Zombies! Yoiks!

A lot of good information here. Thanks everyone.

Yeah, if you're not going to get out in an hour or two, then for sure bed down for the night while there's still light. That one was brought home to me in a big way when I kept going until after dark and then bedded down. In the morning I woke only to find that I had spent the night in poison oak. I laugh at myself now but at the time it was sheer misery, misery that lasted long after I had finally gotten out of the situation.

However, if you know where you are and you're on a good trail, I can see walking out if you know you can get out in an hour or two. Bushwhacking at night? Doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Steep, slanty trails at night? Doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

A trick that I haven't seen mentioned is using moonlight. Whenever I'm going to go overnight or on a long day hike, I visit the US Naval Observatory and get sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset information (see example below). I know how many hours of light there are. I match that against the mileage I want to cover for the day and how fast I hike. I get a pretty good idea of how early I need to be on the trail, and how much light I'll have left to set up camp when I get to my destination.

With the moonrise/set and phase information, I know whether or not I'll have moonlight by which I can explore or what have you. It's just a good idea to know what your resources are before you head out, and trust me, light is a resource.

HJ


U.S. Naval Observatory
Astronomical Applications Department

Sun and Moon Data for One Day
The following information is provided for Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California (longitude W118.4, latitude N34.1):

Sunday
11 July 2010 Pacific Daylight Time

SUN
Begin civil twilight 5:22 a.m.
Sunrise 5:51 a.m.
Sun transit 12:59 p.m.
Sunset 8:07 p.m.
End civil twilight 8:36 p.m.

MOON
Moonset 7:24 p.m. on preceding day
Moonrise 5:38 a.m.
Moon transit 12:59 p.m.
Moonset 8:14 p.m.
Moonrise 6:51 a.m. on following day

New Moon on 11 July 2010 at 12:40 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.