Moonlight Hiking

I started moonlight hiking when I was a teenager prowling the streets and fields of Michigan. I later found that if I timed my backpacking trips to coincide with a full moon, I could hike every night. The two primary motivations for doing this are the adventure and mystery of night hiking, as well as the practical advantages that it has.

Moonlight Hiking - A Unique Experience

It's a great experience to hike away the hours of the night under a full moon. My first time doing this on a longer backpacking trip was on a five-day hike in the Sierra Nevadas. Every night I slept next to a lake, waking up when the cold bothered me. Then I easily hiked through the rest of the night by moonlight.

This meant getting up between two and four in the morning and hiking the rest of the night. I was moving during the coldest part of the night, so I was able to get away with a lighter sleeping bag on this trip. In fact, since there wasn't a cloud in the sky during those five days, I just slept in the open, without a tent or tarp every night. Most afternoons I took a leisurely nap in the sun to catch up on sleep.

Hiking at night meant no other people on the trail. Crowded trails were not actually a problem where I was, but I would like to go moonlight hiking to avoid the crowds the next time I am in Yosemite National Park, or in the Smoky Mountains. Sometimes it is nice to have the trails and whole mountain valleys to yourself.
You can hike a lot of miles at night, without any problems of over-heating. When the sky is clear and the moon is full, or within three days of its fullest, the moonlight is more than bright enough for hiking in fairly open terrain. In thicker woods you may need a flashlight for assistance.

If you do try this, plan your trip with the full moon coming right in the middle of the time span (if you can). This is how you get the maximum use of the moonlight before, during and after the full moon. Also note the time that the moon rises. About an hour after moonrise you'll have enough light to hike, unless it is overly cloudy (something else to check on).

When moonlight hiking on isolated beaches in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan I could clearly see animal tracks in the wet sand along the water's edge. They included fresh bear tracks. Though black bears in this area are not usually dangerous, it keeps your senses tuned in when you know there are eyes in the woods watching you and none of them are human.

The lakes reflect the moon, owls swoop by almost without sound, and animals move in the bushes as you pass. The many shadows hide things, but you walk on by them, leaving these little mysteries unsolved. The trees and rocks take on a different, starker appearance than during the day. Moonlight hiking is a beautiful and unique experience.


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Mountain Climbing - Preserve Your Experiences

Mountain climbing is a great way to escape the rat race and be one with nature. Alas, your mountain climbing experiences can fade with time. The best way to prevent this is to keep a mountain climbing journal for your adventures.

Mountain Climbing Journals

Take a minute to give some consideration to your most recent mountain climbing experience. What sticks out in your mind? Now think about the first time you ever went mountain climbing. Undoubtedly, you remember few things about the geography, people you went with, particular mountain climbing routes and spectacular views. The experiences you've forgotten are lost to time. If you keep a mountain climbing journal, this won't be the case.

There are famous instances of people keeping journals throughout time. Of course, Anne Frank's Diary is the best example. In her diary, Anne kept a running commentary of the two years her family spent hiding from the Nazis. While your mountain climbing experiences better be more lighthearted, keeping a journal will let you remember them as the years pass.

A good mountain climbing journal combines a number of characteristics. First, it should be compact so you don't have to take up unnecessary space for other things. Second, it should have a case to protect it from rain, spills and so on. Third, the journal should contain blank areas to write your notes. Fourth, the journal should contain cue spaces to remind you to keep notes on specific things. Cues should include.
1. Who you went mountain climbing with,

2. Where you camped and if you enjoyed it,

3. Who you met and contact information for them,

4. The geographic and weather conditions, and

5. Any unique things that occurred while mountain climbing.

6. The routes you took up the mountain and alternatives.

7. Any inside information provided by experienced locals.

At the end of the mountain climbing trip, you should be able to get the following from your journal:

1. Contact information for other climbers you met,

2. Enough detail to provide you or a friend with a guide if you climb the location a second time.

3. Memories to reflect upon years later, and

4. Something to pass on to your friends, children and grandchildren.

To get the most out of your mountain climbing journal, you should write in it just before you climb, as you summit and when you return. Doing so will give you an accurate picture of your thoughts throughout the climb.

Mountain climbing is a great way to commune with nature. Make sure to preserve the experience.


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Survival Tips For Backpackers

Why survival tips for backpackers? Certainly backpacking may never become a matter of wilderness survival for you, especially if you are careful in your planning. Still, getting lost or twisting an ankle far from any road is always a possibility. In any case, learning a few new things from time to time is a great way to make your trips safer and more interesting. With that in mind, here are a few random survival tricks and skills based on my own experience.

A Few Survival Tips To Remember

You can make snow-block shelters without tools when the conditions are right. I have made trench-shelters of 2 x 3 foot snow-blocks with no tools. I stomped rectangles in the heavily-crusted snow and lifted up the resulting blocks. Stacking them on either side of a trench in the snow, and then across the top for a roof, I was able to make a shelter in twenty minutes.

Syrup is made in late winter and early spring from both maple and birch trees, but it is too much effort to in a wilderness survival situation. However, you can get a couple hundred calories per day by just drinking maple or birch sap. Collecting it can be as easy as snapping off the ends of twigs and putting something underneath to catch the dripping sap. I've collected a quart per day for several days from one cut branch.

How about a survival tip that makes for a delicious meal? Crayfish turn red just like a lobster when they are boiled, and you get a little chunk of meat from the tail of each. Lifting rocks to find them is much more efficient than baiting them. They swim backwards, so reach from behind them to catch them.
Porcupine can be killed with a stick. They will not die easy, but they are slow, so you'll have plenty of time. Dress them from their underside, where there are no quills. They taste good when roasted over a fire. The mountain man tradition was to never kill them unless it was an emergency, because as long as they're around, there is easy food for survival situations.

For quick ropes and lashings in the desert, peel yucca leaves into strips and braid them together, overlapping the ends. It took thirty minutes for me to make a rope like this that four of us couldn't break (two on each end).

I have cooked in containers made of birch bark. There are two methods. One is to drop fire-heated rocks into the liquid to bring it to a boil. The other is to use the pot directly over the flame. If the flame doesn't go above the level of the liquid, the pot birch bark pot won't burn, because the heat is conducted away quickly by the liquid inside.

Just stuffing your light jacket full of dried grass can effectively make it into a winter coat. It is even better (less itchy) if you have another jacket (like your raincoat), so you can put the grass or leaves between the two. Usually it will be more efficient to look for ways to modify what you already have than to try to make survival clothing.

There are hundreds of little tricks that can make wilderness travel interesting and safer. Even if you aren't interested in practicing survival techniques, why not at least read a few survival tips now and then. Someday you may remember something that can save your life.


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