During the night it turned out that my sleeping mat had a hole. I had to roll off the sleeping pad several times during the night and re-inflate it. That’s why, after this restless night, I was already back on the Arizona Trail at 5 a.m. with my headlamp.
I think I’ll always do it that way in the future. The first few kilometres were incredibly easy for me. As a result, I had already completed the first 24 kilometres by 1 p.m. and had already pitched my tent by 4 p.m. and covered a total of 32 kilometres. Today was worse – in terms of altitude metres – than yesterday.
And so I am already lying on my sleeping mat. I keep track of how long it takes to lose air, so that I can get an approximate idea. How much sleep will I get tonight? Because I can’t patch it. Firstly, I can’t find the hole and secondly, the patch kit is in my luggage, which got lost.
The suitcase is back…
But you won’t believe it. I phoned the airline and I think my suitcase has turned up. And they’re going to take it to Patagonia. I booked a hotel room there for one night.
Wasn’t that my first choice because it’s not that cheap? Yes – but considering the fact that I can then send all the parcels from there, I’m sure it will be a great thing. There will also be a bathtub, in which I hope to find the leak in my sleeping pad. The air bubbles that form will reveal where the hole is. Thanks to the repair kit in my suitcase, I can then fix the mat. If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably have to make do with little sleep for the next few days. It looks like I’ll get about one and a half to two hours of sleep at a time, then my hip touches the ground and I’m awake.
In the worst case, I’ll have to keep this up until Colossal Cave. That would be the stop where my next mail drop package arrives and from there it’s not that far to Tucson, where the only Rei in the area is also located. I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and buy a new mat.
At some point today, nature has turned relatively green. When I say that, however, it should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s green for Arizona, but this green is no comparison to the one at home. The branches that are all over the place here had leaves for the first time today and even some of the things with thorns have started to have leaves. Which, I think, was the first time. Apart from that, you always find scattered puzzle pieces of cows and today I even saw a whole bunch of turkeys.
A short day with the prospect of a bath?
Tomorrow I will hike the last 5 km to the road and hopefully hitch a ride from there to the hotel. Otherwise it’s probably another 7 km from there. So that could be a very relaxed short day tomorrow.
On the way I met some new hikers on the Arizona Trail today – by now we should be at 10.
