We spend so much time focusing on turf health during the summer, it’s easy to forget that we must take care of ourselves in the process.
 
With much of the country experiencing record heat this summer, it’s important to keep your body hydrated and your electrolytes replenished when you’re working under the sun all day. In the United States alone, each year more than a half million people are hospitalized for dehydration. Of those, nearly 10,000 of them will never walk out of that hospital alive.
 
In this episode of Trailing Thoughts, I venture to Big Bend National Park, or as I like to call it, “my dad’s backyard.” Big Bend is regarded as one of the most dangerous national parks to visit. The intense heat and ill-preparedness of visitors is mostly to blame.
 
My father, Mike Garr, is a retired career firefighter and full-time emergency dispatcher for the National Park Service. It’s almost a daily occurrence that he responds to a call of a hiker overtaken by the heat and experiencing dehydration. In this episode, my dad provides some important tips to help keep you safe in the heat.
 
It’s an important reminder that while you’re busy taking care of your turf this summer, you must make an effort to take care of yourself first.