I really, really, really want to be comfortable sleeping on my Arizona hike. Without restful sleep, I'm afraid I'll get worn out much faster. That's where this lightweight pillow becomes a necessary piece of gear. OK, necessary isn't quite true, but highly desired is.

Three things make nighttime more pleasant:

• Warmth - This is the most important, for survival and rest. I told you about my sleeping hat that I made. I've got layers of clothes. And, I'll show you my sleeping quilt pretty soon.
• Safety - actually, it's feeling safe and not worrying about monsters, critters, bugs, and my position on the local food chain. Crawling under the covers will help with this. :-)
• Comfort - rocks, sticks, and cactus don't make a good mattress. I feel it's worth the weight to carry some light sleeping surface. I still need to decide on which to use. A pillow falls in this category, right?

My new ExPed inflatable pillow seems practically perfect for long hikes.
It weighs 2.7 ounces which is a lot less than using a ball of extra clothes. (I expect to not really have extra clothes since I'll be wearing them to sleep or they'll be dirty from hiking.)
As you can see from the photo, there are two parallel lines across the face of the pillow. These are baffles connected through the pillow and they stop that balloon effect that many inflatables have. Your head doesn't always just roll off this pillow.
When deflated, it rolls up tiny and takes very little pack space.
The fabric feel is nice - not like a zip-loc baggie.

I bet it would weight .5 ounce less if it had only one valve, but ExPed has one-way flat valves on their inflatables to ensure full inflation and easy deflation. It also has a little repair kit - identical to inflatable sleeping pad repair, so I won't need to carry two repair kits.

Hike On