Does anyone here like to night hike?

[Gris]

i'll 2d what others said about a little flashlight being good for nite hik'n. wuz way better than my little princeton headlamp (which i now know is really just for camp chores/reading!). and the pole(s) was good too. looking forward to getting above tree-line on a full-moon hike later this summer.

yeah, wud be way creepy to be deep in the woods at nite by yourself tho - since nite's when the big critters come out! Saw a BIG coyote (or was it a wolf?) in the woods below Mt. Washington one winter nite & it freaked me out!

 

[Tom Rankin]

Night Hiking

I've done some early morning hiking and some late night hiking.

The morning hikes started around 3:30 AM and were trips up to the Blackhead Range in the Catskills, so my son could participate in the Mountain Birdwatch Project, run by VINS, http://www.vinsweb.org/ . In spite of the large moon, we needed the headlamps, as we were under trees most of the way. We needed to be up at the summit before sunrise, to monitor the Bicknell's thrushes, and other rare birds that nest in the mountians of the Northeast.

The night hikes were mostly Winter hikes. It's pretty cool to see the stars as you hike. Also saw and heard some owls.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

I think that I missed this thread back in June. My all-time favorite night hike was a Presi traverse during 29/30 January, 1972. I had misplaced the date, but found it by using the astronomical tables that are referenced with a link on this board somewhere, as we had a lunar eclipse that night (we were approaching Mt. Jefferson from the south when we lost our moonlight, after assisting some hypothermic hikers who had used the full moon to hike up Lions Head from Tucks to the summit of Mt. Washington). When we discovered snowshoes stuck in a snow drift outside the old steel emergency shelter at Edmands Col, we made wolf howls through the doorway, before continuing on to Gray Knob cabin. My only regret is that we skipped Adams and Madison, but we were pretty spent by the time we reached Edmands, so headed down to Rt. 2 after making some breakfast at Gray Knob with a borrowed stove. We traveled light, with only sleeping bags and bivi sacks for emergencies; our only stove malfunctioned when trying to brew up in the old emergency cellar under Lakes Hut.

My second most memorable night hike was January 2004 on Waumbek with Cruddy Toes on Frodo's and Stinkyfeet's final NH4 in 11 days; the hot cocoa toasting on the summit at 3 am with leadlamps gleaming under the falling snow flakes was surreal.

 

[TCD]

I love night hiking. I've been hiking at night for years, both on the trail and bushwack, all seasons, with groups of friends from work. We've been on a few wild ones, like Street and Nye at night in the rain. There's way too much hiking to do, and damn work eats up all the daylight, even if you enjoy your job like me.

I run with a Petzl Tikka (3 led) for trails. For bushwack, I prefer my Petzl Arctic (halogen, with the battery pack that hangs around your neck so the battery can stay warm inside a layer). The big halogen beam is good for night navigation, stream crossings (as someone mentioned), etc.

Through the many years, we've developed a system of silent night navigation, using headlamp signals from a spotter, who holds the bearing, to a lead runner, who goes out front. You can actually navigate more accurately at night than in the day, because generally a headlamp beam at night can allow a much more distant bearing than a selected object such as a tree in day. Longer shots means less error.

Although if I could find a way to retire, I probably wouldn't hike at night as much.

Anyone else notice that the led light seems to attract more moths than the halogen?

TCD