Setting Up A Nightcache

[+TeamK-9]

As a "forum regular" I know this topic has been discussed hundreds of times over the past year or so.

 

In fact, I've probably participated in at least half of the discussions, and I've read all of them.

 

Anyway, for the longest time, I've been looking to set up a "night only" cache using a trail of firetacks reflectors.

 

Finally, I think I've got all my ducks in a row. I've got a box of reflectors from the local Gander Mountain, and I've tested their actual reflectivity. I've got an approximate idea of how close you have to be to see them both with a flashlight, and without. And I finally found an undeveloped piece of public land that doesn't have any rules regarding the time the park actually closes.

 

My question now is how do you actually go about setting it up?

 

Do you do it at night, or do you do it during the day?

 

Should I try and follow pre-existing trails, or can I lead people on a light bushwack?

 

I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to actually go about this.

[WH]

I have only done 2 night caches. Even though I completed them both at night, they could easily be completed during the day.

 

If I were you, I'd only post parking coordinates and make them follow the firetack trail the entire way.

 

Here's my suggestion. Place the cache at night and start working your way back to the car by whatever way you want finders to follow. Place a tack in a tree then walk down down the trail ensuring that you can still see the previous tack and place your next one. Follow this procedure all the way back to the car.

 

Id then go back out in the daylight to ensure the tack are placed in such a way that one would have a hard time locating them in the daylight.

[+BadAndy]

I've setup a number of night caches, and hunted even more. They are my favorite type of cache. Try and hide the actual cache during the day, so you can make it more resistant to muggles. I usually start placing tacks, going in reverse order from finish to start, and double check their location both in daylight (to avoid dangerous obstacles), and night (to make sure they are close enough).

 

There are two basic designs on the route of a night cache. The "big loop" and the "straightaway". They both have advantages and disadvantages.

 

The big loop brings the cachers back near the starting point at the end, making it convenient for them to return to their rig, but you must be careful in tack placement, so that they can only see the tacks that guide them along. During the return leg of the loop, If they can see a tack meant for the outbound leg of the loop, they can get messed up pretty bad.

 

The straightaway is just that, it leads them on a oneway hunt, making tack placement much simpler. It also makes them take a long oneway trek back to their rigs in the dark (they did mark the location of their rig....right??).

 

Another very important point to remember in tack placement is the changing seasons. If you place your tacks in late fall, winter or early spring, many of the tacks will become hidden behind new leaves and foilage. If you place it in late spring or summer, the tacks will stand out like a sore thumb (even in daylight) after the leaves fall and the foilage dies. Keep this in mind as you place your markers.

 

As far as the bushwhacking question, that really depends on the location of the cache. All the caches I've hidden and hunted were either in a park with trees and grass (bushwhacking on a mowed lawn?), or in an undeveloped stand of trees (bushwhacking is pretty much a given). If you follow a developed trail, it pretty much takes the challenge out of the equation as the hunter will know to just follow the trail and keep an eye out for 3 markers in a row (see below).

 

Finally, there is the problem of letting the hunters know when they're at the final spot and should stop looking for reflectors and start looking for an ammocan. I usually use three tacks all together to signal the end of the route. I've seen tacks arranged in a smiley face, or a change in color from white to a red refector.

 

While they may require more than average maintenance, they can be tons of fun for the owner as well as the hunter. Good luck...and feel free to place a couple in my area

[+wornout]

Looks like a lot of good advice so far. I set up a night time cache here in San Felipe, Baja, Mexico. I posted the final coordinates at the end of the write-up. The reason for doing this is the people hunding this cache are more or less on vacation and would not be back any time soon, like after emailing me for a hint. I had one cacher hit this cache just after the Ocotillo Cactus started blooming green leaves and could only find the first two reflectors, the third was covered by the blooming leaves. That was reason enough to post the final spot. If your night cache placement will be in similar conditions, I would recommend the final coordinates.

 

One other thing, do remind them to take the GPSr on the hunt and turn on the track feature. Most night cache placers, myself included, don't place reflectors for the reverse course. I didn't bring my GPS on a night hunt one time and got lost in a park in the hills. All the trails look the same at night.

[+Ladybug Kids]

[1] I usually start placing tacks, going in reverse order from finish to start.

 

[2] During the return leg of the loop, If they can see a tack meant for the outbound leg of the loop, they can get messed up pretty bad.

 

[3] Another very important point to remember in tack placement is the changing seasons. 

 

All the above advice is right on the mark based on RLTW's and my experience setting up Operation Arctic Knights.

 

We have a couple of additional tips using BadAndy's post as a springboard:

 

1) Very important point. RLTW and I started from the parking coordinates and took of into the woods wandering aimlessly until we found a good hiding place. Would have helped to start from a hiding place and work backwards.

 

2) We started out making the trail a loop, only to discover that fire tacks are visible from well over 200 yards, which meant that the tacks had to be placed on the opposite side of the tree as the line of sight from the return loop or the loop had to be REALLY "fat." With the goal of making the reflectors forward and backward visible and not visible from the opposite part of the loop, we gave it up and made it a one-way trip. We found working as a team of two worked really well when placing the tacks. One person stand at the most recently placed tack and the second would work forward maintaining line of sight of that tack. When the second person found a likely place to put the next tack, the first person would verify the tack could be seen. This allowed us to place the tacks at pretty close to maximum sight line distance in the forest .

 

3) Night courses are virtually impossible to follow during May-August in far northern and southern locales, so we had to take snowfall under consideration. We rechecked the course after a particularly heavy snowfall and found a couple of markers that had collected enough snow to be impossible to see. That led us to the detail oriented step of waypointing each marker to make trail maintenance easier. Even though we had set the course, it zig-zagged enough that we could not follow it from memory just a few weeks later.

 

And throw a twist into the course other than just following reflectors into the woods. We made Arctic Knights a multi-cache with an offset provided at the first stage which was marked by different colored reflectors.

[+denali7]

(temporary threadjack)

 

**waves**

hi ladybug kids, hope you're getting a great spring out there!!

it's been perfect here--great caching and fishing!

 

(return to thread)

[+Snake & Rooster]

We just set up our first night cache, Central Park After Dark We also used fire tacks and were pleased with the results. We set out the cache in the daylight, well camo'd in case of muggles, and then set in the tacks while walking back. We then checked the fire tacks after dark. We were able to stick the tacks into trees and phone poles along the route, as well as gluing them to boulders and rocks when necessary.

 

Our course is just over .2 miles long. It begins in a small neighborhood park and runs up onto an undeveloped hill, where the final cache is hidden in some boulders.

 

We'd suggest going for it. Night caches are fun to set up, and fun to do. Use the guidance here and you should have no problems.

[+ChileHead]

I set up a night only cache a few months ago with Firetacks as well (Fireflies: A night cache.

 

I planted the cache at night, and worked backwards from there planting the tacks. That was important to do so you could verify that the next marker (when going forwards) was visible from the first marker. I didn't follow a trail exactly, but did criss-cross one a few times.

 

I thought about marking the end with multiple tacks, but decided to leave it a little open-ended.

 

The only thing I would do different is to spread the tacks further. I put mine fairly close together, because I thought it would be difficult if they weren't. I only walked the path backwards as I planted, and didn't walk it normally until I returned a few weeks later to show my family. At that time I realized how easy it was (but still fun!) The firetacks really are amazing.

 

Have fun!

[+Snoogans]

Setting up a night cache is on my "Things to DO" list. The bar has been set very high here in Texas by 3 hiders: Chance Encounter, Mudfrog, & The Outlaw.

 

Try this one to see how a perfect night cache plays out. Then drive down the road to this cache. Bring something to record the sounds. This cache is a sound technition's wet dream. The ambient sounds of the swamp are an unforgettable experience.

 

Then drive over to Austin and do this one.

Edited May 23, 2005 by Snoogans

[+TheNomad]

One of the best night-caches I ever did required some serious leaps of faith.

 

The entire cache required light-bushwacking through thick trees (i.e. no trails). But, you couldn't see one reflector from another reflector, unless a turn was involved. So, you found a reflector, marked a waypoint, and struck off in the same direction (in one case for 200+ feet) before you'd come across the next reflector. If there was a turn, then you'd find two reflectors, and standing there, you could shine your flashlight around until you spotted the next "general direction". You were "encouraged" to mark a waypoint at each reflector in case you couldn't find the next one in line so you could go back and try again.

 

It was quite cool, and required much more GPSr use than the typical night-cache. The final stage had three reflectors, and you were told that the cache would be within (something like) 35' of those 3 reflectors.

[+JohnnyVegas]

I have set up one night cache, I set my durring the day starting from the cache location. I place the tacks on items that I could see I had a clear view of from each point along the route. Then I went dack just before sunset with a strong flashlight to make sure non of the views of the tack were blocked. then I did the route when it was dark out.

The reaspon I set the route in daylight was for safety reasons, my plan was to keep the route safe to navigate when to sun was down.

[+Birdsong-n-Bud]

We set up our night cache during the day, but really went through the trails a few times to make sure we had the best spots. I almost always set up my caches from the back (last point) to the front (first leg).

 

In hind sight, I'd make the following changes in my future night caches:

 

* I'll use the stealth tacks (brown) for future use instead of the obvious-in-the-day white ones.

 

* People like to use their GPSr. I did a little of each on mine, but wish I'd done this:

have the reflective tacks take them to the first spot. Then have the coords lead to a spot where the next reflection trail begins. That lets them use both the leadership of the tacks as well as the GPSr.

 

Just a couple options.

[WH]

In hind sight, I'd make the following changes in my future night caches:

 

* I'll use the stealth tacks (brown) for future use instead of the obvious-in-the-day white ones.

 

* People like to use their GPSr. I did a little of each on mine, but wish I'd done this:

have the reflective tacks take them to the first spot. Then have the coords lead to a spot where the next reflection trail begins. That lets them use both the leadership of the tacks as well as the GPSr.

 

Just a couple options.

Wow, whoever gave you those suggestions must've been a genius.

[+Birdsong-n-Bud]

Wow, whoever gave you those suggestions must've been a genius

 

HA HA HA!

 

Yep! He was!

 

See? I remembered the tips, too!

[+TeamK-9]

I just thought I'd bump this to see if anyone else has anymore suggestions.

 

I'm hoping to at least start the setup this weekend. Right now, all I have is generic white firetacks from walmart, but I'm planning to order some stealth ones from the firetacks website and redo the trail in a month or two...

[+Snake & Rooster]

Don't toss the white ones. We used both effectively. The stealth ones are great on dark wood trees, phone poles and dark rocks. The white ones are brighter at night, can can be almost unnoticeable on light wood trees, or light colored rocks.

 

We started our cache at a local park. It went up the street for a block or so until it turned into an undeveloped area of brush and boulders--the challenging part. Both kinds of firetacks had a place. We were able to clip off the metal pin and use hot-melt glue to glue them to rocks in the wild area, and light poles in the civilized part.

 

Good luck on the cache.

[+Birdsong-n-Bud]

The white ones are brighter at night, can can be almost unnoticeable on light wood trees, or light colored rocks.

 

How did you manage to attach the tacks to the rocks?

[+ChileHead]

The white ones are brighter at night, can can be almost unnoticeable on light wood trees, or light colored rocks.

 

How did you manage to attach the tacks to the rocks?

Just a guess, but I imagine they were able to clip off the metal pin and use hot-melt glue to glue them to rocks.

[+Snake & Rooster]

Just a guess, but I imagine they were able to clip off the metal pin and use hot-melt glue to glue them to rocks.

Amazingly good guess!

 

And before you ask how we got a cord long enough on the glue gun, we used a zippo lighter to melt the glue in the field.

Edited May 31, 2005 by Snake & Rooster