(Photo courtesy of Amy Donaldson)

YERINGTON, Nevada – I kept my eyes on the horizon, every breath a battle with suffocation.

It wasn’t the usual breathlessness that comes from trying to run (or walk) up mountain trails.

It was the air, so hot and dry that if I inhaled too deeply, it felt like it singed my lungs.

It was the sand, so cruel and relentless, I had to keep looking behind me to make sure I was actually making progress.

It was 17-year-old Kutoven Stevens, who was the reason I was shuffling through the heat and sand and sadness.

But maybe most of all, it was thinking about his great-grandfather – Frank “Togo” Stevens – that made something I normally didn’t even think about, feel like a Herculean feat.

“How could an 8-year-old do this?” I kept asking myself. “Wasn’t he scare

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