winter and night caching

[+Arndtwe]

now i know that there are previous threads about night caching, and there are also ones about winter caching. but what about winter night caching? has anyone gone night caching in the winter? i thought about it last night but decided not to. please, tell your story.

[+ron1337]

I'm in Edmonton, and night cache quite often.

In fact, I find it some of the easiest caching available.

1. No Muggles.

2. Easy to follow footprints of previous cachers.

3. No bees, or bugs!!!

[+mudsneaker]

the snow reflects alot of light, its quite fun and pleasant to walk in when headed to the cache. I had a great time this year out in the snow and bonus when it was dark.

[+duhgee]

The air is fresher and usually calmer at night, and the moon seems brighter especially when reflecting off the snow. But therein lies the problem - snow makes caching harder during the day, and night makes caching harder in the summer, but looking for caches in the snow at night is really really tricky. I usually expect on a success rate of maybe 1/2 of what I'd normally hope for. But it's all worth it.

[+supertbone]

I found my first 5 caches at night. I don't go night caching a lot since I have cleared out all the suburban and city areas and I have mixed sucesses each time I go. I live near the edge of town and all the caches I would be looking for are out of town in mountainous areas where there are chance to see mountain lions and possibly bears.

[+SidAndBob]

I do my maintenance visits at night, leaving the weekend free to travel to find caches. My local area is valleys, hills and forests. It can be a little spooky sometimes (especially if you catch the reflection of a pair of eyes watching you in the beam), but great to listen to owls etc.

Walking by moonlight can't be beat.

No snow here so apart from being cold it's not much different than at other times. Cold night air and asthma is a pain though.

[Find-me]

A couple of people around here have done some great night caches in a local wooded park with trails. The coordinates for the cache get you to a spot where you can shine your flashlight around to pick up small white reflectors placed on trees (about the size of a dime). You go to the spot and from there try to find the next reflector (20-30' away). There was one set up that must have had a dozen or more stages with the final spot indicated by three reflectors on the tree. The cache was not difficult to find once you made it to the final location but you couldn't possibly find it during the day without the reflectors to guide you. These little reflectors are very difficult to see in the daytime. The final cache was several hundred feet away from the original coordinates. Another one was just slightly offset from the original coordinates but you still had to use a flashlight to spot the final destination (within 30' of the origin). I have found two of these at night during the winter. Great fun.

[+mudsneaker]

winter night caching....well I did spend many frozen evenings out setting up Wicked Woods @ Night

[+Chuy!]

In San Diego, our night winter caching will be like your summer night caching .

 

On March 2nd, we're setting up an 8-10-mile night hike - a Friday night (7p to 11p'ish) with a near full moon overhead.

 

The lows will be around 50 . The only thing that could stop us is rain 'cause of the mud.

[Dinoprophet]

Years ago, Trippy1976 and I did a night cache in the snow. It's amazing how much light the snow reflects. No flashlight required (except for searching in logs)

 

A couple of years ago, I took a bunch of my cousins out for their first cache on Christmas Eve. Great, great time!

[Choppersean]

Sorry, just had to go off-topic for a sec and rub this in..........I live in Phoenix and it was 81 degrees F today and yesterday and is supposed to be that again tomorrow. Supposed to be in the mid to upper 70s the rest of the week. I came from Colorado where I grew up and have only been here for 6 months.........man, can I get used to this weather!!!!

[+mudsneaker]

to bad it will be 100+ soon down there. I'd love to be a snowbird though. Winter down there, summer up here.

[Dinoprophet]

Sorry, just had to go off-topic for a sec and rub this in..........I live in Phoenix and it was 81 degrees F today and yesterday and is supposed to be that again tomorrow. Supposed to be in the mid to upper 70s the rest of the week. I came from Colorado where I grew up and have only been here for 6 months.........man, can I get used to this weather!!!!

Rub it in? You missed the part where we LOVE this! (though I admit, the single digits we've been having is a bit much).

 

On the very night of caching I mentioned above, Trippy told me he chose a job in Michigan over one in Arizona. When people asked him why, he said (not an exact quote) "When it's cold, you can always put on more clothes. When it's too hot, you can only take off so much."

[+mudsneaker]

Sorry, just had to go off-topic for a sec and rub this in..........I live in Phoenix and it was 81 degrees F today and yesterday and is supposed to be that again tomorrow. Supposed to be in the mid to upper 70s the rest of the week. I came from Colorado where I grew up and have only been here for 6 months.........man, can I get used to this weather!!!!

Rub it in? You missed the part where we LOVE this! (though I admit, the single digits we've been having is a bit much).

 

On the very night of caching I mentioned above, Trippy told me he chose a job in Michigan over one in Arizona. When people asked him why, he said (not an exact quote) "When it's cold, you can always put on more clothes. When it's too hot, you can only take off so much."

 

I use to run framing crews and would say that all the time!! I do prefer it cool, rainy, ect over the burning summer heat. Its so true, you can dress to account for cold, but heat theres no escape.

[+tomfuller & Quill]

Had a cache published at 4:03PM yesterday. It was logged twice before 10PM. (Stalag 13 - Revisited) No snow in the desert and I was careful to leave a lot of tracks all over the area to confuse followers.

Tom Fuller

[+Muddy Chris]

I love tromping around the woods in the middle of the night. Been a little cold here lately for that, but it gets above 0 during the day.

 

Chris

[+Gator Man]

Caching in Winter can be very productive. I was just out caching last Saturday, (FEB 3rd), and found 34 caches. Of course, I'm in Sunny South Florida, but it IS Winter!

 

Seriously, when I started caching, I lived in CT. I tried finding some caches in 6 to 8 inches of new snow, and it took quite a few frostbitten fingers to come up with any. I didn't have fun doing it. One in particular I recall had a clue to "LOOK FOR THE WHITE ROCK" As a result, the longest lull in my caching career was about five months, 12/07/02 'til 5/15/03.

 

Night caching just isn't my thing either. I have, maybe 15 night finds. They usually happened at the end of a loooooong day, when I was ready to head home. Maybe that has something to do with it, but I don't think I would ever purposely head out for a night of caching.

 

GM

Edited February 7, 2007 by Gator Man