Always great to be out in the wild and away from folks, really helps me recharge. Interesting on the lights, certainly nice to have for the walk back. Back in the day when I used to hunt, it was often very early mornings. I used to go out extra early at like 3am just so I could hike into my spot in the dark. As long as there is a bit of moonlight, it's surprising how our eyes adjust and if one moves very slowly, as if stalking game, it's quite navigable even in fairly thick tree cover. Of course, I knew the area extremely well and no dangerous steep drop offs in the area. That's a lovely area, and will take you up on that visit if I can convince the wife to fly out. She not very enamored with all the dangerous creepy crawlies out there!
I usually use no lights to move about but I was in a dangerous section and with no phone service there it's not worth the risk. I won't forget my spare batteries even again though.
Yeah, so many things want to kill you out here but it's generally safe. Usually. Mostly. Sometimes. 😉
Yes, well I always use lights on the way out. (When I have them, dig dig lol). Imho it actually helps condition the critters and others that ah, there's a light, no loud noise, no threat, and the humans are leaving the area, we can just ignore that from now on and go about our business....
Yep, that's a definite strategy...When one has batteries! Lol.