(Excerpt from above mention article)
Muir believed that what we think of as fixed in the natural world is in fact the mutable creation of our perceptions. Alter those perceptions by, say, hiking at night, and you can create a strange and wonderful new reality in your mind. “If the Creator were to bestow a new set of senses upon us...” Muir wrote, “we should never doubt that we were in another world.”Thank you for the link to the article, Laura! It was so well-written...so intriguing! I really think I may do some of my hiking at night... I really like the idea of going up Mather Pass by the light of the full moon –the view south of Mather Pass has never been one of my favorite but I think the moonlight will give it such a magical feel that it may well change that.
I’m not ready to do the complete JMT by night yet, though. There are just too many beautiful places that I want to see again in daylight. The author described the view from Island Pass by moonlight, but the area between Donahue and Island Passes is one of my favorite... I think I’d be sad not to see it in the full glory of sunlight. Plus I don’t know how safe I would feel as a solo at night.
I think I’ll do Forester Pass at night also – Even though I’ll only have half-moon, I feel really comfortable on that Pass.
... but the author makes it really sound tempting:
As the sun melts into the horizon, the valley is flooded with light as rich and thick as syrup. I freeze in place. Every pine needle is tinged orange. The pinnacles blaze with fire. Only a few minutes later the show of alpenglow ends, peace following drama. As Muir memorably wrote of this transition: “The daylight fades, the color spell is broken, and the forest breathes free.”
