On my way home yesterday I realized I was only 20 minutes from the Sharp Top Trailhead (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/virginia/sharp-top-trail), so I made a side trip.
It was already 4:00, I was in street clothes with no water or headlamp.
I picked up a liter at a C-store and reasoned I could get up and most of the way down before dark dark dark dark. The sun sets slowly this time of year, right?

Most of the people coming down the hill said Happy New Year. If nothing else, holidays make strangers greet one another.
Higher up, a couple people chuckled to see me heading up that late with nothing but a water bottle in my hand. My phone stayed in the car, so I have no pics. A couple on the summit were being leisurely, taking picture of city lights below, and it was fairly dark already by then. I asked if they had brought headlamps. "Of course" he said.

I stayed just long enough to drink some H2O and then headed down. The trail was dark, but enough light remained to distinguish the light colored granite rocks from the darker dirt. In a few minutes I saw headlamps ahead of me and thought I would pass some night hikers heading up, but in a quarter mile I still hadn't seen them, and saw the light again and realized I was gaining on people heading down. Once I caught up to them, I held back, because there was no point in passing in the dark, and we were getting close to the cars. Once I strayed off the trail, into deep (noisy) leaves, and immediately the two headlamps in front of me stopped and swung back to see what was following them. I raised my hands to block the light as it would destroy my night vision. They turned and went on without addressing me, but I heard one guy mutter "what the fuck?"

Have a great 2019 everyone. When in doubt, hit the trail, and pay no mind to the strange noises behind you.