"is it still a day hike if its dark out?"

Depends on if the answer is to a ranger looking for permits or not.

Some of the longer desert hikes must be done during shorter days, so you have no choice but to begin well before sunrise. Mid-November in Death Valley, sunrise-to-sunset is about 10 hours. If, hypothetically, you do 9000' and 22 miles in such conditions, largely without trail, you will be hard-pressed to fit the trip in daylight.

And for extremes...

http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... x?ID=78856

Is it still a dayhike if you're hiking in the dark?

Yeah. Well I reckon it is.

Done a few starting with a headtorch. Even fewer starting and finishing with a headtorch.

In mid summer those walks would have been all in daylight. In autumn and winter they are not, hence the headtorch.

Bryan Benn wrote:

Is it still a dayhike if you're hiking in the dark?

In mid summer those walks would have been all in daylight. In autumn and winter they are not, hence the headtorch.

In northern Scotland, the hike would have be less than 4 hours long!

josegarcia wrote:bob, why do you hate camping?

He has to get home and jump on the computer, to make sure all us SPers are behaving ourselves.

truchas wrote:You have to be careful in the night, pre-dawn, or twilight hours in Texas, the lions and rattlesnakes will get you.

I've often worried about that. For my last pre-dawn start, it was cold enough that the snakes were probably dull and slow; but we do have some nasty snakes out here (Mojave greens).

Every time I pass a cliff in mountain lion country, in the dark, I roar very loudly, because I don't want to seem like prey. I really don't know if this works; can't get enough participants for a controlled test.

Truchas and Lolli (seriously) -- good to see that you both survived Ragnarok.

Lolli wrote:Thanks, but why shouldn't I have done?

Even Odin and Thor didn't make it.

truchas wrote:

JasonH wrote:

josegarcia wrote:bob, why do you hate camping?

He has to get home and jump on the computer, to make sure all us SPers are behaving ourselves.

Why do you hate behaving?

Don't know. Now where did I put that whoopie cushion?

Funny you should mention night hiking in Texas.

Apparently besides big cats and snakes, you need to watch out for overzealous park rangers!

I just read this article about hikers getting their car towed away from a trail head!

Sounds like a very long night hike!

(I'd bet truchas could tell us more about this trail.)

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/sto ... ?id=404966

I would have some words with the park rangers!

Jabberwocky wrote:http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=404966

The hikers had to walk five hours uphill to the park entrance to get a cell phone signal to call relatives for a ride home.

What a mess. You would think a simple parking ticket would suffice. Or how about this revolutionary idea: Eliminate the fucking curfew!!!!

Jeezus. We're talking about hikers, not pre-teens on a school night.

Exactly! I'd be steaming mad!

Gonzales said he is still upset that he had to pay the $240 tow charge, and that the park rangers didn't even bother to look and make sure nobody was lost or hurt.

truchas wrote:What if they were really lost and never showed back up to where their cars were?

In the towing company's lot, the car would accumulate a daily storage fee for months and months until someone figured out what happened. Then this fee would be expected from the families of the deceased.

Having just hiked in McKittrick Canyon (Guadalupe Mtns) I was wondering about this too. It's a "day use" area and they close the gate at 4:30 pm. There's a backcountry campsite 8 miles up the trail; that site serves no purpose for people using other trailheads. So how do you use an overnight campsite from a day use parking lot?

Arthur Digbee wrote:Having just hiked in McKittrick Canyon (Guadalupe Mtns) I was wondering about this too. It's a "day use" area and they close the gate at 4:30 pm. There's a backcountry campsite 8 miles up the trail; that site serves no purpose for people using other trailheads. So how do you use an overnight campsite from a day use parking lot?

Te only TRUE way to climb Guadalupe is from sea level... no, from the Mariana Trench.

Lolli wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:

Bryan Benn wrote:

Is it still a dayhike if you're hiking in the dark?

In mid summer those walks would have been all in daylight. In autumn and winter they are not, hence the headtorch.

In northern Scotland, the hike would have be less than 4 hours long!

In northern Scandinavia, the hike would have be less than 0 hours long!

To me that establishes once and for all that a day hike can take place in the dark!