Inspiration Point near Leavenworth, 1/13

On this hike, like the first one I did with the boy scouts, I hiked with a group of people. So, carrying supplies for me wasn't a super big concern this time around, because between all of us, we had enough. A few major differences about this hike include that I did it in the dark, in about three feet of snow, and in roughly 25 degree weather. This post though, I'm going to focus on the difficulties of hiking in the dark.

One main concern is that you'll get stuck, in the dark and the cold with no help, and no easy way to keep yourself from getting lost. Hypothermia is a concern, as well as having enough food and water to last you a while. We got through the lack of help issue with the size of the party, 10 people, and a guy who does search and rescue a 15 minute walk (at most) from where we were. There was always immediate help if we needed. The nature of the path kept us from getting lost. There were separate trails you could take, but the one we used for the whole weekend at the youth retreat was the same one. The path was tramped down in the snow, so to stray from it and take a different route, you would have had to make an entirely new one through three foot deep snow, which isn't easy to do. The length of the hike is also rather short, only a mile or so round trip, and a 30 minute walk. So between all of this, we decided it was safe enough to take the hike.

A lot of people may believe that hiking in the dark is a terrible idea, and for good reason. However, The Complete Idiot's Guide To Backpacking And Hiking mentions that if you have the right gear, hiking in low light environments is relatively safe and enjoyable. A headlamp is the most obvious piece of gear. Here, he says, "Illuminating the trail with headlamps is the most conventional way to hike at night" (Stevenson 296). The headlamp I used had three brightness settings, and a red filter setting so that you could preserve your night vision when your eyes adjusted to the dark. With the light, we were able to help with the visibility. Even with the light thought, I couldn't really see more than about ten feet in every direction. The light from the lamp also reflected the light up from the path in such a way that didn't give the image a lot of depth, so seeing unevenness in the path was difficult, and I tripped a few times. Luckily, the snow cushioned my fall. The book also mentions that hiking without a headlamp entirely can also be helpful, when conditions allow. Cloudless nights with a full moon and no obstructions are among these conditions (Stevenson 297). Unfortunately for us, none of those qualifications were met, and we had to use our headlamps. However, when we reached the Point that overlooked the valley, we turned off our headlamps, and were easily able to see our surroundings from the reflected light off the quarter moon. You could see much, much further that way compared to a head lamp, and I could see why Stevenson suggested it when conditions permitted.

The actual hike itself was nice. Nobody got hurt, overly cold, or had any other misfortune befall them. The hike was one our party had done before, because we had done it every year at the youth group retreat we were at. As said before, it was about 25 degrees and snowy, but the view at the top was worth it. When we turned off our lights, we could see the moon, as well as a fair amount of stars through some thin fog. In the distance we could see the city lights from Wenatchee in the eastern sky. Overall, it was a pleasant hike, and the book taught me a fair bit about hiking in the dark that I wasn't aware of before, such as the possibility of hiking without a headlamp.

Our group of people at the top of the trial