residue
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2003
- Messages
- 50
there are never enough opportunities to justify high end lights when you live in a big city unless your vocation requires it. we decided to take a trip to larson's moonlight corn maze last night based on inspiration from a couple previous threads:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=94997
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=132561
we actually tried to visit last year but a hurricane spoiled our plans so it was twelve agonizing months of waiting.
at first, i contemplated taking along an eveready 1aa light - the kind you'd see hanging on a hook at kbtoys but figured it was going to be about as useful as a cellphone and wasn't worth the extra weight just to do a comparison. instead, we ended up taking a u2, an arc lsh-p, a couple cr2 ions and a backup supply of batteries. the rest of the arsenal stayed home.
when we bought our tickets, the cashier barked, "flashlights are required!" and shoved a box of $5 lights in front of me. i was a tad confused and wondered if she meant that it was mandatory to purchase a light but declined after realizing that our lights weren't visible as they were tucked away in our pockets.
as we waited in a large clearing/staging area for it to get dark enough, i surveyed the other 50 or so early arrivals. there was quite a large array of incans, mostly of the 2aa handheld and lantern variety. one guy had a club sized mag sticking out of his back pocket. in all honesty, it didn't look like there were any flashaholics present as 70-80% of the crowd was comprised of kids.
around 7pm, they dropped the chain and started letting folks into the maze for the night portion. as others have mentioned, you really don't need a lot of light in a corn maze. i'm sure most people were perfectly fine with whatever they were carrying. all of the lights we brought were more than sufficient and we kept them on low most of the time so as not to ruin the atmosphere. on long, straight paths and bridges, i'd crank the u2 up to 6 and while impressive, it was still just row after row of corn. i can see why mazes need to add little puzzles to keep it interesting.
some other observations,
- if you're wearing headlamp, aim it slightly downwards instead of directly ahead. i was blinded a couple times and was tempted to blast the offenders.
- at larson's, and probably other mazes, they make someone in your group carry a long flag pole in case you need help getting out. this means one less hand for holding a flashlight. it also makes walking side by side difficult and if you walk single file then only one person really gets to use their light.
- we didn't get lost very much and the extra batteries were completely unnecessary especially since we had multiple lights.
- we saw at least two parents pushing their kids in strollers (!?!!)
towards the end, we came across a party of 4 adults relying on a single led that was about as bright as a dim photon 1. we bumped into them twice, hopelessly trying to read the puzzle boards. the cr2 ion on high was enough to make them start referring to us as "the powerful flashlight people."
by the time we exited the maze, just after 8pm, a HUGE crowd was waiting outside. most of the lines were for the haunted maze which we didn't try. all in all, a worthwhile trip to the danbury area. those with bigger lights can probably leave them at home.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=94997
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=132561
we actually tried to visit last year but a hurricane spoiled our plans so it was twelve agonizing months of waiting.
at first, i contemplated taking along an eveready 1aa light - the kind you'd see hanging on a hook at kbtoys but figured it was going to be about as useful as a cellphone and wasn't worth the extra weight just to do a comparison. instead, we ended up taking a u2, an arc lsh-p, a couple cr2 ions and a backup supply of batteries. the rest of the arsenal stayed home.
when we bought our tickets, the cashier barked, "flashlights are required!" and shoved a box of $5 lights in front of me. i was a tad confused and wondered if she meant that it was mandatory to purchase a light but declined after realizing that our lights weren't visible as they were tucked away in our pockets.
as we waited in a large clearing/staging area for it to get dark enough, i surveyed the other 50 or so early arrivals. there was quite a large array of incans, mostly of the 2aa handheld and lantern variety. one guy had a club sized mag sticking out of his back pocket. in all honesty, it didn't look like there were any flashaholics present as 70-80% of the crowd was comprised of kids.
around 7pm, they dropped the chain and started letting folks into the maze for the night portion. as others have mentioned, you really don't need a lot of light in a corn maze. i'm sure most people were perfectly fine with whatever they were carrying. all of the lights we brought were more than sufficient and we kept them on low most of the time so as not to ruin the atmosphere. on long, straight paths and bridges, i'd crank the u2 up to 6 and while impressive, it was still just row after row of corn. i can see why mazes need to add little puzzles to keep it interesting.
some other observations,
- if you're wearing headlamp, aim it slightly downwards instead of directly ahead. i was blinded a couple times and was tempted to blast the offenders.
- at larson's, and probably other mazes, they make someone in your group carry a long flag pole in case you need help getting out. this means one less hand for holding a flashlight. it also makes walking side by side difficult and if you walk single file then only one person really gets to use their light.
- we didn't get lost very much and the extra batteries were completely unnecessary especially since we had multiple lights.
- we saw at least two parents pushing their kids in strollers (!?!!)
towards the end, we came across a party of 4 adults relying on a single led that was about as bright as a dim photon 1. we bumped into them twice, hopelessly trying to read the puzzle boards. the cr2 ion on high was enough to make them start referring to us as "the powerful flashlight people."
by the time we exited the maze, just after 8pm, a HUGE crowd was waiting outside. most of the lines were for the haunted maze which we didn't try. all in all, a worthwhile trip to the danbury area. those with bigger lights can probably leave them at home.
