Nighttime Geocaching

[Guest Firefishe]

Talk about a "bright" idea.

 

Bright is what your flashlight'll have to be to do this!

 

Firefishe again, outta Michigan with, hopefully, yet another weird one...but perhaps not so much as the Haunted Geocaching thread.

 

Geocaching at night...

 

For those of you who "love to do it in the dark," I offer this thread for all of you (us?). We'll see. . .

 

Haunted Geocaching and Nighttime Geocaching...don't these two go together somehow? )Cross-threading okay here as far as I'm concerned, please make sure it's just at night if on this thread. The other one is fine for any time of day or night, but just has the subject restricted to the Haunted stuff... --thanks--

 

Warm regards,

Firefishe

[Guest Hawk-eye]

So ... which of the two strings

[Guest clatmandu]

And check out the thread on night time caching.

[Guest Firefishe]

quote:

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Originally posted by Hawk-eye:

So ... which of the two strings

Fishe

[Guest Firefishe]

quote:

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Originally posted by Firefishe:

Zoinks! I think my USB keyboard is attempting to take control of my entire laptop! Can someone please delete the "Nighttime Geocaching" thread *without these follow ups*, please...

 

Thanks Fishe

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Okay. I got me an edumakashun from Acme School of Post Deletion. Accidental 2nd same topic deleted... Gads! If this continues, I'll end up having a flame war with myself

 

Warm regards,

Firefishe, outta Michigan

 

 

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Firefishe,

<*[[[[><

[Guest King Pellinore]

forgive me for trying to bring this thread back to it's track. Nighttime geocaching is awesome! Woods can be very scary at night, and it takes a nice little 1/1 and makes it 3/1 right from the get go. Have spent some evenings in the middle of nowhere, sitting around a cache on a mountain, drinking Sam Adams triple bock... ah that was excellent

[Guest Mopar]

How true, King!

You need to give Marty621's Night Vision cache a try. Think you'll enjoy it.

[Guest BassoonPilot]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mopar:

How true, King!

You need to give Marty621's Night Vision cache a try. Think you'll enjoy it.

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It's true . . . "Night Vision" was great fun. Going to try "Melvin's" at night, Mopar?

[Guest Mopar]

quote:

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Originally posted by BassoonPilot:

It's true . . . "Night Vision" was great fun. Going to try "Melvin's" at night, Mopar?

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Right after you, BP!

[Guest cliffy]

quote:

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Originally posted by King Pellinore:

Nighttime geocaching is awesome! Have spent some evenings in the middle of nowhere, sitting around a cache on a mountain, drinking Sam Adams triple bock... ah that was excellent

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Oh yesssss!! How I yearn for summer.....blissssss

[Guest stayfloopy]

quote:

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Originally posted by King Pellinore:

forgive me for trying to bring this thread back to it's track. Nighttime geocaching is awesome! Woods can be very scary at night, and it takes a nice little

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With sufficient preparation, it shouldn't be too much more difficult than going in during the day and it adds excitement. And besides, cache sense may actually work better when you can't see very much.

 

My concerns have always been that the neighbors will call the cops on someone who's in the woods at night or that most parks are closed after sunset and may be patrolled sometimes. I've done some night caches but mainly in isolated areas or in the suburbs if it isn't too far off the road.

[Guest urbo]

most of my geocaching has been at night. better to do with a caching buddy in case you get in a bind. its way more challenging to geocache at night. i use white led flashlights which run for over 100 hours on a set of batteries and are immune to filament breakage from being dropped.

 

urbo

 

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"urbo"

robert ke4mcl

[Guest cottingham]

quote:

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Originally posted by King Pellinore:

Nighttime geocaching is awesome! Woods can be very scary at night, and it takes a nice little 1/1 and makes it 3/1 right from the get go.

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We did our first nighttime cache a week or so ago, and had so much fun that my wife insisted we go out at 11:00 PM, on her birthday, to get the first log on a nearby cache. Since this was in the 'burbs, I was less worried about fierce creatures (either four-legged or two) than I was about some diligent neighbor calling the police. Still, we had a blast, and got the first log, too!

[Technician]

From the pictures it looks like this made for night cache maybe impossibe to find in the daytime. It uses hidden reflectors. They stand out at night under a flashlight, but are very hard to spot in the daytime. Check it out.

After Dark cache

Tell me what you think. It is about a half mile walk to get to it. Trails split and go everywhere. Daytimers would have no idea if they are on the right track, have gone too far etc. Gotta find that last marker to find the cache.

 

Anybody wanting to copy the ideas write to the cache owner (me). I may put together a set of how to photos showing some more of the actual marks used including the materials needed that could be e-mailed to persons interested in placing a night time only cache. It may take a while for me to reply as I am on the road quite a bit. Be patient, I do answer my mail.

[BassoonPilot]

quote:

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Originally posted by Technician:

... it looks like this made for night cache may be impossibe to find in the daytime. It uses hidden reflectors. They stand out at night under a flashlight, but are very hard to spot in the daytime. ...

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This is precisely how Marty621 set up his "Night Vision" several months ago, here in Jersey. I can't believe it's not getting more visitors; it was SO MUCH FUN! Maybe I'll set one up too . . .

[+martinp13]

I went to Bass Pro Shops this weekend and picked up some markers... I haven't done one of these, but they sound intriguing, so I'm going to try to set one up in the DFW area. The nighttime caching I have done so far has been a blast.

 

> Martin (Magellan 330)

Don't have time to program and record your shows while geocaching? Get a TiVo!

[+15Tango]

nighttime geocaching is a blast, but when done within reason. i work second shift, and get off at 2am. i've gone caching after work to either seek a nearby cache in a really public area where we wouldn't want the cache to be discovered by accident, or to beat everybody to a travel bug or a recently placed hot ticket item. anyhow, one place i parked to cache at 3 in the morning was close enough to an air traffic control center to arouse the curiosity of the local authorities, and at another cache on a popular ice-fishing lake i had the d.n.r. asking questions about what i was doing out there. anyhow, in each case i was allowed to go about my business, and i maybe recruited two people into the ranks of geocachers.

[+Rusty & Libby]

quote:

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Originally posted by Technician:

From the pictures it looks like this made for night cache maybe impossibe to find in the daytime. It uses hidden reflectors. They stand out at night under a flashlight, but are very hard to spot in the daytime. Check it out.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=9649

Tell me what you think. It is about a half mile walk to get to it. Trails split and go everywhere. Daytimers would have no idea if they are on the right track, have gone too far etc. Gotta find that last marker to find the cache.

 

Anybody wanting to copy the ideas write to the cache owner (me). I may put together a set of how to photos showing some more of the actual marks used including the materials needed that could be e-mailed to persons interested in placing a night time only cache. It may take a while for me to reply as I am on the road quite a bit. Be patient, I do answer my mail.

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That looks like a very cool cache, why is it archived after only a few days? Is there a problem people need to be aware of before they try something like it?

 

Rusty...

 

Rusty & Libby's Geocache Page

[Technician]

It was originaly placed OCT 31 and posted in the afternoon. It was originaly a mad dash cache also findable only after dark. It was in place overnight and picked up in the morning. That is why it was called One Night Stand. It was for people too old to go trick or treating. Unfortunately most people were already obligated to some party or other. Others saw the new cache the day after (after it was picked up). It was archived on aprox Nov 5th. Nobody had logged it. That is why I described as reincarnated. I was trying to recycle the old GC and ID numbers. Unfortunately a cache can not be reincarnated by a cache owner. Even all of the Geocaching staff can not un-archive a cache except Jerremy (a very busy man). (I got a nice note in the mail with the details) Hopefully he will find the time to un-archive it soon. If it is not un-archived soon, I'll have to submit it as a new cache. I just don't want it submitted both ways and be listed as two caches.

[+15Tango]

I did a little bit of further research after my initial post--there are quite a few caches placed in city, county, regional, state, etc. parks (everything but National Parks, and one only has to search the forums for a little bit to find out why). Anyhow, most of the legal geocaching parks have hours--something like dawn until dusk, sunrise until 10pm, or something along those lines. And after asking at a nearby regional park (where I just happen to have a cache), they said that one of the main reasons they're closed after dark is to save them from liability if someone is using the park when there aren't any park personnel there. And the main thing that'll attract the attention of the authorities is a group of underage drinkers having a keggar. One or two people with a gps after dark isn't going to attract that much negative attention. Happy cachin'!!! 15T

 

www.1800goguard.com

[Technician]

Me again. Update on the After Dark cache. It got un-archived OK and it's getting some very interesting logs. I placed it not expecting large groups getting together to mass hunt it. Big groups in a quiet neighborhood do attract attention. The logs are a fun read.

To read up on this cache for night-time cachers, read here. Start with the oldest logs for the drama.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=9649

[mcschaffer]

In some ways Geocaching at night is not that hard.

What I have come to find is that the narrow beam of the flashlight serves to concentrate your view

(by default)on "most likely" spots - as oppossed to your sight and mind rambling all around the area.

 

I went to a weekend orienteering event and they

had a night time geo hunt. I have become fairly

good at finding them in the day but I was

really concerned that I would have problems at night. Other than the fact that getting to the

general area was a little harder I had no problem finding them once I arrived in the general area

[+KD7MXI]

TRY THIS ONE

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CacheAcrossAmerica

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?u=KD7MXI

http://www.cachunuts.com

[Steak N Eggs]

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=9017

 

If it is done at night. 1 foot from a 150-200 foot drop.

 

"My gps say's it RIGHT HERE".

http://www.geogadgets.com

[+McIrish]

We have a very clever geocacher in our area!!! Lucky us. Check out this great idea!!!

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=20188

[+ionekoa]

the big problem with night caching (which i like) is the cops... they just dont seem to understand. my first night cache, (which we didnt find) ended with one of my friends burning his shirt for light, cops chasing us (not for the makeshift torch but for being in the park after it was closed) saying anyone they found would be arrested (and they called my friends house and had our vehicle taken away, stranding us there) and us hiding out at another friends apartment for the night. yeah... night caching is the best caching....

[+Firefishe]

quote:

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Originally posted by vash the stampede:

the big problem with night caching (which i like) is the cops... they just dont seem to understand. my first night cache, (which we didnt find) ended with one of my friends burning his shirt for light, cops chasing us (not for the makeshift torch but for being in the park after it was closed) saying anyone they found would be arrested (and they called my friends house and had our vehicle taken away, stranding us there) and us hiding out at another friends apartment for the night. yeah... night caching is the best caching....

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--

 

Sorry to hear about your and your friend's troubles. Did you get your vehicle(s) returned?

 

That said, let me offer some advice.

 

1. One should not use one's garments as lighting instruments! This may upset the perceived natural order of what makes a proper, portable lighting system, i.e, A Flashlight!

 

1.a When one feels one absolutely *must* break the hourly rules of certain parks, then, to me, the only proper method is the practice of camouflage and the application of technology--night-vision technology in this case, Generation III or above.

 

This level of night-seeing gadgetry will allow you to see *clearly* in the dark, and with more than enough distance to see anyone who might see you. Remember! If you can see them, they can see you! (at least if they look closely enough).

 

Standard camo make-up kits are avaiable for pennies on the dollarl at your local military surplus store. Likewise, a number of standard Field Dress Uniforms, in a variety of brush patterns, are also available for your concealment-from-viewing pleasure. However, it does not sound like this was of any real import to you that night *snicker* LOL

 

2. Police are trained to recognize potential threats. I know. I used to be in police training in college some years ago. I can tell you, quite matter-of-factly, that, if I was on night patrol, saw a flame that was on the move, I would definitely have my doubts as to the sanity of those who were wielding it. Can you say "Molotov Cocktail?!"

 

Now, if I had seen a few people dressed in medieval garb, sporting swords, and wielding torches, I might have let it slide. I may have questioned them, but let's face it: The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) *does* have it's strange characters. Medieval Europe was not known for it's openness, and those who reinact such matters probably want to practice in as authentic a manner as is possible. I'd've even let 'em use the park, so long as they didn't ignite the leaves.

 

3. I have some feeling that there were a lot more dynamics at work that night. It sounds also as if the local constabulary have their hands full with shananigans a bit. They were probably too tired with all the nonsense of the area, and finally clamped down.

 

If this is incorrect, and your local fuzz are less-than-human, emanate from a pile of bones at your local graveyard in droves--especially at night--might I suggest a proper spell or two for banishing?

 

I think I've covered everything. If not, please chastise me! Soundly! Loudly! And Publickly!

 

Warm regards,

Ye Olde Fishe du Jour

 

[+Wolfb8]

can anyone tell me if they have heard of a paint or a marker that can not be seen in day light, but will reflect when a flash light hitts it... Have a night time cache in mind and i am looking for the best way to mark the trail... any suggestions

 

libby

[Technician]

I can think of only 2 items that fit the bill. Reflectors stuck in dark holes and in the shadows, up in limbs against a bright sky, stuck on white painted objects etc hide the reflectors well by blending into the background. That's the preferred method. Look for the After Dark cache photos After Dark to see what they look like in the daytime. The side by side photo of the tree says it all.

The second method takes special equipment to find. Use ultravilot handstamp ink (spendy stuff used at nightclubs) to mark the route. A less perminate alternate is the UV leak trace fluid that can be found at autoparts stores. Be sure to put it where the rain won't wash it away. The seeker will need an ultravilot light to follow the trail. Not many cachers have the required equipment to hunt this one and as such is not recommended.