'Grumpy Good Samaritan' warns of dangers of heat after ill-fated hiking trip

While extremely hot temperatures dog much of southern Manitoba, a Winnipeg photographeris warning about the importance of preparing for the heatafter a recent trek turned into a rescue mission when he ran into some ill-prepared hikers.

Late last month,Bram Ryan headed out on a day hike he's been itching to take the Valley of 1,000 Devils trail a gruelling trek through scorching heat, hoodoos and quicksand at Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan.

"I travelled almost 800 kilometres to go to this park," said Ryan, who brought along his camera in the hopes of capturing some images on the five-kilometrehike.

But just as he set out on the trail, Ryan ran into some fellow hikers in trouble.

"As I was getting close to the end of that stage, a woman came by in the other direction and she was crying and she was really moving quickly back towardthe ranger's station," he said.

"Through her tears she explained that her friend was in real trouble up ahead."

Ryan kept going and found a man and two women, and the man wasn't doing well.

"He had been, I guess, over-exerting himself," he recalled. "He was exhibiting signs of extreme dehydration, heat stroke, and he was vomiting.

"He was in bad shape."

Heat stroke

Ryan saidthe man was clearly suffering from heat stroke and needed to get out of the sun, butthe nearest way out was nearly six kilometres from where they were, and it wasn't easy terrain.

Andhe saidthe man weighed roughly 250 pounds, and at 160 pounds, Ryan knew he couldn't carry him.

So using a compass and map he'd brought along, Ryan found a way to get to a remote access road where a truck could meet them and started breakinga trail for the sick man and his friends.

Ryan saidit didn't take long to see just how unprepared the hikers had been for the trip.

"It's a fierce landscape you can die there it gets really hot," he explained, adding the others simply hadn't brought enough water.

"As an example they had about 600 millilitresof water and I had packed in almost five litres of water and it was just for me."

They were also wearing shorts instead of long pants in an area known for rattlesnakes.

"I was somewhat mindful of the fact I was heading into a tough place and I guess they weren't as mindful."

Eventually Ryan and the other hikers made it to safety, but by that time they had eaten all his food and drank all of the water he'd brought along.

After it was all said and done, Ryan saidhe had no choice but to pack up his things and leave the park, not getting the chance to experience the trail.

He calls himself a grumpy Good Samaritan.

"My day got kinda hijacked," he said. "It's not like you could say, 'Oh, you're in trouble, see ya later, I've got other things to do.'"

Plan ahead

Environment Canada is calling for temperatures to hit and possibly exceed 32 C across southern Manitoba Saturday, prompting the national weather service to put the entire bottom half of the province under a heat warning.

Dave MacDonald is the president and lead survival instructor at International Canadian School of Survival and says anyone heading outdoors in that kind of heat needs to plan ahead.

He saidhe takes at least a litre of water with him on hikes as well as water purification tablets, but he'll bring more water depending on the length of the trail and how hot it is outside.

"In this heat you could probably go through six or seven litres for the full day," he said Friday.

MacDonald saidone of the most important things people need to remember when heading out into nature especially during dangerous weather is to tell others where you're going.

"If something does happen and you don't show up when you're supposed to, at least somebody will have an idea of where you are," he said.

How to keep cool and safe during a heat warning

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The scorching heat in Winnipeg will peak Saturday with a high of 33 C. It will feel hotter than 40 with the humidex.

He also recommends would-be adventurers take survival training, first-aid training and have a good knowledge of land navigation before heading out.

"Skills and knowledge are really light in the pack and they're easy to carry," he said.

Sherman Kong, chief instructor with Maple Leaf Survival, agrees and stresses the importance of keeping a cool mindset if something does gowrong while out in nature.

"It's all kind of set on a person's mindset," he explained.

"You can have all of the gear and all of the the training and all of that kind of stuff, but at the end of the day mentally in extreme conditions none of that really means anything."