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Camping Gear: Flashlights

A good quality dependable flashlight is one of your most important pieces of additional gear. Recent advances in technology have produced very rugged, lightweight and long lasting flashlights. The main advance has come in the bulb type. Now, instead of an incandesent bulb light that lasts tens to hundreds of hours, you can get an l.e.d. (short for light emitting diode) bulb that last thousands to tens of thousands of hours. Not only do they have extreamly long bulb life but they also vastly extend the battery life of the light as well. In the past you would be lucky to get 20 hours of continuous light from a flashlight. Now with the new l.e.d. flashlights you can expect 100 hours and beyond.

There are many different sizes and styles to choose from. I would first recommend a good quality head lamp. This is a small light that comes on an elastic strap that you wear on your head. This leaves your hands free to work on things, or to use in case you get caught out on the trail when night falls. I would also reccommed a small hand held flashlight as a back up. With both of these you should be ready for most any situation. One thing to think about is to perhaps pick a head lamp and hand held flashlight that take the same size batteries. That way if you feel you may need to carry spare batteries you can pack one size for both lights.

Another feature that I like is interchangable red lens for your light. My head lamp has a flip up red lens that really comes in handy. When you use a red lens on your light it does not ruin your night vision. It take your eyes around 30 to 40 minutes to become totally accustomed to night time light levels. If you then flip on a regular white light your eyes go back to not being adjusted to low light and you have to start all over. With a red lens on your light you preserve your night vision and can sometimes see well enough that you will not need to use a light at all. Another feature to look for is water proof or water resistant lights. You never know when you will be stuck out at night in the rain, and that would be about the worst time to have have your flashlight fail.