Does anyone here like to night hike?

I went night hiking in Harriman with Jay H last night during the full moon and had a good time. I'd like to do more of it. I figured I would ask a few questions......

Anyone have any favorite places they've gone to at night?

Anyone like to bushwack at night?

Anyone have any night hiking techniques they would care to share with the rest of us?

Thanks, Fred

Bushwhacking at night

I have both hiked and bushwhacked at night. My biggest piece of advice for bushwhacking at night is to wear clear glasses or googles to protect your eyes from unseen branches.

I live close to Monadnock and since it offers some above treeline hiking I find it very nice on full moon hikes. If you have a chance try to catch the moon rise.

Turn off the light and let your eyes adjust to the natural lighting. Unless you are in dense trees the moon should provide enough light.

I tend to keep the night hikes shorter so I can sit down and moon/stargaze. I have made some foundue af few times that made the evening magical.

Besides during the fullmoon, try it during a meteor shower.

If going up with some on that is not sure about hiking at night, try a mountain that has an auto road. My first night hikes were Wachusett and Mt. Hoyloke in MA.

Everyone should have their own light source and maybe a backup.

As for bushwacking at night, when I was in the Army we did a lot of "patroling" for training. I was a bit nervous doing this because of the boars!

When there is snow cover and a fullmoon, talk about nice!

Definitely. Franconia Ridge, tonight (couldn't get out last night -damn). A backup light source - definitely. I also bring both a headlamp and a flashlight. Extra batteries. Extra time. Poles are also very helpful, even more so than in the day.

There is nothing quite like being above treeline under the moonlight. It's amazing. You just have to keep an eye on the moon phase calendar for planning.

We were just talking about this over on the AMC bulletin boards. Take a read of the comments there (including mine).

I did Whiteface twice by full moon. One summer and one winter. Unreal in the winter. I have done Cascade and porter as well as phelps by full moon in the summer. Great views! I really want to do Marcy in the fall and catch the island in the sky effect at sunrise.

starting by night

I keep intending to make it to summits by sunrise, but am always about an hour too late... I almost made Pamola Peak in Baxter SP by sunrise...just missed by a few minutes.

I agree on killing the headlamp if there is any moonlight. You might see in front of you a little worse, but my peripheral night vision adjusts so that i always feel i see better without a headlamp.

Bushwacking at night always makes me edgy about lions and tigers and bears oh my, so i've only done trails at night. Last one was 2-5 a.m. by full moon in Arkansas. (ok everyone, get out your maps and look left and down a ways.)

I enjoy night XC skiing. It is great because you dont neen lights. The snow reflexes enough to alow you to see. Summer night hiking I am not a big fan of. I like to be able to see my suroundings and the views. Although I dont mind it if it is to see a sunset or sunrise though.

Those posts have been removed.

I have sent a PM to the the member who replied 3 posts previously to remove their current avatar and comment below it as politics doesn't belong on the board. I appreciate the fact that folks have not commented on it so far.

PeakbagrThose posts have been removed

Funky Freddy,

I asked pretty much the same question over on the AMC board and got some good advice from MichaelJ and SherpaK, among others. Check out Michael's pics, they're great!
It looks like I'm going to be doing Edmands Path to Eisenhower on 7/2.. The biggest decision I have left is what time to start. I'm thinking about 6:00 pm, that will get me to the summit between 8-9 pm and then I can stroll aroung the ridge for awhile before heading back.
I think warm clothes, extra light source, and extra batteries are the biggies.

Buddy

I have done several only-night hikes including bushwhacks, not to mention plenty of get-out-late hikes. While I bring plenty of artificial lights I try not to use them, and have done several hikes without.

There was a guy who was on all the NH 4000 footers at midnight, but he camped nearby and didn't walk so far in the dark. There is also a guy mentioned in this forum BC who has done the Adk46 and NH 4000 at night.

FYI - the trick to those pictures I took...

The digital camera I had at the time (Kodak DC4800) had the ability to take exposures up to 16 seconds long. I have a tiny tripod and I used it on the rocks for the "landscape" shots.

For the shots of me with landscape, I combined the flash with the long exposure. The flash strobed the foreground and got me and the cairn without a blur, and the remaining exposure allowed the the sky to come in.

A digital is both good and bad for this kind of application. It's good because it allows you to take a ton of shots at all different settings and then just use what comes out best. It's bad because CCD's are very susceptible to noise, especially certain brands of camera. Your mileage may vary. No warrantee is expressed or implied.

Bushwhacking at night is real tough. I did it once and got slashed to bits. But then again I had no choice; I was running late on my way off Raven. I don't mind it so much on the trails, it's actually a kind of nice twist to a hike.

Heck, I wear glasses on bushwacks in the daytime. We hiked a bit without the headlamps for a while, but we missed the not very well used trail so we eventually turned them on. The trail went through a valley and the moon was partially in and out of clouds.

Sitting on the lifeguard tower on Lake Welch and just watching out over the lake was great. Heard a bullfrog croaking, the occasional blips of a small plane overheard and just the lake trout in the lake. Very relaxing...

Jay

The hike was great, but we decided on stopping at Little Haystack and returning via Falling Waters. A beautiful night and sunset. The only problem was the drive home - it's a long ways when you are tired. Wish I could spend more time up in NH. I did find the moon rose a lot later than I expected (i.e. non existent for us), but the new Petzl Tikka plus that I bought was incredible. I experimented and found that I could comfortably hike on the second brightest setting even on the steepest sections. I need to learn a lot more about the moonrise We had a blast!

Glad you had a good hike!

Sunset was 8:27pm but moonrise not until 11:44pm ... you would have had a long wait!

(nb: it was full on 6/3 ... you would have had a 91% moon last night)

The great resource I use is from the US Naval Observatory ... complete sun and moon data for one day: here

I have done some hiking with lights at night but I really enjoy XC skiing/ snowshoeing at night. Mt biking is a lot of fun too. It seems with the short days and limited time that the majority of my winter activities are done with lights. If you have the right lights it can be very enjoyable. It gets a little scary when you're descending a snowmobile trail on skis with an Aurora light because the battery just died in your Streamlight

I end up hiking out after dark a lot. I'm either going out after work or spending too much time summit lounging. I don't mind it -- I've already seen the sights on the way in, so I'm not missing much coming back in the dark. Oh, and I just discovered the joys of a summit sunrise. Whoa!

I'm not comfortable hiking without my headlamp in the dark, even with moonlight. I'm usually solo and don't want to take any chances.

While hiking thru tight areas, I sing. (Favorites are the country songs Just Another in Paradise, It's a Great Day to be Alive, Spend my Time, and the classic, These Boots are Made for Walkin'.) I don't want to surprise anything big feeding or sharing the trail. Since I'm by myself, no one is subjected to my lack of natural talent.

As for the headlamp itself, if I'm not sure when I last changed the batteries, I stuff the backups and my mini-light in my side pocket for easy access. And I almost learned the hard way to be careful where I stop to change batteries -- I had a bad moment two miles out from the trail head watching a battery roll away down towards a brook!

Comparing my old Petzl Tikka (not the new plus model) and my friends regular bulb headlamp, The Tikka has a much wider sweet spot. I find alot of the bulb headlamps have a very very bright focus, but it really trails off outside the beam. My tikka and all the LED lights I've seen seem to have a better useful sweet spot but is not as bright, distancewise compared to the bulbs. My other headlamp, the MYO 3 has the best of both worlds, an LED and a Xenon bulb for distance...

Hey MichaelJ, thanks for the link, I have used that link to printout the sunrise/sunset for when I'm bike commuting so I know when to bring out my bike lights... I knew it looked familiar!

Jay

Has anyone night hiked with their kids? I am thinking about taking mine (besides the toddler) around July 3rd (full moon the 2nd) For saftey measures I was going to get a glow stick and attach to the kids packs. Sunset on top, hopefully catch some fireworks fron surrounding towns, and hike down in the dark.