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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Staged Light test atop Brown Mountain Aug 20, 2014

Last night, Wednesday Aug 20, 2014, I hiked trails atop Brown Mountain for yet another staged light test.  My 520-lumen handheld spotlight and my 78-lumen 4-LED headlamp were both visible to our research camera on Jonas Ridge (BML Cam1). 

520-lumen spotlight on Bear Rocks
 
Bear Rocks atop Brown Mountain
Prominent, well-exposed, house-size boulders
35.91654 N; 81.76766 W
 
Image from Bear Rocks looking
toward BML Cam 1 on Jonas Ridge. 
The camera sits atop one of the lighted houses in Gingercake Acres
 
I drove to Chestnut Gap, bicycled FS Road 4099 the three miles to the north end of Brown Mountain, and then hiked to the prominently exposed Bear Rocks via the connector trail & ATV Trails 2, 8, 1B & 6; arriving at 10:24 pm.  In the first image above, my 520-lumen spotlight can be seen at the extreme right edge of the camera's field of view---6.7 miles from the camera.
 
Upon leaving Bear Rocks at 10:38 pm, I followed ATV Trail #2 back to the north end of Brown Mountain and arrived at my vehicle at 1:09 am.  On the way, I stopped along FS Rd 4099 at several clear views and shined my 78-lumen headlight toward BML Cam1, however only one such spot (at 5.6 miles from the camera) appeared within the field of view of the camera (see extreme left side of image below).
 
78-lumen 4-LED headlamp on FS Road 4099
 
The full nightly video can be seen at:
 
Such staged light tests help establish actual landmarks and the visibility of manmade lights commonly carried by back-country travelers.
 

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