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Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
I resisted reading that book, partly because when I started guiding, everybody who'd never been there started telling me I had to read it. Then a copy was abandoned at my wife's bakery. I took that as a sign. It's on my shelf now with all the other BB books. It's wonderful. It's by Laurence Parent, whose "Hiking Big Bend National Park" is still by far the best guide to the trails. Turns out it's just one of a whole series written about a whole buncha NP's.
Spoiler alert: Top cause of death in the Big Bend is poor judgment. Just like everywhere else. Well, statistically it's cardiovascular events and vehicle crashes, but I kinda lump those in under poor judgment, along with misadventure. I do not mean to sound like I make light of the loss of life out there. I do want emphasize that a boo-boo can turn tragic very suddenly. I've seen it. Shoot, I've come way too close several times.
I'll add that the recent fatality was on the Marufo-Vega Trail, probably the deadliest trail in the park. No shade. Low elevation. No cell.