TM26 8)
Sooo much flood, make sure you don’t walk off a cliff or into a hole
There is only one choice. If I only have a map and compass then I want THIS and it takes 4 cells. Just need to pick the right drop-in.
Eagletac TX25C2….it’s my newest light. 
Or an Olight S10 clipped on my hat.
I agree with Racer, Sunwayman D40A!
My favourite light since I bought it a few months ago.
Good evenly spaced modes with a decent moonlight mode, and the other day to my surprise, I noticed it has a single-flash beacon mode just like the Nitecore EA4.
It actually has two beacon modes, one with three fast flashes and the one with a single flash, which I like best.
And it’s really throwy and powerful too, from 4 AA:s, I like it a lot!
Eagletac M3C4 XM-L2 U2
In real life when I’m down to my last flashlight it’s going to be either the fauxton on my keys or the L3 L10 4-mode nichia in my wallet. And I’d have to lose my spare backup cells because they are in flashlights.
I wouldn’t enjoy losing my keys or my wallet or my extra cells, so this would be a sucky trip. I guess I’d hope it was the L10 since it would have a fresh NiMH before I went into the woods.
Just what I was going to say. It would be a headlamp over any hand held. I would probably just take my Black Diamond Spot. It’s plenty good enough and has decent throw or flood LEDs as well as red LEDs for map reading.
The three AAAs will last all night.
I’ve done several long nighttime hikes in AZ with my Eagletac t20c2 MKII. It gives me brightness, Strobe to get attention and fairly low light for energy conservation. I think that would be my goto had I actually a choice.
For its overall ability, toughness and size, oh and runtime……TM26
ZL H51f
If I'm in the woods I want neutrals. Probably an xpg2 neutral/hi cri single 18650 , reflector a little wider and deeper than a p-60 with 4 or 5 nicely spaced modes like a q-lite driver .I have three of these and they are the best woods lights I own ..... I might want to have a h51w as a spare .... for when I have to put my light away and climb,claw or crawl thru the woods ..
Generally I just need 2 things in the woods.. cri and some throw .no need for massive flood or monster light . I'd like a spare cell but in a few miles there is no need for it.No way I'd carry a light with three 18650's ..Way too heavy.
I’m a bit surprised by the number of folks who opted for flooders mainly cuz you can always coax some flood out of a thrower, but can’t coax additional throw out of a flooder.
Ideally, in a situation like this, you’d have multiple lights, and at least two, a flooder and a thrower, plus a dedicated backup. But given the condition that you could only have one, I kinda expected everyone to choose a massive thrower… lol. Goes to show what I know I guess.
It’s interesting to see the various perspectives on this scenario. 
How do you get flood out of a thrower? A diffuser?
That, or take out the reflector or take off the head.
Don’t have to hypothesize, although I was not lost, I did undertake this similar scenario a few days ago, using an XM-L2 Spark ST6NW on High mode for more than an hour and a half by which time the sun had some up and I switched it off. (I also use a Spark SD6 with the optional flood lens, clipped to my hipbelt for these sorts of exit routes so that I have good preipheral vision, handy and comforting when the bears are active in the sub alpine digging up hybernating Columbian Ground Squirrels). It would appear that Google ‘My Tracks’ got confused however, the moving time was almost the same at the ‘total time’,
A diffuser is probably the best way yes.
You can also simulate a sort of flood by holding the light at a very low angle and stretching the hotspot out on the ground. This produces a narrow-but-long evenly lit area of course, but it also helps diminish the contrast between the hotspot and the spill a little bit and gives slightly better side-to-side evenness as well.
It’s not ideal obviously, but it works surprisingly well in a pinch.
I was in the Amazon basin several months ago where it’s pitch black at night. Nothing gets through the tree canopy at all. In my opinion any decent light with around 200 lumens or greater and sufficient runtime would work in this scenario. And throw was better for me than flood. I had a Convoy S2 in the hand and Zebra SC52 on my head and I greatly preferred the Convoy.
So the key points for me in the light are 1) reliability, 2) runtime, 3) brightness, and 4) tint (T5 being better for seeing in the forest). Any decent 18650 or multiple AA light should be able to cover all these points.
Think outside the box… 
…That isn’t a light!