Woke up at 9am or so and went to the breakfast room for some coffee. Under the impression I was going to have a quiet day in Flagstaff. The girls had decided not to take that early 5am train after all so they showed up for breakfast. At the same time Tom (Belgium) and Gianni (Canada) were also ate the breakfast table and the conversation quickly turned to heading towards Sedona together. Tom had rented a car already for the coming days, so I was going to get a second one so that all six of us (Otis joining too) could go hiking in Sedona. At Budget car rental tough we quickly realised that Tom's car was a Lincoln Towncar, it can seat 6 people, 3 in front, 3 in the back. i know, it's big. We drove to Sedona (little over an hour south) and found the trail to the Mt Bear. To cut a long story short, we had too little water, some had the wrong shoes on and we didn't really think it was a 5 hour hike, it was only 2 x 2,4 miles? The hike went over 3 mountains, very steep unpaved, unmarked tails. Fortnunately we met some people that were coming down and they gave us their water. The hike was great, the six of us really were on an adventure, felt like an episode of 'Lost', we were in good spirits, had good conversations and incedible views. It really felt as if we accomplished something as a group, it was far from an easy hike! We were six different nationalities, talking about politics, sports, music, tv series, nature and whatever more. From the summit, we could see miles and miles into the distance, the peak is at 2000 feet and we were already at 5000 feet above sealevel, to begin with, so you can imagine that it was actually already (at least for me) harder to breathe because there is less oxygen in the air. People come escpecially to these parts (like a few Swedish runners) to do high altitude training. We made it back to the car before dark after what turned out to be a five hour hike after all. We quickly drove to the town of Sedona where a well deserved cold beer was waiting! Had Mexican dinner here with a very American but superfriendly waitress (see pic on fb) and then it was time to y goodbye to Otis, who stayed behind to continue his travels from there. On the way back, we stopped the car and did some stargazing. The skies are filled with thousands of stars, so many more than you would see in Europe with us. Obviously there is no light polution in the dessert and this is why this spectaculair starshow is visible. With the iPhone app Stellaruim we were able to name many stars and planets.
Back at the hostel the girls caught the train and Matthias (Germany), Tom and myself went to Flagstaff for a couple of beers. After one beer it was over already coz appearantly without a passport the bartenders are not allowed to give me beer under Arizona law. Strange but true so goodnight Flagstaff!
During the evening Tom and I started to make the first little plans for what turned out to become an epic roadtrip...