‘Night Hike’ sheds light on unseen world

Mary Field, naturalist with the Outdoor Discovery Center, illustrates how human eyes process light during the “Night Hike” program at Huyser Farm Park, 4188 64th St. in Laketown Township, on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. Participants covered one eye during the exercise. The event was sponsored by the Laketown Township Parks and Recreation Commission.

The sun dropped below the treetops at Huyser Farm Park, 4188 64^th St., on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, but rays of fading light still touched the open meadow. The moment the group of about 20 people crossed a wooden bridge over the small creek in the 102-acre park, the darkness fell like a curtain over the woods.

The Outdoor Discovery Center’s “Night Hike” event closed out the season’s programs sponsored by the Laketown Township Parks and Recreation Commission but opened an unseen world through other heightened senses.

“We’re going to try to do what the owls do,” hike leader Mary Field, naturalist with the Outdoor Discovery Center, told the children and adults about moving through the dark woods.

No artificial light allowed. Instead, participants used their other senses.

At the edge of the pond, Field cupped her hands around her ears and told hikers to use their “deer ears” to listen – rustling in the trees, buzzing in the field, a drop or two in the water.

Participants in the “Night Hike” program at Huyser Farm Park, 4188 64th St. in Laketown Township, on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, check the accuracy of their color predictions at the end of the walk with Mary Field, naturalist with the Outdoor Discovery Center. The event was sponsored by the Laketown Township Parks and Recreation Commission.

Farther along the trail, where the shadows deepened, Field carefully passed out crayons and paper to test the participants’ ability to determine color in the gray world surrounding them. They scribbled on the paper with their crayons, waiting until the end of the hike to see if they guessed correctly what color they actually had.

“I smell red,” one hiker said with a laugh.

“It sounds like blue to me,” another chirped from the darkness.

After sharing owl calls along the pathways, the hikers heard coyotes howling in the distance.

In what seemed the blackest spot in the black night, Field stopped the group and told the haunting story of Blackbeard with his eye patch and how light is processed through the eyes.

She told the hikers to cover one eye. She lit a candle that burst through the night like a spotlight, then she told participants to uncover that eye, to illustrate how each eye processed the jarring glow.

After exiting the woods and again entering the meadow flanked by rows of blueberry bushes, the group marveled at the starry sky before huddling around a phone light to look at their crayon-colored papers, laughing at their inaccurate answers.

The event was free. Programs will resume next year.

Mary Field, naturalist with the Outdoor Discovery Center, explains what’s ahead to participants in the “Night Hike” program at Huyser Farm Park, 4188 64th St. in Laketown Township, on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. The event was sponsored by the Laketown Township Parks and Recreation Commission.

Past programs include Frog Catching at Farview Park, Wildflower Walk at Sanctuary Woods, Little Explorers at Wolters Woods, Kayaking at Gilligan Lake, blueberry picking at Huyser Farm Park, insect investigation at Shore Acres Park and five-senses exploration along Shore Acres trails.