Got to use most of my lights on Geocaching last night

[**DONOTDELETE**]

We went Geocaching in the dark last night with a few friends. I was able to equip all 6 people with good flashlights. That is the first time that I have had a chance to use so many at one time.

It was fun, but substantially more difficult than daylight chaching. It is very easy to get turned around in the dark.

 

[spinkid]

Henry, My friend and I went geocaching at night, and to make things even more difficult, it was raining (heavily). My friend was using his 4D mag-monster. I brought just my PT rage and Attitude. I found the cache which was under a rock and covered with a camo pant leg. Using the Attiitude, the cache showed up clear as day. The LED's really helped with color definition. My friend tried to spot the cache using the Mag but even when he new where it was, it was quite difficult to see. Night geocaching is definetly cool.

 

[pjenkins00]

excuse my ignorance, but what is it?

- Pete

 

[Saaby]

In short...like timecapsules only different. Take a GPS and look up a Geocache point on the internet. Go there and check out the cache, take something and leave something if you wish. They can explain it better than I can here...

http://www.geocaching.com

 

[Saaby]

Geocaching is cool stuff. Never done it but my cousin does and so i've talked to him a little about it.

 

[leddite]

hey, don't let this happen to you!

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/08/08/build/world/60-geocaching.inc

i've actually used my LED headlamp for night caching before i *gasp* new about flashaholics and CPF :>

 

[Saaby]

 

[B@rt]

Thanks for the links, I'll make sure to check it out. Sounds like fun.

 

[V8TOYTRUCK]

Hey..thats cool. What have you guys found ?

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by Henry Mudd:
We went Geocaching in the dark last night with a few friends. I was able to equip all 6 people with good flashlights. That is the first time that I have had a chance to use so many at one time.

What flashlights worked the best and why?

It was fun, but substantially more difficult than daylight chaching. It is very easy to get turned around in the dark.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Sometimes finding the cache in daylight is difficult.

Holding the Eternalight LED low in hand is great for walking because it illuminates the trail evenly, showing shadow detail of rocks and hazards.

Anyone ever try to hold a Eternalight in their mouth for a night hike? Sucks:-O
Lost my chopped leather cellular phone case w/clip that holds the Eternalight on my cap brim, and hands were full of trekking poles on an steep offtrail descent.

Also use the Petzl Duo halogen to see far beyond the limited LED range. Easy to loose a trail with limited range LEDs. But there's not enough trail shadow detail with the head mounted light. It's too high up.

LEDs are no good spotting bears lurking in the shadows around camp. My little emergency D cell Rayovac car flashlight demonstrated one more reason why a beam is so important in the woods. LEDs leave too many mysteries.

I don't geocache at night any longer, just try to safely get back to the car with flashlights. Poison Oak problems and too much extra tramping around can occur at night.
-----
David

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by leddite:
[QB]hey, don't let this happen to you!

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/08/08 /build/world/60-geocaching.inc

I'll admit, the ability to express and exchange the exact location of any point of interest on the planet allows increasing numbers of people to congregate.

The raiding of archeological sites has been occuring throughout history, even before GPS.
It's so much easier to blame a group or individual when a convenient name is left nearby. The evidence is pretty flimsy and tries to paint a broad swath of blame on a large geocaching community. Let's see... the destructive culprits leave their names and organization nearby in a logbook?

You bet I'd love to find some of the vandals that screw up my favorite outdoor places.

Some very strange cultural values have allowed the wholesale elimination and enslavement of any number of indigeneous native peoples in a methodical, bloody manner, while stealing their land. And then we become enraged when some misguided explorer mistreats/steals a few dead, dusty relics of that culture. (which by the way, should NOT be located near a geocache site). There's plenty public places of hard rock or tree roots to hide a little box in that won't make land managers go nuts.

Sometimes I wonder... how long until todays geocaches to become tommorows artifacts?

Sorry, Rant over.
-----
Greenjeens

 

[Josh]

this is avery fun activity! doing this in the dark sounds fun, i'm going to have to try that. :

:

 

[DonL]

I'd like to know what mental midget placed a Geocache site in an archeologically sensitive area? If they had a GPS and were paying any attention, they should have had some idea that they were somewhere they shouldn't have been.

[red foreman] Dumbasses. [/red foreman]

As for Greenjeens' comments, I agree that the wholesale plundering of archeological sites has been going on since the first person was planted with something valuable. One problem is that there is just so much land and so few people to really monitor it. I'd imagine it's even worse in other countries without the resources or manpower.

At least the Geocaching gang didn't blow up a bunch of ancient Buddhas...

 

[geepondy]

Hey the geocaching looks cool! I had never heard of it before but upon going to the site, I see they have caches even up in the sticks of Nortern New England near my home town area. If I were to go at night, I'd most like bring my Surge and Arc LS. I bet a nice wide area light like a Trek 14 would be useful in that situation as well.

Are expensive high tech map GPS's needed or will the hundred dollar cheapie do? Always thought of getting one of those and a night vision scope (a cheapie) just for fun and the geocaching would provide even more entertainment.

 

[leddite]

as a hound of many of the northern mass and southern new hampshire i can tell ya that the $100 garmin will work fine, but you'd LOVE to own a mapping model - the garmin vista can be had for $300 or so - woo hoo. definitely a nice toy; my pal dave loves his. see www.gps4fun.com and all their nice toys.

it's a good hobby. leave LED lights as prizes :>

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

When I read that article my first thought was "Well if they want to remove a particular cache why don't they simply notify the web owner and have it taken off"? Really how hard could that be?

Most of the caches I have been too not only have a log book where I left my name, but a disposable camera with which I took a photo of our group. It seems really rediculus to me that Geocaching could really be a problem.

We used Led head lamps for general walking and a combination of Streamlight Ultrastingers (2), Sl-35x, and Surfire 9N (2) for finding things.

I am a police officer and see many young people engaged in activities that are somewhat less than desirable. Usually at night. I think Geocaching is a fun activity that young people could enjoy without causing worries.

We were using a combination of the Garmin eTrex Legend and an eTrex Vista. The nicest thing about the Vista is the electronic compass. Usually the caches are hidden under or in a treed area. The GPS units don't work to great in those areas. But if you have a fix on it, you can use the compass to keep your course under the trees.

Of course you could also do the same thing by carrying a $6 compass.

 

[Skid]

Henry Mudd,

Thanks for reminding me about geocaching. I remember reading about it and thinking it sounded like fun, but I guess I just forgot about it. Anyway, I purchased a new GPS and have located 4 caches so far. We did 2 of those at night, with the assistance of my new M6.

Thanks,
Skid