[at-l] Night Hiking.

[stephensadams@xxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Adams)]

When I was in the Army, we frequently hiked cross country at night.

We practiced light and sound discipline, i.e., no night vision, no light
source was used, no fire was permitted, we had sound-dampened our equipment=
,
and no one spoke or made noise, other than the sound of walking.

One night we parachuted into a clearing, disposed of our parachutes, put on
our rucksacks and other stuff, and started walking.  It was a dark and rain=
y
night.  (=93How dark was it, Steve?=94)   I experimented; I covered my eyes=
 with
my hands then took them away - - it made no difference - - you couldn't see
any light.  We took off, walking briskly.  I followed the sound of the
person walking in front of me.

I became comfortable, pushing along quickly, listening cautiously in case
the person in front of me stumbled or fell.  The sound of his footsteps
started becoming weaker.  Had he turned, was I going too slowly??  A faint,
strange, rumbling sound quickly became louder than the person=92s footsteps=
.
I wondered how far away it was.  Within a second after first hearing the
noise, I walked full-stride into the side of either a cow or a bull.  The
animal was large; the side I walked into was only slightly curved.  It was
as if I=92d collided with large hide-covered bones extending vertically, fr=
om
somewhere above my knees, beginning to curve away, somewhere below my
forehead.  I don=92t think the animal even awakened.  I scrambled up, off t=
he
ground, collected my gear, located the sound of disappearing men, and took
off at a trot until I caught up.  It was so dark no one could see me blush.

Two-thirds of my lifetime has elapsed since that time.  My vision, hearing,
strength, agility and reflexes have diminished.  Healing time has
lengthened.

Some of us might want to exercise caution with night hiking.

Steve

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