Hiking and walking at night?

[trekker76]

Anyone do trails at nighr or even nightwalking in the suburbs? I tend to do a bit of both as I like the peace and also being in a small town everything looks different at night, its like Ive moved somewhere new.

[Hallu]

I do sometimes to catch the sunrise. But it's the blue hour and you get enough light to walk without a torch. But it's either in the wild or in villages. I would never do it in a big town in France, the experience would be more scary than joyful. I already meet the nutjobs drunk from the night before when I drive at 6 am. I don't want to meet those guys on foot.

[ofuros]

After rains, I usually take my 6yo boy headlamping at the local reserve to see all the creatures that come out at night. Its wet, its dark, there's croaking creatures hopping around...he loves a little umbrella adventure.

I head further afield to get my fix...still trying to get a blue Lamington cray or Giant king cricket to stay still enough to get a decent night pic. Eels are easy to spot but hard to photo in the darkness. Some snakes are night hunters

https://ofuros.exposure.co/night-beasts

If I'm time poor or think ill need extra time on a exploratory longer walk, I'll head out to a national park straight after work, walk in, make camp in the darkness to get a good start on the walk at first light.

Senses are hightened by the limited view from your headlamp's tunnel vision...there's a whole other world out there under spotlight.

Take a spare headlamp & batteries...

[slparker]

I do quite a bit of walking at night. In autumn, when I wear a headtorch, the hills around my place are brilliant with the reflected light from the eyes of wolf spiders.

[michael_p]

Yes. I have led groups on night bushwalks before.

Walking at night is really different as the bush looks and sounds totally different to the daytime. One time we walked back from Ahearn Lookout at night during a full moon and we were able to turn our torches off and follow the trail all the way back to the cars by moonlight. I highly recommend night walking.

Mountain biking at night is fun as well. Trails feel so different to ride, it's as if you have never ridden them before.

[Huntsman247]

I'm not fussed for the built up areas but I don't might night hiking. Usually it's to view some astronomical event like a meteor shower or lunar eclipse. Takes you a bit longer to do especially if there is plenty scrambling involved but quite fun. I find you do encounter a lot more spiders though compaired to during the day so probably not a good time to have arachnophobia. Lol.

[neilmny]

I've done a lot of walking at night from very dark by starlight to the almost daylight effect of a full moon. It's magic.

[Mark F]

It used to be that Friday nights were commonly spent walking along Narrow Neck. You weren't a bushwalker until you had done it a couple of times. I also walked out to Solitary one night. Even now I occasionally walk in from Munyang or down to Round Mountain Hut from the car park in the dark.

[wildwanderer]

It used to be that Friday nights were commonly spent walking along Narrow Neck. You weren't a bushwalker until you had done it a couple of times.

and its actually quite enjoyable! Different perspective at night especially under moonlight. Waking up with the view of Lake Burragorang from the end of narrow neck is very nice. Early morning Ice cold spikes on taros ladder less so

[ChrisJHC]

The hardest part is getting people to turn their torches off!
There is almost always enough light to see by - especially after the 20 minute adjustment period.

The other aspect is to train people (if they do have torches on) to not point them at your face - there goes the night vision again!

[north-north-west]

The hardest part is getting people to turn their torches off!
There is almost always enough light to see by - especially after the 20 minute adjustment period.

The other aspect is to train people (if they do have torches on) to not point them at your face - there goes the night vision again!

Headlamp, sling it around the neck. leaves the hand free most of the time and the light can still be more precisely directed when necessary.

[Mark F]

I find it works well to have the headlamp/torch at waist level. It provides more 3d view of obstacles.

[north-north-west]

I find it works well to have the headlamp/torch at waist level. It provides more 3d view of obstacles.

My headlamp straps aren't big enough to go around my waist.

[devoswitch]

I used to get up sometimes around 2am or so and go walk up Collins Bonnet. I’d arrive at about 3am and be back at the car by about 8.30am. I did this as I had family obligations I had to help out with. It’s one of He most exhilarating things I have found. The not knowing of what’s outside the light beam is incredible. There’s also heaps more animals out and about. Especially possums who love scaring the crap out of you with their squarks when you least expect it.

[Mechanic-AL]

A few years ago I left Jiri in Nepal with the intention of walking to Everest Base Camp. Along the way I spent the night in a tea house at Dingboche. The gruel I had for dinner that night was disgusting even by Nepalese standards so I wasn't too surprised when I woke up feeling a bit crook. For the next couple of days I blamed this dodgy food on the way I was feeling as I continued on up to Louboche. By then I felt like I had an axe in bedded in my skull and a need to vomit with every second breath. Things continued to go from bad to worse during the night and I came to the realization that altitude sickness was the culprit and not the dodgy food I had consumed. Feeling as sick as I ever have in my life I realized that I needed to descend to a lower altitude as soon as possible so I hastily shoved stuff into my backpack and at around 2 am I walked out the tea house door and into the night. Even in my debilitated state I was stunned by what greeted me outside that door. The brightest full moon had come up and shimmering all around me were the moonlight peaks of the highest mountains on earth. The sky had a billion stars shining brightly and everyone of them appeared close enough to reach out and touch. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever witnessed !! I could only manage 30 or 40 metres at a time before needing to sit down and rest so for the next few hours I had plenty of opportunity to just sit in silence and gaze at these amazing surroundings.
I eventually made it down to Pheriche only to find the medical clinic there had closed for the end of the season.Thankfully I ended up getting a ride to Kathmandu on a helicopter that had arrived to pick up a sick mountain climber. I spent 4 nights in hospital in Kathmandu which was a radical experience in itself !!
I can honestly say it's as close as I have come to dying but at the same time the experience I had walking among those huge moonlight Himalayan Peaks that night is something I will never forget.

Night time walking........you betcha !!

[Lophophaps]

In NZ, the Himalayas and when ice climbing on the Main Range I've had some early starts, midnight to 4am. As the walking is on snow there's a lot of reflected light. Early starts have stayed with me, and leaving at 5-7am is quite okay in summer. At 5am it's just before dawn, quite magical in cool fresh alpine air. It's nice watching the sun come up, and even nicer to stop walking at noon-2pm, missing much of the heat of the day. I did a night walk off Briggs Bluff, quite hairy in places. At night I've also walked into huts close to the road head. I know of people that walk up Staircase on Bogong to Bivouac Hut at night in winter. I've been night skiing on the Bogong High Plains and at KNP, quite lovely when the weather is good and the moon is full.

[Aardvark]

There is not much i wouldn't do at night.
Over a twenty year period i ascended Mt.Beerwah, of the Glasshouse Mtns, a minimum of 1100 times as my regular week night exercise. Unfortunately it was a 45 minute drive each way.

Mt.Beerwah

The route up to the Cathedral on Beerwah

At least 2/3 of those ascents were at night. Early days (eighties), when headlamps were reasonably new (first electric headlamp 1972 - Petzl) we carried maglites in our mouths while we scrambled. Drooling was an issue.
On club activities and with newcomer friends people often found it easier at night, much to their surprise, because they would closely follow each other and as they concentrated on their light on the rock, their peripheral vision was usually blacked out. It kept the ever present exposure out of view, proving it is all in the mind. We could get a fit person to the summit in under thirty minutes on their first time. It's about a 420m height gain. Summit 600m alt.

[GPSGuided]

No volume of experiences with night walks but recently walked out and back to Mont Saint Michel on its boardwalk after sunset. Quite an experience. Don’t really enjoy walking solo in the bush at night for tripping risks etc. No problem if it’s smoothed out track and tranquillity is to be enjoyed. Otherwise I enjoy night time city walks and done plenty of it internationally. See a quite a different perspective of the city being visited.

[ribuck]

I find it works well to have the headlamp/torch at waist level.

... especially in fog or rain, when it avoids bright reflections back into your eyes.

Good Friday Night walks include going from Katoomba to the end of Narrowneck or to Ruined Castle, to Coal Seam Cave from Kanangra Walls, or down to the Shoalhaven River from Long Point.

[Aardvark]

In the days i was at K2 Base Camp in Brissy, some time around 2001, Steve Turner (RIP) and i took the challenge to do Mt.Barney mid week. He had the next day off and wanted to abseil down The Governor ( a climb on the east face). I just wanted to prove i could work a day, climb Barney and go straight back to work. We went up SE ridge, and i descended alone down to South ridge. I had a brief chat through tent walls at Rum Jungle with the teacher of a private school group. They had bought their gear at K2.
Fortunately, at work the next day, i caught some Z's in one of the display tents at work.

[Pye1791]

We went out on Friday evening from Dunphys leaving at 7:30 and camped on Coxs at bottom of White Dog Ridge. It was about 15km mostly fire trail. It gave us perfect early start on Saturday. Where else could we get to by midnight on a Friday night? Konangaroo clearing, Jenolan River, Mt Krungle Bungle?...

[flingebunt]

Full moon hikes are great. But you need to choose an area where the trees are quite open, because while the moon can be very bright, once in the shadows, it is very dark.

Supermoons are a great time to do a night hike, I really want to do a long beach hike under the full moon.