Maybe People Are Just Fragile

You read stories like this, and wonder:

A 23-year-old woman who attended Purdue University died Saturday afternoon while hiking the Tortolita Mountains with her family, authorities said.

Amalia Barber was on a trail in the mountains northwest of Tucson with her aunt and uncle, who are from Tucson, a cousin from Tempe and a friend from Indiana, where Purdue is located, said Capt. Adam Goldberg, a Northwest Fire District spokesman.

Saturday was the woman's birthday, he said.

The group set out on the Wild Burro trail near the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain resort at about 7 a.m., he said. They were not staying at the resort.

Barber, who is from Clinton, Ill., started experiencing heat-related symptoms four hours into the hike, including fatigue, excessive thirst, muscle cramps and exhaustion.

The hikers missed a turn, which took them a mile and a half off the trail.

When the group started backtracking to the trail, Barber told them she couldn't go any farther.

..."This is a stark and tragic reminder that we are in the summertime hazard for heat," Goldberg said.

The hikers lost the trail, but they did they prudent thing, and backtracked. No seriously-poor judgement was on display. Still, she couldn't hold on. And how odd is that?

Maybe we are all vulnerable, in one way or the other, in this hard, cruel world....