[pct-l] Night Lighting

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Ethan,


A powerful light has never been a serious need for my hiking.  I don’t much
care to illuminate anything beyond my grasp, or beyond the next 10 feet of
trail.  At the vary most, I’ll direct my little light in the direction of
the bear ‘can just out of curiosity to see if a scuffle is caused by a bear
or a Sasquatch.



I almost always sleep under the stars where there is much more ambient light
than one might imagine.  Except for 4-5 days per month at the dark of the
moon, I can do most things, like make or break camp, with available light.
I’ll probably use the flashlight only for limited and specific tasks, like
making one last pre-dawn inspection of the campsite to see if I misplaced
anything.



I read/write in the sack before I sleep, and often – but not always – use
the light for that.  To me, even a 1-LED light is far too bright for close
reading; it’s just dazzling.  The little Photon Freedom has electronic
controls rather than a simple on/off button.  As a result, the light
intensity is continuously variable from zero to maximum, and I turn it very
low for reading.



Associated with the electronic controls is the ability to program other
gimmicks.  The Freedom can continuously display three different strobe
rates, plus it can continuously flash S-O-S in Morse code.  (Yawn….)



I use standard, white LEDs.  Simple, little LED pinch-lights are really
cheap, and I bought and tested about 6 of the most readily-available colors.
Red is sometimes useful, but the others serve no purpose for me.  Beginning
about 50 years ago I had to use red light quite a lot during night military
operations, but I didn’t like it then and I continue to not like it.  I
believe red is overrated at functionally preserving night vision.  In most
instances there is more ambient light outside than one might expect, and if
one only shines a small – but adequate – light there is hardly any effect to
one’s eyes.



The tendency of red light to obscure map colors is a bit aggravating when I
study the maps before sleeping.  Maps vary in the colors they use:  The
traditional Wilderness Press Guidebook maps are substantially black/white,
with only a little blue being used for water, and these maps can be easily
read with red light.  Many older ‘topo maps used brown for contour
lines.  Apparently
– at least for my eyes – the red constituent of brown is suppressed leaving
only the green constituent.  When brown contour lines are printed on a
green, i.e. forest, background I have difficulty discerning the resulting
color mush, particularly when the contour lines are close together.  My
prints of HalfMile’s maps are better in that regard:  The contour lines
print more in a shade of medium/dark gray which can be seen in red light,
however the red PCT line is difficult to see.



As an ultra-lite hiker I carry very little redundancy, but I do usually
carry two little Photons.  I have several, so I don’t have to buy anything
extra; and at 0.263 oz. each it’s not a real burden.  I usually keep one
handy for regular use, while the other stays unused in the ditty bag.  Once
I did lose a light:  On a stormy evening in ’07 I was in a real hurry to
pitch my tarp near Apache Spring – one of the few times I pitched the tarp –
and I somehow lost one of the lights because I didn’t have it on all the
time.



I don’t know how long a pair of the commonly-available CR-1016 batteries
lasts; I probably replace them every 1,000 miles or so.  I carry an extra
pair at 0.069 oz. each.  All it takes to change them is a knife point in the
notch to pry off the back of the case.



I can easily hike at night with the Photon, and I prefer to hold it in my
hand rather than have its string around my head as a headlamp.  One reason
is the low-held light creates shadows on trail irregularities, thereby
providing relief contrast that is not available when the light source is
near eye-level.  The other reason for keeping the light in my hand is that I
rarely have it on all the time.   I’ll walk most of the time without the
light, then flick it on to momentarily illuminate a difficult step.  Night
vision is thereby enchanted, plus one can much more easily see near-trail
surroundings for more enjoyment and better overall situational awareness and
perspective.



None of this is really very important:  About any light that one is willing
to carry will serve well:  Think reliable, lite and inexpensive.



Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:36 AM, Ethan Smith <esmith11 at my.whitworth.edu>wrote:

>  I read in the archives that you are a proponent of these lights:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/LRI-FMW-Freedom-Keychain-Micro-Light/dp/B0007D5TKQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1296239239&sr=8-1
>
> I am looking into lighting options for my thru hike and wanted to pick your
> brain a little. What kind of battery life do these lights get and are the
> batteries easily replaceable along the trail?
> Why do you carry two of them?
> I hope to do an hour or so of reading each evening and maybe a little night
> hiking. From your experience, would these lights be adequate for frequent
> evening reading and a couple hours of occasional night hiking?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Ethan
>