Need ideas for a night cache

[+shellbn4]

I am in the planning stages of doing a night cache. It will be in the woods and I'm thinking of using fire tacks. Any ideas or suggestion? Have you done any night caches ?what made it memorable or fun. Thanks

[+ironman114]

Make your trail a figure eight.

 

I did one that almost closed a loop and if I hadn't been watching would have made another complete circle.

[+Scare Force One]

Glow in the dark tape that can be put on tree's to lead people to the cache. The stuff is almost invisible in the light and as long as it gets sun durring the day it will last almost indefinatly. It's really fun to have try to find the next peice of tape, it's almost like a mini cache without any coords.

 

~.~Scare Force One

[+Z_Statman]

Check out those by Clan Riffster such as his

 

The Etch-O-Sketch Night Cache

 

at

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...4c-77e91e5cd89f

 

Great design and lots of fun

[+The Jester]

I've set up a couple that use different ideas than the 'normal' trail of glints:

 

Nighttime Isn't Just For Sleeping

 

Nighttime Still Isn't Just For Sleeping

 

Feel free to 'borrow' either or both ideas.

[+shellbn4]

If i use fire tacks to point the way and then put numbers on the back of the tress with fire tacks to open the lock on the ammo box would i have to list it as a puzzle cache

[+logonwheeler]

One piece of advice. Unless you are doing a loop type of night cache navigation (like some have mentioned), be sure that one will be able to be guided on their way out like they were on the way in. It can be difficult not to mention dangerous hiking into some unknown part of the wilderness and not being able to get back without some sort of guidance.

 

Some reflective trail markers are really only able to produce a limited angle of reflection. This would require you to place the tacks not only on one side on the way in, but also on the other side on the way out provided that you are doing an out and back. I would suggest using 5 sided reflective trail markers like the ones offered on our website that allows you to effectively use half the trail markers than most traditional setups. This not only provides a safer and more enjoyable night caching experience, but also is better for the environment as a whole.

[+DocDiTTo]

I recently set up a night cache that makes use of highly reflective trail marker tacks that I bought from Walmart. It's a multi that has 3 intermediate stages before the final. Each stage is a simple puzzle of sorts that takes just a few seconds (or perhaps a couple minutes) to solve. I don't want to give away too much detail in the forums, but I will say that the combination of creative, unique stages and a 2 mile hike into the woods really seems to be a hit with those who have done the cache. In order to prevent daytime finds, I made sure that my reflector trails started well off the "walking" trail. At night, they're easy to spot, but during the day you'd be hunting for quite a while. At one point, I also run my reflector trail through a large field. Again, during the night it's easy to shine your flashlight in a circle and spot the reflector, but during the day you'd have to walk the entire circumference of the field scanning each tree.

 

I've hunted a number of night caches, and 2 in particular stand out as extrordinary - one required that you be on a mountaintop 3 miles back in the woods at dark to start the reflector hunt, and the other incorporated the use of an intermediate puzzle box to add to the fun. My cache is a combination of the two. Simply following a reflector trail is fun, but adding a little creativity can really make the experience outstanding. In the case of my cache, each intermediate container provides coordinates to the beginning of the reflector trail to the next stage. There are actually 4 reflector trails to locate and follow, rather than just one. However, each of them is relatively short (the longest is just over .1 miles) so that maintenance isn't a killer. I do throw a curve ball in the very beginning of the cache though, in that the beginning reflector trail is completely NOT where a seasoned cacher thinks it should be. I figured if you're going to DNF the cache, it might as well be when you're close to your car and not 2 miles deep in the sticks. So far, every team that has attempted the cache has found it, and the logs speak for themselves.

 

I'll be happy to tell you via private message how the intermediate stages were done, just shoot me an email if you're interested. A little wood, plexiglass, paint, glow-paint, reflective tape, a Nalgene bottle, clothesline, screws, access to a standard laser printer, heat laminator and power tools are all that's needed. Oh - and a box of reflective trail marker tacks.

[+LDove]

Just be sure the tracks are big enough to follow would be my suggestion. We recently went to one and the tacs were extremely small. We THOUGHT we were following some and stumbled upon a grove of sleeping deer with very bright eyes - ha! We went way out of our way and circled back only to discover some of the tacs were missing. We had a good time, although it was a bit creepy with the animal eyes and then finding two men in the woods doing, well, I am not sure - did not want to find out either. In other words, please put it in as safe of a location as possible, especially if it is going to be accessed at night. Oh yea, and make sure the trail is open at all times too, I went to one listed as a night cache - only to see that the park closed at dusk.

[+admo1972]

One near me that I haven't done requires following the reflector trail, while recording your track. The track, once completed represents a digit, which you then use to find the final. It called BlackJack in the Blackness.

[+coreynjoey]

One of our favorite caches, Control The Night uses a remote control, LED's, and a laser pointer. It's very cool, but also very high maintenance.