James O’Donovan is an experienced property manager based in
Newton, MA. On the weekends when he’s not showing rental units to potential tenants or meeting with property owners,
he likes to take his children out for hikes. He finds the outdoor activity
relaxing and a good way to spend quality time with his family. On a few
occasions, he’s hiked at night.
Why continue when the sun
sets?
When nighttime beckons, many hikers choose to head back home or
a safe place to pitch a tent. However, there’s no rule saying you have to
call it a day once the sun disappears below the horizon.
“The night offers a different perspective of the environment,”
O’Donovan says. “It’s also much cooler at night,
and you can gaze up at the sky and take in the beautiful stars.”
Hiking at night also reduces your dependence on vision to
navigate, so you have to use your other senses, especially hearing, to stay in
tune with the environment.
Lighting
If you’ve never hiked at night before, you may think that having
bright lights is suitable for the adventure.
While flashlights and headlights are essential on such an excursion, they can
also reduce your ability to navigate properly.
Rely on natural light (the moon) as much as possible. It takes
as much as 45 minutes adjust to the darkness, and it takes a second of looking
directly into a headlamp for your vision to be affected. “If you’re going to
rely on a flashlight or headlamp, look for those with red-light settings,” James O’Donovan advises. Red light is less sensitive on the eyes than white light.
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