Who Needs a Flashlight?

Flashlights are amazing little devices (especially LED flashlights) that have advanced in their abilities to provide greater amounts of light from more compact designs, while at the same time using less energy. There are some people who are obsessed with flashlights, while there are others who see them only as a tool you might use when you are camping or something.

Whatever your feelings are about flashlights, and you don’t have to have any, the fact remains that they are always good to have around. Whether you use them to help you find your way around a darkened camp ground to relieve yourself in the middle of the night, to inspecting the throat of your sick child, to peeking into the dark crevasse behind your dresser to locate a fallen item, or for the usual handyman type repair jobs, it can be said that almost anyone will need a good flashlight at some point of time. Recently, I had to use my trusty LED flashlight to illuminate my home when the power went out. The power was out for several hours and things still needed to be done to help my children go to bed and other things that needed to be taken care of before turning into bed myself. I was glad to have such a handy little tool for such an occasion.

I’m sure there are stories of how, having a good flashlight has kept someone from danger. Just the other day, in fact, I was hiking down from the summit of a mountain at over 8,000 ft elevation. I hiked to assist an outdoor photographer take some pictures near the peak. We had to wait until almost dark to take the pictures to capture the right lighting. This left us needing to hike down the majority of the mountain after the sun had completely set. I was glad to have my LED headlamp to see my way down the 2-hour, rocky, steep descent.

In addition to using my LED headlamp to pack up all our gear to head home, my adventure didn’t stop there. After my friend had dropped me off where I had parked my motorcycle to meet him for the hike, I proceeded to drive home late at night. About halfway home from where I had parked and met my friend, my motorcycle broke down and would not start up again. Knowing that I had no one with a truck or trailer to help me get my motorcycle home, I had to push the motorcycle the remaining five or six miles to my house. Not only was this physically challenging, especially after hiking a mountain for the last ten hours, but it was also dangerous to walk alongside the road with traffic flying by and no working lights on my motorcycle. This is where my LED headlamp came in handy once again. I put it on backwards with the light on so that traffic coming up behind me would be able to see me and take caution. It was comforting to have such a great tool that entire day.

Whatever your adventure might be, make sure you have a good, dependable flashlight on hand. Most flashlights are portable, water resistant, and even shock proof these days. LED flashlights are popular because of their intense brightness and low power consumption.