
In 1973, Burden paddled a small canvas kayak from a town on the Sea of Cortez in Baja California to an uninhabited beach further south, carrying only water. He spent 11 days on the beach, in 120-degree temperatures, before declaring an end to the performance and paddling back to town. “It was really more about isolation than anything else,” Burden said during an interview with The New York Times. "It was about being gone.”