A good headlamp with spares batteries is one of the essentials you must absolutely never be without. Bring it everytime you hike, even during the day. Don't rely on the Photon only. You could use NiMH rechargeables but bring alkaline as backups (or Lithium for multiday trips or during the winter).
Handy, yes. Essential? No. I don't move in the dark, period. It's too easy to get injured in the dark. I have serious and permanent damage to a knee from putting a foot in a gopher hole in the dark in the Army. I have painful arthritis in both knees as a result of that one injury. So, essential? No. If I'm in a survival situation, I'm not risking injury to move around after dark. The maglite can be made into a lantern by standing it in its head, and provides good enough area light to accomplish in camp tasks.
For whatever reason, I was thinking about this post last night, and I thought I'd say something about it.
Firstly, I understand completely your perspective, particularly given your injury, but hiking with a light is quite different from patrolling in the army while maintaining noise and light discipline.
Secondly, I think having more options is a good thing in a suvival or emergency situation. For example, you're out on a hike of some sort, it's late afternoon, and your hiking partner starts really lagging. Finally your hiking partner can go no further, but by now you've lost so much time since your hiking partner has been hiking at such a slow pace that you can't get back to the trail head by dark. Your hiking partner is obviously deteriorating fast, he may not make it through the night, and there's nothing you can do for him with the training and FAK that you have. You calculate that you would only be on the trail in the dark for about 60 minutes after dark.
So, what do you do? Personally, although night hiking isn't my favorite, I'd hike out and go for help.
Admittedly, the above scenario doesn't happen every day, but my point is this: You can't always control your external environment. You never know when hiking after dark might be the lesser of two evils. Having the option of being able to hike in the dark might be really nice to have even if only to prevent folks from worrying about you and starting a needless SAR operation.
Just something to think about.
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