One Way Ticket to Somewhere

I was glad I fortified my camp on the Poison Spring Benches. Soon after I went to sleep, wind gusts blew the first dust clouds into the tent again, then it started to rain. The pad still leaked, although it took the air some time to push through the duct tape and the ground wasn’t very cold. I fell asleep to the sound of the raindrops hitting the tent. They were still hitting it when I woke up in the morning. I left the tent and saw that low hanging rain clouds covered the whole sky. The Henry Mountains weren’t visible at all.   At that point I hadn’t had cell phone signal or WiFi since I left the Needles Outpost, almost two weeks earlier. I texted River over satellite and asked for the weather forecast. Apparently the following day would have clear skies. It didn’t look very likely, but I had already experienced how quickly the weather can change here. The rainstorm finally abated around noon and I started packing up. I had used the morning to pre-write the blog entries for the ...

I woke up at first light. Everything was silent. I looked around, no sand dune next to my sleeping bag. I glimpsed outside. Blue sky and my supply bucket standing tall in front of my tent.  Peace This was a good start. The pad was still flat and the water frozen, just to keep it real though. I lay still until the sun warmed the tent a little, made breakfast and started to lay out the content of the bucket to portion out food for the next section. In every food cache I packed some extra treats, mostly things I received from friends. This one had chocolate drops from Chris and Nazli, and also fresh garlic from Yahan. Treats I would make this a short hiking day. I was exhausted from the tough last section. Under normal circumstances I would have had a zero day in a trail town, but there was no such thing nearby. I had hiked and backpacked in this area before. The Waterpocket Fold was right in front of me and I started out in the Grand Gulch Trail, following it for some time until I ...

Two hours after I had closed my eyes I was awakened by rain falling on my face. The stars were gone and the sky ominously black. I quickly got up and grabbed my tent. I had to look for a bigger flat spot nearby and started pitching. All of a sudden a strong gust of wind hit me and almost sent the tent flying. I secured it as good as I could with stakes and returned to my camp. Although I had secured it with rocks and water bottles, it was completely turned over. No time to check the details. I just placed the heavy supply bucket (it included over 5 liters of water) over the mess and went back to the tent. Since the wind was so strong I just wanted to pitch the corners and use it as a tarp against the rain. Once finished, I dragged the remains of my camp under it. Then I finally noticed that my sleeping mat was gone. Other thru-hikers often ridiculed me for having an inflatable mat instead of just a foam pad, but I really like the extra comfort and never had serious issues, including on...