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Nighttime Only Cache


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The one in my area is a mystery cache that takes you to the parking lot then you have to follow firetacks (or reflective tape) to the actual cache location. Since both require a flashlight to make them obvious, you really can only do this at night.

 

I've also seen letterboxes done this way with reflective tape/firetacks...one near a cemetery full of spanish moss that was creeeeepy B)

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The one in my area is a mystery cache that takes you to the parking lot then you have to follow firetacks (or reflective tape) to the actual cache location. Since both require a flashlight to make them obvious, you really can only do this at night.

 

I've also seen letterboxes done this way with reflective tape/firetacks...one near a cemetery full of spanish moss that was creeeeepy B)

 

Do you have the name of the cache so I can look it up?

 

Thanks!

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I just notice I've not done this one yet (I thought I had, will check to see if I've just not logged it) B) I probably have only done the letterbox using the reflective tape and that's what I'm thinking of :ph34r:

 

Anyway, the name is If you're scared.....say you're scared!. A creepy old cemetery or a natural maze-like rock formation would make these really scary and fun! :ph34r:

 

<edited for spelling/clarity>

Edited by Frettchen_2006
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Skull Cracker Nocturnal Cache is a our nocturnal that uses fire tacks. Coords take you to a point on the trail. From there you are SUPPOSED to use your flash light to find 1 tiny tack on a tree about 50 feet away. Walk to that tree, look for another tack. Follow them to the cache which is hidden inside a cave. We have yet to figure out a way to make it absolutely impossible during the day.

 

Lake Hope Nocturnal is the cache that inspired ours. While ours is straight from tree to tree. This one has you practically doing circles and looking behind yourself. It really had us dizzy but was lots of fun.

 

We are trying to figure out how to mount LED's in the forest. A cacher would have to find it, press the button and follow the beam to the tree it points at. This of course raises many issues with mounting and batteries, leading us right back to fire tacks......

 

Our nocturnal is one of our favorite caches as it gets some of the best/funniest logs. It's one of the ones that other cachers comment on when we run across each other at events. Goodluck to you, hope you have as much fun with yours!

Edited by TeamGuisinger
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I have a night cache of my own and have found several others. All of the ones I have done use "Fire Tacks" to illuminate the way with a flashlight at night. The absolute best one I have done was called Stinson's Run Owl Walk in eastern PA (I think this was name...it's owned by Ed Scott). This cache was different from all of the others (including mine) that I have seen. In most night caches you can see the next reflector from the one you are currently at and the prior one you have pasted from the one you are at. This cache only placed reflectors at 100-meters past any point in the trail where there was a turn. If you traveled down the path past 100-meters without seeing a reflector you had gone the wrong way and had to back track. Of course nobody in our group had a clue how far 100-meters was so this made for many wrong turns that we explored far too long. This actually added to the fun. Nothing better than being out in the woods in an unfamilar area at night! Would suggest that you do not make it too easy but do not make it impossible. The cache I have mentioned led you on a an approximate 1-2 mile hike (hard to tell exactly since we were all over the place) where you may have to hike for quite a while until you spotted the next reflector. The path to the cache was marked by the only place on the trail where you could see two reflectors at once. Then you followed the reflectors into the woods off the trail (now you see one reflector from the other) until you got to a grouping a two reflectors together which marked the general location of the cache.

 

The most important part of creating a night cache is to specify the color, shape and approximate size of your reflectors. In eastern PA there are a ton of deer hunters who also use reflective tacks, tape and cable ties to mark their paths to their tree stands during hunting season. It is very easy to get off on the wrong path when your trail might cross one of the hunter's trails. When I put out my night cache there were no other reflectors in the woods at all. Within 1-2 months my trail was crisscrossed many times by multiple trails of hunters that totally confused all cachers.

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Another idea for a night cache that one of my cohorts has is to make a UV night cache. This type of cache would be a multi-cache where each coordinate leads you to the next stage. Each cache container has a UV flashlight that you can use to serach for the coordinates to the next stage written somewhere in UV ink or paint. The UV ink or paint will only be visable under UV light (sort of like dissappearing ink) so the coordinates should be well hidden during daylight hours.

 

Of course with this sort of cache you will have to make sure that the batteries in the stowed flashlight are always good and hope that nobody walks off with the flashlight.

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I did a night time cache here in San Felipe, Baja, Mexico after I had so much fun doing one in Alamo, California, a few years ago. I did the reflector thing. I ended up putting the final location at the end of the write-up. I did this after one cacher was a little upset not being able to get past the third reflector because of cactus growth hiding the reflector after a big rain and I was not in the area during the summer to check. The cache is 'San Felipe After Dark' GCHB61. Also, I tell everyone to bring their GPSr, even though they don't need it to find the cache, so they can use the trackback feature. We don't want to get anyone lost at night walking around in the Baja Desert.

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I haven't tried it yet, but

 

Illuminati

 

looks really cool.

 

I have done one in Illuninati series that was way cool. Used U.V. paint to "hide" the final coordinates, and you needed a black light to find them with. We had to bring our own "special tool" to find them with, but it was well worth it!

 

I like caching at night- not always enough time during the busy day to get to all the caches you want to.

 

TraseeAnn

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Check out Jack & Jill Night Cache. This had a fun story to go with the cache. We did this after a gathering of a lot of us cachers in Twin Falls, Idaho. The only problem was that some of the cachers had those million candle power jobies. After they shined their lights you couldn't see a thing much less the fire tacks. It was a lot of fun, and when we got to the cache the owner had created a miniature mine entrance in the rocks in which he hid the cache.

B)

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I've got two night caches, The Etch-O-Sketch Night Cache, (which is pretty complicated), and Carpe Noctum, which is pretty straight forward. Something I asked myself prior to setting these up is, "What usually kills a night cache?"

 

What I came up with is that most night caches start with a reflective trail, visible from the parking area, or a trail. This is a surefire way to have muggles following your reflectors. To combat this, I started mine several hundred feet from the parking areas, and made the players do a bit of bushwhacking to get to the beginning. The other problem I've seen is that most night caches will have the final located at the end of the reflective trail. If a muggle does stumble across your reflectors, and follows them, they will be led to your ammo can. I hid micros on the final tree of my reflective trail. Inside the micros are instructions leading them to the final, which is fairly close.

 

Instead of Fire Tacks, I bought a few rolls of Scotch Brite reflective tape available at Lowes, near the mailbox accessories. I cut each roll into about a gazillion little, long, narrow triangles. I stapled the triangles to the trees, with the pointy end indicating the direction of the next reflector. I have nothing against Fire Tacks, and chose the reflective tape for financial reasons. My two night caches cover a total of over 3 miles, and those tacks get expensive after a few thousand.

 

Thanx for considering creating a night cache. Like someone else posted earlier, they are my favorite type.

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I haven't tried it yet, but

 

Illuminati

 

looks really cool.

 

I have done one in Illuninati series that was way cool. Used U.V. paint to "hide" the final coordinates, and you needed a black light to find them with. We had to bring our own "special tool" to find them with, but it was well worth it!

 

I like caching at night- not always enough time during the busy day to get to all the caches you want to.

 

TraseeAnn

Yeah that is a great one.

You should also check these out Venonium 263 by workerofwood & fizzymagic

Touch the Twilight (Night Cache) by GeoWomyn_SF_CA

Dead Drop 238

by Venona

Edited by Mystery Ink
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Another idea for a night cache that one of my cohorts has is to make a UV night cache. This type of cache would be a multi-cache where each coordinate leads you to the next stage. Each cache container has a UV flashlight that you can use to serach for the coordinates to the next stage written somewhere in UV ink or paint. The UV ink or paint will only be visable under UV light (sort of like dissappearing ink) so the coordinates should be well hidden during daylight hours.

 

Of course with this sort of cache you will have to make sure that the batteries in the stowed flashlight are always good and hope that nobody walks off with the flashlight.

 

That sounds fascinting to me. Where on earth would I get UV paint/ink and UV flashlights??? How invisible is that paint/ink during daylight hours?

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We got a battery operated black light from Pet's Mart, it's labeled as a stink finder, to use to find cat/dog urine. It cost about 15 dollars. The box recommends using it in low to no light. We used it during the day light, not full sunshine, but some light. It took a bit more work to find, but it is possible. It just takes a little more effort than if there was no light at all. It shows up glaringly obvious with no light.

 

As for U.V. paint- I have no idea where to get that. :)

 

Good luck- it is a great idea, and really fun to do! I know it sounds like a lot of trouble to go through, but it is well worth it!

 

TraseeAnn

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We got a battery operated black light from Pet's Mart, it's labeled as a stink finder, to use to find cat/dog urine. It cost about 15 dollars. The box recommends using it in low to no light. We used it during the day light, not full sunshine, but some light. It took a bit more work to find, but it is possible. It just takes a little more effort than if there was no light at all. It shows up glaringly obvious with no light.

 

As for U.V. paint- I have no idea where to get that. :)

 

Good luck- it is a great idea, and really fun to do! I know it sounds like a lot of trouble to go through, but it is well worth it!

 

TraseeAnn

 

I guess I could just use dog urine. :)

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We got a battery operated black light from Pet's Mart, it's labeled as a stink finder, to use to find cat/dog urine. It cost about 15 dollars. The box recommends using it in low to no light. We used it during the day light, not full sunshine, but some light. It took a bit more work to find, but it is possible. It just takes a little more effort than if there was no light at all. It shows up glaringly obvious with no light.

 

As for U.V. paint- I have no idea where to get that. :laughing:

 

Good luck- it is a great idea, and really fun to do! I know it sounds like a lot of trouble to go through, but it is well worth it!

 

TraseeAnn

 

I guess I could just use dog urine. :ph34r:

 

 

LOL!!! l

 

They do sell Deer and Elk Urine for hunting!!! That would be pretty disgusting!

 

Thanks for the laugh

 

TraseeAnn

Edited by SicJay&TraseeAnn
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Another idea for a night cache that one of my cohorts has is to make a UV night cache. This type of cache would be a multi-cache where each coordinate leads you to the next stage. Each cache container has a UV flashlight that you can use to serach for the coordinates to the next stage written somewhere in UV ink or paint. The UV ink or paint will only be visable under UV light (sort of like dissappearing ink) so the coordinates should be well hidden during daylight hours.

 

Of course with this sort of cache you will have to make sure that the batteries in the stowed flashlight are always good and hope that nobody walks off with the flashlight.

 

That sounds fascinting to me. Where on earth would I get UV paint/ink and UV flashlights??? How invisible is that paint/ink during daylight hours?

You can buy 20 and 14 LED UV'S for fairly cheap online just do a search also UV paint works good but I also recomend FIMO a cacher here made FIMO glow in the dark rocks with a touch of grey in it.

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A good website is www.nightcaching.org . Click on the British flag to read it in English.

 

I own two night caches, and both use Trail Tacks. The harder one requires you to shoot a magnetic bearing at each tack. My next night cache will incorporate Blinking Red LED Lights.

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Skull Cracker Nocturnal Cache is a our nocturnal that uses fire tacks. Coords take you to a point on the trail. From there you are SUPPOSED to use your flash light to find 1 tiny tack on a tree about 50 feet away. Walk to that tree, look for another tack. Follow them to the cache which is hidden inside a cave. We have yet to figure out a way to make it absolutely impossible during the day.

 

I own one firetack cache, and there are 3 others (by the same placer) in my area. I'd have to say it's almost impossible to make them unfindable during the day. I thought mine was "day-proof" but there is one local cacher who admitted doing it during the day. The easiest one in my area, several people have admitted to doing during the day. But with all 4 in my area the vast majority of people do them at night as they should be with flashlights. They are always a blast when done correctly, who could possibly complain?

 

I can't speak for the uv paint or LED's, but it does sound very interesting :D

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uv paint can be found at a variety of stores both on line and real world.

i recomend Rosco ClearColour..

it can get pricy tho.

 

For computer mod.ers, they make a uv sensitive spray paint that is much more resonablly priced (maybe $10 per can) called neonMaxx

 

http://www.hollynorth.com/home.php?cat=28&...ection=0&page=2

http://www.fxsupply.com/uv/uvpaint.html

http://www.computercasesandcables.com/ccc/...1?mv_pc=froogle

 

good luck!

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Thanks for all the great information everyone! You all were extremely helpful and I appreciate it! We are getting closer to publishing the cache, but I wanted to visit a few more night caches. We recently visited "NightWalker" near Portland and that gave us some great ideas. Does anyone know of any other caches within throwing distance of Portland, Oregon?

 

Thanks again everyone! :lol:

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