I swore aloud, my heart beating at a pace slightly more rapid than usual. It was then I realized that I was sweating a lot more than I should have been, and I was far more tired than I normally would have been on a hike of this intensity. A realization dawned on me, these were all symptoms of heat exhaustion, I racked my brain trying to remember what I was supposed to do in cases like this and recalled that getting into air conditioning was of the highest priority, and if you couldn’t do that, to get in the shade and try to cool yourself