Originally Posted by
jefals
Sorry, having trouble visualizing this. I need to be hiking while holding the light low and parallel to the ground? Sounds a little impractical. ...
Carry it like you would an old school flashlight instead of using it as a headlamp. For night hiking, I stopped using headlamps years ago. Using a headlamp washes out all contrast. The ground just looks like a single grey mass and you often miss the uneven ground, roots and rocks. The only advantage to a headlamp is both your hands are free to hold trekking poles to catch you when you trip over the invisible root, rock or hole in the ground.
I carry a small flashlight for night hiking and normally use the lowest setting unless I'm trying to search for a campsite off trail. Though you can hold a headlamp like a flashlight if you prefer. As I hold it in my hand and walk normally, its naturally stays below my waist and I redirect it at the ground as my arm swings. That's not awkward, its a natural motion you don't even think about. You are old enough to remember hiking with a flashlight as headlamps didn't really come around til the 1980's in their first heavy form so I don't see why you can't imagine it. Having the light down low means you don't need as bright of a light since its closer to the ground. It also will cast a shadow of very root, rock and uneven ground giving you much better contrast then a headlamp on your head. When you can see better, you don't trip as often and thus don't need the trekking poles as much, so I find using just 1 at night (because my other hand has the flashlight) more than sufficient as I rarely trip on anything. I've been night hiking like this for years, including on the PCT.
An experiment I did years ago to convince myself that this was the way to go was: I was hiking in Joshua Tree National Park up a sandy canyon at night. With my headlamp, the sandy ground I was hiking on just looked like a solid flat mass. When I moved the light to below my waist, suddenly I could see every footprint and any unevenness that was invisible to me before. I have not gone back since.
When you get above treeline and there is a bright moon, you often don't even need a light. Its especially easy to hike without a light when you are hiking on light color ground like you find in the Sierra Nevada along the JMT. That white granite really reflects moon and starlight well.