The Longest Mile: August Edition

August started in the water and ended in the desert.

The beach came first. Warm water, no plan, nowhere to be. I spent most of it in the ocean and came out of it every day feeling better than I went in. I finally looked into why. Seawater carries magnesium, calcium, potassium and sulfates, and there is actual research behind soaking in it. Balneotherapy, which is just bathing in mineral rich water, has been used on psoriasis and eczema for generations. A study in the International Journal of Dermatology found that bathing in magnesium rich sea salt improved skin barrier function and hydration and reduced inflammation in dry skin. Add sun and moving water and the whole treatment is free. My skin looked better after four days in the Gulf than after anything I have ever bought for it.

Then I got home, unpacked, and left again.

I just got back from Big Bend. Three days in far West Texas with a canoe on the Rio Grande, a fly rod, and no cell service. We slept on the ground under the darkest sky I have ever seen. Fished in the mornings. Hiked before the heat got serious. It was the first time in months my head went quiet.

The heat is hard to explain to anyone who has not stood in it. Summer highs in the desert stretches of that park run past 110. The Park Service tells visitors to carry and drink a gallon of water a day and be off the trails by noon. People die out there most years on normal looking hikes at the wrong hour.

What we packed mattered more than anything else on that trip, electrolytes and real food. Apples, oranges, dried mangoes, coconut water, beef sticks, peanut butter, and a block of parmesan covered our basis.

Sodium is what you lose most of through sweat, and in that heat sweat can run past a liter an hour. Water alone does not replace it. Drink enough plain water while you are sweating hard and you dilute yourself into feeling worse. Parmesan and beef sticks handle salt and protein in the same bite. Coconut water is heavy on potassium and light on sodium, which is why the packets stayed in the bottles. Dried mango is fast sugar you can eat with one hand in a canoe. Peanut butter is the densest thing in the bag to provide necessary fats.

None of it is a step down from engineered fuel. Researchers have put fruits up against sports gels and sport chews in trained athletes more than once and found no real difference in performance. Real food keeps up and are better for you.

I was so locked in on food and camping gear that I forgot to pack a shirt. The only one I had was the one on my back, our Ashstone tee. Three days of river water, campfire smoke, sunscreen, sweat and desert dust in a single shirt with no way to wash it. It held up. That shirt has some stories to tell now. Not the field test I would have designed, and probably a better one than anything I would have.

There is also a fight going on down there. Earlier this month the federal government started clearing land inside the national park to build border infrastructure. Bulldozers parked next to Santa Elena Canyon, where the rock walls come 1,500 feet straight up out of the water. The pushback was loud and came from every direction at once, ranchers and county sheriffs and small business owners. Construction is paused for now. That stretch accounts for barely one percent of crossings on the whole southern border, the canyons and the heat have handled it for a few thousand years, and some places are worth leaving the way you found them.

If you want to learn more or get involved, follow @nobigbendwall or @hiddendaggeradventures on Instagram. They are both locals out of Terlingua, Marfa, Marathon, Alpine and Presidio, and they are the ones tracking what is happening down there in real time.

Two trips, one takeaway. The best parts of both were free. The salt, the sun, the river, the stars, and the movement. Nobody is selling that, which is probably why it works.

-Thomas Co-founder