I could navigate the place without light on a moonless, cloudy night.
Well, as they say: getting there is half the fun...
Dark and moonless is good, defeats nightvision, but not IR. Although if you have the equipment, IR can be detected while starlight cannot. If you're good enough to know the area that well are your friends that good as well?
IF they are, you might suggest reconning the area all around your site for ambush sites (for YOU to use) and to check for traffic of any sort, be it the cross country granola crunching camper (liberals won't be armed and won't be behaving in sneak and peek mode) or an individual or group on a mission. Look for discarded food wrappers, they'll last awhile and yet you should be able to discern the degree of freshness. Most folks don't know enough to police up their waste products and that gives away their presence.
What I'm suggesting here is to format yourselves into a patrol group and practice conducting operations. Get used to working together and develop hand signals. Operate in inclement weather because movement is covered by the noise rain makes in the woods. Rain is the best (tactical) friend of every infantryman, even though we hate it too. A good heavy rainstorm can even make it tough to figure out from which direction shots are being fired and don't forget this can work in favor of the bad guys, too!
Re #1191
Thanks Ex! More excellent advice. I'll work with my friends to incorporate some of this into our plans!
...Rain is the best (tactical) friend of every infantryman, even though we hate it too...
Sound advice, EX.
I love the rain.