A friend just cut short a solo Ozark Trail trip...

I did a 2.5 mos walk on the AT during the summer of 1977… that was a tough summer with temps in the 90’s and 100’s and high humidity.

Yeah, not my cup of tea.

Ha! Totally....

Heat, humidity, mosquitos, ticks, rattlers, not to mention poison ivy. Yeah, not a fun place this time of year, though 105 is excessive!

TBH, I would not consider backpacking anyplace outside the Rocky Mtns or high Sierra until September at the earliest (OK, Isle Royale in late August works). For the Ozarks or Shawnee, October would be the earliest time. And the one time I did the Taum Sauk trail in Missouri in mid-October, it was upper 70s and high humidities on the first day, which made for a very long day. When we reached the Johnson Shut-ins campground (before the flood destroyed it), I chugged two quarts of orange Gatorade as fast as I could. Thankfully the next day was cooler and drier.

Black Forest Trail, PA. The Bearmagnethon, a 42-mile 24-hour trail run/hike in honor of former backpacker member Bear Magnet. IIRC, it was 98F with a dewpoint in the 70s, resulting in a heat index of around 110F. And sunny. First 10 miles was OK... humid but relatively cool morning temps. Around mile 12... a bear! Very fitting. I took it as a sign. Then someone turned the broiler on. Mile 14, a rattlesnake struck at me. It could have easily tagged me if it had wanted to. I completely ignored that sign. At mile 15, the small group in front of me called it quits. I soldiered on. I was regulating my body temp by dunking a bandana and hat in every stream, dumping the water on me, and wearing the wet items. On an exposed, flat, straight-away... some crazy person started shouting to me. After a few minutes I realized it was Chowda, from the group of leaders that had quit. He wanted to provide me some company. At about mile 20, still fully exposed to the sun, we encountered a detour. Instead of dropping down to the creek, we had to stay high on a ridge for a short distance, then drop down. My hat/bandana were dry. We soon entered an area that was being lumbered. Unfortunately, they marked their target trees with blue blazes, the same color as the trail blazes. We never found the trail down to the creek. Due to the logging, we were being cooked under the open canopy. We ended up making it to a road, where we called the race organizers to quit. It was mile 24. Absolutely brutal.