I go into the woods around 5am. Thats about 2 hours before officail sun up. That will put me in my tree 45mins to an hour before it starts to get light out. It also depends on when the deer will move through. Some of my areas, the deer are walking by as I climbing other areas they won't show up until sun up. I love to sit and listen to the quite forrest. I use the flash light sparingly but deer really don't care about flash lights, but they do care about you crashing through the forrest. If you don't beleive me, spot light a deer from your stand while its dark. They don't seem to notice.