National Parks Service
Most people go trail hiking during the day. It makes sense to do so. After all, half the point of being out is to enjoy the scenery and then to sleep exceptionally well after a long day filled with exercise, fresh air and sunshine. Yet night hiking has its pleasures and is a great training ground for practising navigation under conditions of impaired visibility. Officer candidates in the military do this routinely, but few recreational hikers and outdoor sportspeople do. Yet the skills learned are valuable and make one a much safer hiker.
The first requirement is just a bit of additional equipment to what you would normally carry in your backpack for a day hike. The first requirement, obviously, is a light of some sort. I find that nothing beats a quality headlamp in terms of ease of use, especially if you are trying to light up the path in front of you. My favourite headlamp is the XP version of the Petzl MYO. It has great battery life, provides a really useful amount of light for night hiking and is small and compact. There are a number of other Petzl headlamps out there as well as great mountaineering headlamps made by Black Diamond and other good mountaineering equipment companies so you really have a wide choice.
The next thing is a slightly beefed up first aid kit. Although I have been lucky and not injured myself, the possibility of taking a wrong step or a tumble has to be higher at night than during the day. Lastly you need your map and compass.
When practising night navigation you really are preparing yourself for emergency circumstances. These include not just finding your way out of the backcountry at night if you are lost are have an emergency, but also preparing yourself for dealing with problems relating to a sudden loss of visibility such as fog or a heavy storm that can make navigation far more difficult and force you to rely on a very close reading of terrain cues such as the direction and steepness of slopes indicated by contour lines on your map. Night navigation is a skill worth cultivating and fortunately, night hiking, with its beautiful views of the night sky, is one of the great pleasures of the outdoor world.
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