Yeah. That was my post. If I have time later I'll track it down and post a link to it.

Since I made that post I've had the opportunity to take quite a bit of tracking training and spoken to some real veteran trackers about the matter.

The consensus with the old pros is to use a flashlight with an old fashioned bulb and D cell batteries. The incandescant bulb gives a mellow yellow light with is the least stressful on the eyes and the D cells make sure the flashlight won't die in 10 minutes.

The last time I took some training I had the opportunity to play with lights as we did some tracking in twilight and at night...and we were tired. Started at 8am and kept going until dark which around here in the summer is about 11pm.

I found that for me the color didn't seem to make much of a difference. I had a light I picked up on the internet which has 10 different colors of LED light. The different colors can make certain things stand out, or blend in, but in the instances I was using them in, it didn't really help me to see anything I wouldn't have noticed with just a normal flashlight. I definately didn't notice anything special about 'green on green' type lighting like you mention dweste. Every time I tried the colored lights, I went back to my other flashlight, the 'white' setting on the multi color light, or the orange color as it's nice and mellow and easy on the eyes. If you get tired enough you'll see anything even if it's not there!

When it comes to normal flashlights though, you really want to be careful what you buy. LED lights which are pure white or even a little blue burn your eyes out FAST. Also a light which is too bright (like a K2 Luxeon light for example) will just wash out the sign, burn your eyes, and destroy your night vision. Also avoid lights with 'hot spots'. My Mini Mag light sucks for tracking for example even with the home made diffuser I have on it. Duracell is selling some LED lights I want to try which have a more natural color and a spherical lense to get rid of hot spots...could be a good light.

I found that it's how you use the light that is most important and far more important than color. The angle at which you put the light to the sign, the angle of your eye relative to the light, and the ambient light are all things that make night and day difference.

My favorite new trick which I picked up from training is to use the mirror of my compass to reflect light (natural or my own) on to the sign. You can really control the angle at which it hits and if you are lucky enough to be able to use the sun (like right when it's going down) you can reveal amazing amounts of detail by shooting a beam of sunlight across the track or the sign at a really low angle like 20 to 30 degrees. Unfortunately if the light hits at the wrong angle it can actually help to hide the sign from you by removing vital shadow instead of casting it.