Lisghts for walks in the woods...

This past weekend I had a chance to get out of town into the woods, away from any light polution. I went for a short walk along a wooded trail/road and of course I borught along a few lights. I tried out my TL-2 & TL-3 as well as my SF L2, A2 & G2

I was surprized at what worked best in that situation. My L2, my favorite light aound the house/lab was not a winner. On low it was only O.K. but high was a total waste, too much light-not focused enough with too much reflection from the surronding bush. In general it wass too much of a flood beam - not enough of a 'spot' to be of much use in trail following.

The A2 was the pick of the night, the LED was great for following the road and seeing around me with the incan just a push away for longer distance seeing. I may be able to call the A2 the perfect dark night walk light.

The TL-3 was great for seeing well down the trail but of little value up close - just too bright. I have a M3T on order for throw but from my testing it will be an occational use light in the bush.

I found the G2 was of more use than the TL-2, the G2 having a bit more of a spill beam for local light. The TL-2 was of little value given the other lights - maybe I should sell it or pass it along to a loved one ?

I was shocked how little light I really needed/wanted. Around town with some ambient light/ligth pollution the LED of the A2 rarely would be my first choice - but last weekend it was the winner with my L2 taking a back seat.

Are my observations normal ? Have I been buying brighter and brighter lights only to find out the less is more in true dark conditions ?

Now I have a dilemma - in a few weeks I am heading out for a week in the north woods - days from civilzation ( no lights/people for 50+ miles around ). What lights to take ? Maybe I need to buy a set of 'bush' lights that include a E2L or a HDS EDC 42 and leave most of my high power ligts at home ( TL-3, M3T ), the A2 in any case is comming.

What do you guys use in the woods ? I will be taking my headlamp ( Petzl Myo 5 ) for around the camp chores but what about nights out exploring ? I suspect the headlamp with with the TL-3 or M3T for long distance spotting will be the ticket.

I recently took my FF3 for a walk in the woods with dense underbrush.
Works very well, specially with the nice TWOJ emitter showing colors
in a natural way.

The FF3 allows one to program the hi/low, and I found the right settings
for both, and then, there's always burst mode.

Good side-spill, good beam.... very happy with it all.

Lately on my night hikes I've been taking an LED and an incan. The Gladius is great as I can really use the multiple levels of light, and the beamshaper turns it into a complete wall of light. I was intrigued to find how useful my L1 is with its red LED; often on low it was enough light and I thought a lot of the trail, leaves, and roots stood out pretty well in the red light.

I find I like to have an incan to really punch through undergrowth and see what made that strange noise .

WaterBoiler, I think you are right about the TL-3 & headlamp combination. I like those for camping. Red lights are good for preserving night vision. It's amazing how much you can see in the dark after 30 minutes without white light.

Re: Lights for walks in the woods...

waterboiler, you said one thing above I wanted to highlight:

"I was shocked how little light I really needed/wanted."

My favorite light for walking trails at night is my silly Mini-Maglite with the Nite-Ize drop-in. It has a wide fog pattern and a throw (in pitch-black conditions) of over 50'.

I don't own any really impressive super-lights. My other choices are:

5C Maglite (stock) - too much of a handful, especially if I have our 2 Labs with me.

4D Coleman dual incan spot/ flourescent tube camp light. Too big to be ideal and the spot is too powerful and focused for trail use while the flourescent tube washes out past 25'.

River Rock 2-AA - Nice size & bright but too much of a focused spotlight for walking trails.

Garrity Model M400HCM 4AA Krypton - Really nice (if often overlooked) GP flashlight, but still a bit too much power for trails at night. But with less-than-fresh batteries, this one would be my second choice.

My MiniMaglite with the LED drop-in has been running for about 4-5 months with the same used AA batteries. It's down quite a bit compared to the same light with fresh batteries but for super-dark conditions, it still serves me well.

My standard outdoor armament is my Prineton Tec Matrix 2 headlamp and, of course, my beloved A2. :rock:

I agree wholeheartedly. I love walking with my A2, and my X5 is even better if I'm in a trusted area where I *know* I'm not gonna need to see what's over there in the underbrush. dyyys1, I LOVE my Matrix from PT - kinda like an X5 on my head!

I live in the woods and LEDs are only good for back up IMO because of the poor rendering, unless of course you are just going from a known point A to B etc. I have gone almost exclusively to warm tints because they do a better job than the cooler ones but they are still hampered. You still want one for back up for the obvious reasons of runtime and reliability as well as adjustable brightness.

I agree excessive flood can be a problem and blind you in the foreground to everything else, however I have yet to see too much light in the woods. It all depends on what you are doing. With enough incan light I can still even appreciate the scenery! Woods aren't generic as well. I live with large evergreens mostly in a mixed woods. If you are in a thicket you'd have to adjust or even if you are in hardwood stands it would be different. For my uses going from spot to flood is important. It's takes a lot of throw to see through a forest and it takes a lot of flood to light up the immediate area. Of course I also enjoy going in the dark, it just depends on the need. If you don't live in a forest I suspect you want to experience it more in a natural state than just 'light it up'. I'll use my lights for chores etc since there is no ambient light and thus have greater need than a camper. At the same time throw will light up the eyes of those creeping predators such as cats and bears or even porcupines and skunks which can help avoid an unpleasant encounter. LEDs seem to do this better.

I'll have to agree that the A2 is excellent for this type of situation. 3 lumens is plenty in a pitch-dark environment, and the incan is bright enough to illuminate 100' down the trail (or up a tree) easily.

A great package. Personally, I also bring along my Brinkmann 3W headlamp and my X5 for flood....

dragoman

I was in the woods tonight. The dog and I surprised some raccoons and they went up a tree. I had a SL TL3 with Carley 1499 and it was great for lighting them up from a distance. A bright light will reflect off animal's eyes for a very long distance. I like bright incandescent lights for spotting animals and dimmer incandescents or LEDs for just walking along following a trail.
jc

My U-bin 2D w/3c mag I built mainly for this purpose. ~5hours runtime, and far throwing beam. Some weak side spill so you don't trip. I also have a 1w r/o that is great for not spooking animals at night, they dont look away/run like with any other color light. The red orange just makes thier eyes glow back at you. I can see animals eyes so far away that I cant make out the animal. My tri-lux is awesome too, but the runtime is only 1.5 hrs, but man, does it light up EVERYTHING for a good long radius. Like turning on a light switch, only you are in the woods! :rock:

My Gladius Night Ops (U-bin) has proven itself in the woods and mountains. If you use an LED light, it definitely better be multi-level. Most of the time a couple lumens is more than enough with max brightness and throwing power just a flick and a click away.

Jeff

Re: Lights for walks in the woods...

Looks like I am not alone in my findings of less is better in some conditions. I was totally amazed when the A2 LED did the trick and my L2 was too much light. I have for years hiked about with a Petlz Mega and always used the Krypton ( HOLA ) bulb - after all why would you need/want less light - batteries are still cheap & light. My Mega is long since retired but I have been spending less time in the bush and more time in the burbs - darn that need to earn a living but at least I can afford a few lights.

The upcomming long weekend will give me another opportunity to try out my light selection in the woods. Time to refine my selction of lights for the outpots trip. My wife is going to hate to hear this but I am going to bring ALL my lights - well except for the Thor. I may even look into a red filter for the M3T, that should be in this week, or maybe for the G2 with the P61. If I get a chance I will try to set myself up in a clearing and get a few beamshots - I can tell my wife I am doing research for my upcomming trip - like she will believe that line

I now suspect that trail following / map reading will is where a low powered LED will "shine" while in more open country or spotting 'that noise' will be the realm of the high powered incan. Time to have some fun and burn some batteries. If all this "play" with lights keeps up I am going to have to buy a rechargeable setup, then I will have more stuff to play with.

One of my cheapies (Dorcy LED) has a red filter but when I use it the 'effective output' drops dramatically. Should I be looking for a filter for my higher power lights ( G2, TL-2 ) or for my L2 ?

Thanks for listening...

Re: Lights for walks in the woods...

One word, rechargeable. Fenix L1p with a NiMH cell is great. I've been using mine a lot this month, until I -LOST- it last week . I'll buy another one (good excuse for an L1T upgrade, I guess) when I get back. It was great to just recharge the NiMH cell every few days, instead of throwing away expensive lithium cells similarly often.

Re: Lights for walks in the woods...

paulr said:

One word, rechargeable. It was great to just recharge the NiMH cell every few days, instead of throwing away expensive lithium cells similarly often.

Click to expand...

Good point Paul. I love mine too.

Best regards

____
Tom

I haven't hiked in over a year, and usually my hikes are only 2-3 hours long.

I usually bring a small single-cell 5mm led like an ARC AAA or Infinity Ultra (interesting: the IU has the best color-rendering of anyof my LED's), a "mid-level" LED, such as a BB400 Madmax lite or even the UK4AA LED, and a very bright incan, such as a Tec-40, Rage or UK4AA incan.

Our favorite combo is the IU, UK4AA LED and UK4AA.

My favorite tiny combo is the ARC AAA, modded Attitude (Nichia CS!), and a Rage.
Still...I find that the LED's have an odd "flattening" effect on the terrain and foliage. I feel that my depth perception is warped or something.

I wonder how a 10 lumen, long-running, nicely white incan would fare?

Bob

For night hikes in the woods I prefer taking two lights.

- An M3 in my pocket for the few times that amount and type of light is needed.
- While an E1E rides in my hand or clipped on the bill of my hat the entire time.
- Also a SF spare carrier with extra M3 bulb and batteries.

Happy torching.

Welcome to CPF waterboiler!

I personaly would bring the L2. I like the flood and awesome high beam. Plus the extended low runtime is a bonus. A headlamp, multilevel LED, and a good incan thrower is all you will need IMHO. The G2 w/P61 is redundant when carrying the L2, plus the 20 minute runtime is not optimal for a long weekend unless you don't mind hauling a lot of batteries. A good headlight and LED for the night to night stuff and a good incan thrower for those WTF was that moments. If your car camping bring-em all!

My personal lights when camping are, Arc AAA-P, Tikka+, HDS B42XRGT (or L2), and 9P.

I was camping this past weekend and walking with my EDC U60XRGT I found the lowest level (triple-click) to be more than adequate for navigation. In fact I turned off the force feature so I wouldn't get blinded by my already "low" secondary level which in the city is not nearly enough at night. For some reason my wife prefers the SF M4, probably because she keeps a keen eye out for raccoons.

Re: Lights for walks in the woods...

Thats for all the sueestions & feedback. The trip involved is a week long fishing trip to an "outpost" camp. Bush plane in, week on our own, bush plane out - no phone, light, motocar ...

I have done this type of trip many times before, in fact even some longer trips with less support and more risk, but not since I discovered "quality" lights.

My weekend testing should narrow down what I will take along. I may even look into an HDS light as it can sure to replace my Dorcy super 1W as EDC as well.


Thanks