Moonlit Magic : Eventide Country, Beach Walks Filled With Enchantment

San Diego County’s night life ranges well beyond the glare of the sodium-vapor street lamps. On a warm Santa-Ana evening, there’s nothing quite like rambling along a chaparral-lined path lit by a coppery harvest moon.

With your sense of sight subdued, nonvisual sensations come to the fore: the sound of a hundred crickets droning in unison, the pungent-sweet smell of sage, the just-right touch of the warm, refreshing breeze.

Some of the many hundreds of miles of recreation trails in the county are nicely suited for night hiking. In the autumn, you don’t have to stay up late to enjoy them. By mid-October, darkness overtakes the land by about 6 p.m.; after the change from daylight to standard time on Oct. 27, darkness falls more than an hour earlier than that.

The following tips are offered by a veteran of hundreds of rewarding night hikes:

* Let the full moon be your guiding light. The full moon rises about sunset and sets around sunrise, providing nightlong illumination. The so-called waxing gibbous moon, which occurs for several days before each full moon, stands a bit higher in the sky during the evening, but sheds less light. This fall, waxing gibbous and full moons occur during the periods Oct. 18-23, Nov. 16-21, and Dec. 16-20.

* Choose routes on wide, smooth trails, jeep tracks, and dirt roads. Navigation and footing should be simple and easy. You shouldn’t have to focus your attention on the trail underfoot to the exclusion of the nocturnal world around you.

* Be especially careful of rattlesnakes on the warm nights. Autumn is not the prime season for snakes to be out, but keep an eye and ear out anyway.

* A flashlight is a necessary safety item, but it need not be used constantly, especially if the moon is bright. Wide-beam flashlights are better than the standard narrow-beam types that induce tunnel vision. Hold the flashlight well below the level of your eyes so the shadows of rocks, roots and other irregularities on the ground fall obliquely across your line of sight. If you’re hiking in the hills above bright city lights, flashlight illumination is more important than you might think. Without it, the glare of lights from below may blind you to the trail underfoot.

* Avoid hiking (or at least going alone) in areas known to be unsafe from a crime standpoint. This virtually never applies to backcountry areas, but it may apply to certain beach areas.

* Hike familiar paths--walk the route first in daylight to familiarize yourself with it.

* Check to make sure your route is open for hiking at night. Some park areas close at sunset. Or there could be problems with parking in lots posted for day use only. Roads and trails in the Cleveland National Forest and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park are open at all times; elsewhere you should check with the rangers.

Here are three suggestions for trips:

* Woodson Mountain. This bouldery ridge rising between Poway and Ramona possesses a commanding view of the North County lights and the shadowy mountain skyline to the east. Park off California 67 opposite the fire station 3 miles north of the Poway Road-67 junction. Cross the highway (carefully) on foot, walk left past the station and hook up with the paved service road (closed to auto traffic) that zigzags 1 1/2 miles to the summit. Start in daylight or twilight if you’ve never been there before; the first 200 yards is hard to follow.

* Moonlight Beach. Moonlight City Beach in Encinitas is a good starting point for walks both up and down the coastline. Low tide is a must, as the beach is narrow and fronted by bluffs in both directions. Negative tides occur during the early evening hours of Oct. 24-27, Nov. 22-26, and December 21-25. The moon will be just past full during these periods, so it will rise after sunset and won’t clear the bluffs until rather late at night.

* Borrego Palm Canyon. Anza-Borrego’s most popular trail, the Borrego Palm Canyon Nature Trail, winds for 1 1/2 miles between the park’s main campground and the first grove of native California fan palms in lower Borrego Palm Canyon. The oasis-like palm grove, with its shimmering palm fronds and trickling stream, is a revelation in the daytime. At night, the experience is twice as enchanting.