Why ‘star walking’ is the outdoor activity we need | Hacker News Reader

Why ‘star walking’ is the outdoor activity we need

nationalgeographic.com

This is lovely, big fan of night walking, but walking at night has some additional dangers depending on where you are - people, wildlife, terrain.

Funny story - I went for a night walk in the forest with a friend. Was lovely. When we got back to the isolated car park we walked into some kind of drug deal. They kindly let us get back into our cars at gun point, then sent an SUV chased us out of the national park. Was surreal.

I don't go to isolated places at night anymore.

So kind of them ><

Just don't be scared if you see a big weird cloud in the sky: https://timeline.com/los-angeles-light-pollution-ebd60d5acd4...

As a teen, I used to do this regularly in some woods in northern MN. On a moonless night I could navigate by looking up to see the stars through the gap in the trees, indicating the trail. I had many interesting and wonderful experiences— once a flock of whistling swans flew over and I saw their silhouettes pass through over. Another time I a startled a deer (and vise-versa) only a few feet away and it let out a terrifying scream. Another time a flying squirrel landed on my face while I was standing still.

Just be careful with not losing an eye on a tree branch, not so hard to achieve. Or just tripping over some unexpected root and ending with all sorts of injuries, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.

That said I've done it couple of times, but almost always on snow so I saw where laying my feet and on paths I knew I don't need to be worried with above.

> Just be careful with not losing an eye on a tree branch, not so hard to achieve.

There are probably more UFO sightings than the sample size of people losing an eye from a branch while walking. Probably in the history of humanity. How stupid would they have to be?

Do the branches you know prey on human eyes? Do they do that striking snake kung-fu move whenever they see a human eye?

I once got a corneal abrasion from a corn stalk walking into a cornfield in the middle of the day to retrieve an rc plane.

It was the worst one my doctor had ever seen.

You may be surprised how easy it is to damage your eyes.

However, I have gone on many night hikes, and I wouldn’t let that worry hold me back. Moonlight is pretty bright once you get used to it, and even starlight in some places.

Is a cornfield a place where branches are?

Is the density of a cornfield a good analog for a forest?

THIS but I sit and ponder. I make it a point to sit outside every night for hours all year around, only restricted by rain or snow, and it has changed me for the better. I highly encourage investment in oneself to do the same without any human produced content distractions as the minds creativity is endless.

Nice! I just discovered the same. I have kids but I love to go on long hikes alone, so I just started to go on long walks after they go to bed. I discovered similar things that this article mentions: amazing star gazing, and also moon rises. I cannot recommend it enough.

If you are scared, start with an area where you don’t have to walk through forested areas, like a large open field. You’d be surprised how much light there is. Then work up to walking through darker areas.

you could also wear a head-mounted torch while navigating and turn it off when you've found a nice spot to relax and observe for a while.

I'd strongly recommend anyone doing this to wear (or at least carry in a pocket) a head-mounted torch in any case, even if you don't plan on using it at all. There are small ones that don't cost a lot and are really lightweight, and you don't need a lot of light if your eyes are accomodated to darkness anyway. A headlamp is absolutely invaluable when unexpected problems arise, like that one time I found a groaning person at the riverbank in moonless darkness or the one time I lost my way a little bit in the mountains, or the one time someones dog got scared and hid somewhere in the bushes and wouldn't return on its own. Hands-free light is just really really good to have.

...like that one time I found a groaning person at the riverbank in moonless darkness or the one time I lost my way a little bit in the mountains, or the one time someones dog got scared and hid somewhere in the bushes and wouldn't return on its own.

It feels like those are all from the same event. =)

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