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Night cache


foss4

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Perhaps this goes without saying, but, do a night cache if you have not already.

 

I did my first one recently. The pattern on that one seemed to be that one reflector indicates that I am going the right direction. Two reflectors means I am getting close enough to leave the trail. Three reflectors marks the location of the cache.

 

The hide was not challenging. The hard part is simply getting to the right tree.

 

You should probably "beta test" the cache by asking someone to attempt to find the cache. If they get lost, then maybe you need more reflectors or better placement.

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I currently own four active night caches, and I have learned a few things over the years: When hunting a place to build your cache, consider those public parks/woodlands where camping is considered. With those locations, there is often a legal means for Joe Public to access the area after hours. Do not start your reflector trail near the parking area. Places that appeal to cachers at night also appeal to muggles. If they see a reflector trail leading off into the night, they might follow it out of curiosity. Also, consider not having your trail lead directly to the cache. If Joe Muggle does find your trail, you don't want it to be too easy for them to find your cache. One method that works is to have your trail end at a match container, which holds the coords to the final. Use the best container you can afford. Your cache will not be found very often, as it won't appeal to the P&G crowd. As such, you should use a container which has proven itself over time. Personally, I won't use anything but ammo cans for my night caches. Consider that your cache is an adventure, and build your trail accordingly. Make it long enough to be memorable. A mile is a nice hike. If your choices are either build a dinky trail or buy more reflectors, I'd vote for more reflectors. Each of my night caches use over 100 reflectors. Because I'm a cheapskete, I made my own reflectors out of 3M reflective tape. As you meander through the woods, hanging reflectors, take a waypoint at each one, saving these in a separate file in GSAK. That way, a couple years from now, when you do maintenance, you'll be able to find your way.

 

Good. Luck!

 

-Sean

Edited by Clan Riffster
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Here's a link to the Knowledge Books article on Night Caches.

 

"Like all geocaches, night caches must include use of accurate GPS coordinates."

 

That sentence is in the article because cache owners sometimes post parking coords, directions to the trailhead, and "go get it". No earthly reason to use a gps! The penultimate stage with coords for a final, mentioned by Clan Riffster, will take care of "gps use" and protect your cache as well.

 

I agree with everything Clan Riffster has said, though I'd modify that recommended mileage to "whatever gets you from legal parking to a >>>cool spot"

Scout at night and lay out at night! I've done some night caches that were laid out in the daylight. They needed considerable reworking to be findable, and really should have been daytime multicaches.

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When hunting a place to build your cache, consider those public parks/woodlands where camping is considered. With those locations, there is often a legal means for Joe Public to access the area after hours.

 

Be sure to find out what hours non-campers are allowed to be there. In one state area in Rhode Island, non-camprs must be out by 10pm. Note any of this information on the cache listing.

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:ph34r: I just received a trail marking kit for a night cache any tips for getting started ??

 

Depending on where you live, I think the hardest thing about placing a night cache is finding either a park that is open at night, or a place that is open where groups of people wandering around in the dark with flashlights won't catch the attention of residents and the police. At least that is the issue in my area. All state parks and WMAs close at night. Every county park I'm aware of closes at sunset (or a half hour after). Nearly every town park is closed at night and if they aren't there are homes nearby and I'm sure residents won't appreciate flashlights shining in their windows as cachers search for the reflectors, usually using high power flashlights.

 

Things would be different where there is public land that is not closed at night. But for me, I bought Fire Tacks about 7 years ago to create a night cache and have yet to find a place where I could hide a night cache.

 

Next to finding an open area for your cache I think there are two important considerations.

 

1. Use good tacks that are hard to see during the day. Fire Tacks Stealth are supposedly the best in that regard.

 

2. Consider the neighbors. If there are houses nearby, consider that groups of cachers with bright flashlights will be shining lights all over the place looking for the tacks. If neighbors are disturbed by the lights they might call the police and if it bothers them enough they may try to eliminate the cause of the disturbance, which means your cache might disappear quickly.

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Be sure to find out what hours non-campers are allowed to be there.

Good advice. Locally, if you are on a property where camping is allowed, after hours, it is presumed that you are camping, even if you don't have a tent. Once the sun sets, you must have a camping permit, (as opposed to a day use permit), to be there. There are no requirements for folks with a camping permit to climb in a tent. Nor, are you required to stay on the property till sunrise. The way I interpreted this, if I had a camping permit, I could enter the property after sunset, wander around waving flashlights, then leave once I found what I was looking for. The land manager concurred with my interpretation, and my latest night cache was born. Instructions regarding how to get a camping permit were included on the cache page.

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Be sure to find out what hours non-campers are allowed to be there.

Good advice. Locally, if you are on a property where camping is allowed, after hours, it is presumed that you are camping, even if you don't have a tent. Once the sun sets, you must have a camping permit, (as opposed to a day use permit), to be there. There are no requirements for folks with a camping permit to climb in a tent. Nor, are you required to stay on the property till sunrise. The way I interpreted this, if I had a camping permit, I could enter the property after sunset, wander around waving flashlights, then leave once I found what I was looking for. The land manager concurred with my interpretation, and my latest night cache was born. Instructions regarding how to get a camping permit were included on the cache page.

 

That's an interesting concept. I'll have to run it by our local DEM (fortunately there are cachers amongst them!)

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All this night caching has me thinking (yes, it hurts a little). Where can I buy some of these tacks?

 

I got mine at Gander Mountain, and I've seen them in the hunting section at Wally World. I bought mine in 2004 though, the technology wasn't as advanced. :anibad: I'd highly reccommend what BrianSnat said about "Firetacks Stealth", which a google search tells me wouldn't be too hard to mail order.

 

There was a slew of Night caches placed in my area starting with mine in 2004 until about 2006. And just about all of them have been found during the day with the big ol' round tacks such as I used.

 

And also, I'm probably talking about 6 or 7 night caches here. We all had no problem finding "undeveloped" parks with no posted hours. Either that or what I guess I would call "Nature Parks", that have trails, and are mainly used by hikers. Maybe there's just a lot of these parks in Western NY though, I'm shocked to hear Mr. Snat has had fire tacks for years, and can't find anywhere to use them.

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If you place a night cache consider that the people who followed your trail IN also need to be able to find their way OUT. You might consider using 2 colors of tacks. One to mark the trail into the woods to find the cache and another to help people get back out of the woods. There's nothing quite like being lost in the woods at night..............

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I've done a bunch of night caches and only encountered one problem - where reflective tape only was used and in some places had come off the trees. If you're going to use tape, then make sure you use a push pin (or a fire tack) to keep it in place. Why use tape at all? Well you can get inventive and layer colours on top of one another which is great for a multi, or in the case of one one of my night caches, a Wherigo.

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Why use tape at all?

For me the answer is economics. My four night caches have roughly 600 reflectors total. I think Firetacks are awesome, but I simply can't afford them. Had I used them in building my caches, it would've cost me $10 for 25 tacks, or about $240. For $5 I can get a 3 foot roll of 3M reflective tape, which I cut into 72 half inch strips. Each strip then gets cut diagonally, which leaves me with 144 triangle shaped reflectors. As there are no trails where my night caches are, (pure bushwhacking), the triangle points toward the next reflector. Initially, I would simply use a staple gun to affix them to trees, but these tended to only last a couple years. With the land managers explicit permission, I changed my methods. Now I put the reflector onto a tiny fender washer, ($5 for 100), and affix it with a nail short enough that it doesn't penetrate into the veins of the trees.

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YOu can now get 25 reflectors white or green with arrows for $5.00 and the between markers from GxPROXY.com. If the shopping cart isn't open just send them an email with how many you want. We will be attending a lot of events this year and you can see them in person.

 

Finally, an affordable way to creat a lot of fun...

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YOu can now get 25 reflectors white or green with arrows for $5.00 and the between markers from GxPROXY.com. If the shopping cart isn't open just send them an email with how many you want. We will be attending a lot of events this year and you can see them in person.

 

Finally, an affordable way to creat a lot of fun...

So which is it... do we send them an email, or do we send you an email? Or, as I suspect, are you and them the same person, bumping an old thread to advertise your product?

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Finding a space seems like the most difficult step. We would love one in our community but no one has found a space yet. I saw one in another town that is one stop. Use the GPS to get to a spot, shine your flashlight around and find the one fire tack. The cache is at the base of the tree.

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