Spend enough time camping and hiking in the outdoors and, sooner or later, you're going to run out of daylight before your ready. Maybe you need to get an early start on a long hike, or you arrive at your campsite later than anticipated. Whatever the reason or situation, a good source of light will help you hike safely, set-up camp, find firewood, cook your meal, or even just relax and read a book in your sleeping bag before calling it a night.

You have a lot of options for sources of light. If you are car camping with your family, lanterns are great for lighting up a large area and flashlights are a lot of fun for kids. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to focus on my favorite backpacking tool: the headlamp.

I've been on the headlamp bandwagon since the first bulky models came out. I purchased one before our trip in Indiana back in 1995. It had a single incandescent bulb that worked much like a typical flashlight; you rotated the housing to widen or narrow the focus of the beam. The batteries loaded into a pack that was located at the back of your head, with wires carrying the power supply around to the bulb. I really liked it. Until the weight of it pulled it off of my head while I was fishing. On a bridge. Over the middle of the stream. It floated there, light beaming up at me, for awhile. We tried hooking it with a line, but that didn't work. I debated going in after it, but the stream had a lot of silt that you sank down into, and was littered with trees and stumps that provided ample opportunity for getting stuck. Rather than risk it, I watched my beloved headlamp slowly sink into the murky water, and learned to purchase a lighter and more secure unit the next time!

Thankfully they came out with headlamps that run on LED lights. These are great. They are extremely lightweight and most offer several settings allowing you to cast wider or narrower focus, dimmer or brighter light, even a strobe effect sometime. The battery life is also outstanding, although it also depends on the settings you use. I currently own two: one by Petzl and a Black Diamond Spot headlamp (read review of the Black Diamond here, or Doug's review of the L.L. Bean Trailblazer II here). The Black Diamond has become my primary light source (it has a brighter option), with the Petzl as my backup (you never know when one might fall of your head!).

Headlamps are great because they are small and easy to pack, allow hands free use, and will shine the light where you are looking. They also fit in the side pocket of cargo pants, a vest pocket, etc., so even if you're just setting out on a short hike through a  metro park, you can easily take one with you. They are extremely light as well, so you won't even notice its there. The fact that are so easily packable is critical, as it makes it more likely you will take it with you. I went mountain biking with a friend once up in Michigan and got caught out after it became dark. Almost pitch black dark. We alternated walking and riding, yelling to each other about what we would run into so the other might avoid it. We even did the infamous circle back to where you started once. I would have given anything for a headlamp that night.

I should also note that these aren't just for camping. I use mine all the day for when I'm working on home improvement projects, under the hood of the Jeep, etc. Its truly one of favorite pieces of equipment.

Headlamps are also extremely affordable. You can purchase a good headlamp for around $20 to $40 dollars, and will provide one of the best returns on investment of any gear you can buy.