Night Hikes

By Anonymous -
Last night, through the Outdoors Club, I led a night hike through the Wheaton Woods. This trip has been my speciality over the years, I'll lead a couple over the semester. Each night is different: temperature, weather, clouds, moon, and wind and more all have an impact on the experience.

Photo by Egor Kamelev from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/roadway-filled-by-snow-surrounded-by-pine-trees-landscape-photography-754151/
One thing that I love about night hikes is that our sense of sight is so greatly diminished, to the point where we almost don't rely on it at all. As we walk through the woods we almost rely on our feet, more than our eyes, to "see" the path we walk on. Our other senses are forced to pick up the slack. The same way as people who are blind say that their other senses are amplified, here we can induce the same effect temporarily.

Last night, the wind was particularly interesting to experience. When we first entered the woods, it felt as though the wind was tunneling into the path behind us, pushing us on. And later, we could hear the rustling of the trees as the wind picked up, and turning received a full blast in the face as it passed over us.

Other nights, different senses dominate. Sometimes it's the sound of the animals or water, other times it's certain smells. Even sight can be the most interesting sense, despite it lacking. I find it insanely cool to think that at night, we don't see color. We're actually seeing in black and white. Like a photograph or an old movie.

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