Estimate Remaining Daylight – Rodeo Rick’s Camping Tips

As the owner of one of those really expensive outdoor watches that seems to do just about everything from tracking my altitude and the outdoor temperature, to predicting storms through barometric pressure. The watch can even tell me what time sunrise and sunset are, but what if you don't have a high-tech gadget with you or better yet, what if the batteries die or if you left it at home?

When you're hiking or hunting in the back country, knowing approximately how much daylight is left can greatly help increase your enjoyment of the outdoors.  Knowing how much light is left in the day can also help you avoid having to make camp or find shelter in the dark as well as keep you from having to find your way or way out in the dark.

Recently I learned a neat little trick to help you estimate how much daylight is remaining and you can use it almost anywhere.

Hold your hand out and place it just beneath the sun and count how many finger widths are between the sun and the horizon.  Add 15 min for each finger width and that will give you a pretty good guess as to how much light you have remaining.

Since learning this trick, I find that I use it quite often.

Tip #4 - Estimate Remaining Daylight