Gear Review: ITT Night Mariner

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Hal, for once, found himself shoreside, without a boat. And he wasn't even scouting a put-in. Instead, he was armed with a daypack full of gear and food, and he aimed to skip merrily along the exposed shoreline of the Quabbin Reservoir. As he went, he mused about the advice of the Wall street gang, "don't bring your work home with you" and all that. Well, patrolling the shoreline was part of Hal's day job. "I don't see nawthin' wrong with a little extracurricular fieldwork!" And so off he set into the waning sunset, rock-hopping along the water's edge.

The furnace-heat of the day finally began to subside as Hal sat, trancelike, unconsciously popping baby carrots into his mouth. The breeze was hypnotic, as were the waves. Hal stared out across a thousand acres of water and land, and saw nary a sign of human intervention. He planted one elbow in the cool sugary sand and looked around him. There were no human footprints on the beach. "Hmm...., shoulda brought my field guide to animal tracks..." he thought, sandwich in hand. "Well, there's no denying that those are coyote tracks, ain't no stray dogs around here!" he could also see deer, mouse, and raccoon tracks in the wet sand along the edge.

Dusk began to wash the color from the scene, and Hal grew uneasy. Perhaps it was those articles about coyotes snatching children out on the Cape. Or maybe it was Gary, caretaker of Cook's Canyon in Barre, telling about calling in the coyotes. Gary had gone out in a field one evening, and began his "yip yip yip" in earnest. It wasn't long before he was rewarded with a lone coyote approaching him, slowly, apprehensively. Some primal fear suddenly surfaced in Gary's brain, and he whirled around to see a whole pack silently advancing on him. "YAH! GIT GIT GIT!" he shrieked, hair fully on end. Fortunately, they did "git", and Gary was in a full willie until he got back into the safety of his house. He never tried that again.

Hal's own personal uneasiness hadn't gotten anywhere near the willie stage, but he realized there was a good 25 minutes of rock hopping to get back, if the light held out. Hal had waited till dusk on purpose. For the occasion, he had borrowed a night vision scope, one of the latest Generation 3 models, a Night Mariner (A similar model, the Night Quest, not waterproof, goes for $1,795 in the Cabela's catalog). Tonight would be a good test of the unit.

Proud of his excellent night-vision, Hal set out across the round rocks and boulders. Hal ate carrots every day, and good old Doc D'Amico told him that yes, the vitamin A out of those carrots was especially good for night vision. The night was moonless, and a thick gauze of clouds obscured the stars. "Good night for a test." He wanted to check out three particular things: just plain walking around with the scope; looking for the reflectors of the car, parked in the woods, a few hundred feet from shore; and for animal eyes in the woods.

Hal was sorely disappointed. While the monocular scope could illuminate the rocks nicely, the lens had a slight 'fisheye' effect, and there was no telling how far away they were. He tried keeping both eyes open, to no avail, and found that his own night-vision was far superior, complete with peripheral vision and depth perception. He pulled it away from his eye, temporarily blinded by the bright images in the scope. The animal eye test was inconclusive, as he hadn't knowingly encountered any animals. He approached the path leading into the woods in full darkness.

Staring up into shadows, he could faintly make out a big dark shape, might be his car. Out came the scope, and yep, it was a big dark shape. He walked up the path and found the car unaided by the scope. So tail lights were out too. In the car, he tried driving slowly through the woods without any lights on. Even then, parking lights were required, and who can't drive slowly with parking lights? Hal determined right then, a bag of carrots was a far better value.

One thing he did notice though, and that was the fact that the scope could pick up the stars, even through cloud cover. He tried to find the big dipper, but the field of view was small and distorted. Perhaps a more experienced stargazer could have seen it. The Rangers at the reservoir also had told him it's great for spotting campfires, flashlights and stuff. "well, keep it then." Hal muttered.