So corn maze eh? I've been hearing about them for a couple years but never really got around to checking into the concept. It sounded like good cheap fun though so last night my gf and I decided to go check it out.
For those of you who have never heard of it before (somehow I suspect it's localized to the midwest) it's a cornfield planted like an old Victorian hedge maze. The corn grows to be about 8' tall and fairly thick (It's also fairly sharp. I think the guys over on Bladeforums need to look into corn leaves as an organic substitute for S30V). The maze we went to last night covered approximately 15 acres. From what I understand, each maze has an objective, when we gave over our $5 we were given a piece of paper with about 25 symbols around the perimeter. Each symbol had a corresponding hole puncher located somewhere in the maze, and the objective was to find each punch and punch the corresponding hole on your slip.
I called the people who ran it earlier in the day and explained I had never been to a corn maze before. They advised me to prepare for the weather, wear old comfortable shows and an old jacket. They also suggested a flashlight if I was going to come at night :twothumbs. During our conversation they also mentioned that the fastest this year's had been completed was just over 1 hour.
I spent all day thinking about what I might need to take with me. Need (ok, ok, WANT) Flashlight, GPS (yes, it's probably cheating but I'm a geek...), HT, Boots, Jacket. I wanted to take my M6, but requiring over 1 hour of runtime made that prohibitive. Since the M6 is just totally impractical, I charged up my 17670's popped in the MN61 and took it anyway (less current draw than WA1185). I've been using an MN61 since before I knew it was supposed to insta-flash thus in typical 80's cartoon fashion mine works just fine even though I can't even get a WA1331 to work :thinking:.
I still needed a reliable (with stamina) light and I don't own many models to choose from. I absolutely love A2's so since that's mostly what I own the main choice came down to which one. I grabbed my trusty EDC A2/Strion/GS and a 4-pack of spare cells just in case and felt prepared for anything.
So we finish up in the barn with the owner and we're following the "path" to the maze entrance. They've used solar white LED lights to mark the path. They provide no usable light but they do give you a path to follow. I unholstered my A2 and pushed in the tail and...nothing. No leds, no main bulb. Nothing.
I use this daily! It always works! Always! Ok, even though I have a tailcap ring on it perhaps the batteries got drained since yesterday. I pop 2 more out of my holder while we're walking and slide them in. Still nothing
. My gf is laughing as she pulls "her" A2 out of her purse to assist. So we get to the entrance and start the maze, I'm still trying to figure out what could be wrong with my A2 while my gf handles illumination duties. It is DARK in the middle of a cornfield in the middle of nowhere Iowa :candle:. Right around the time we find the first punch my "vigorous" twisting of my A2 has paid off and it decided to start working again. There must be something wrong with the tailcap, this is the first one I've had a problem with (but by serial number it's by far the oldest A2 I have, A10123, so maybe there is an issue there. I'm going to call SF today even though it seems to be working fine now :help:.
The LED low beam was great for walking around the field although my gf is still complaining that hers is blue and she likes mine better. The punches we have to find are attached to rusted metal fence posts via now-faded orange twine. Using the incandescent to throw down paths to spot things is great, using the M6 is better. The M6 still makes me giggle every time I push the button. When we arrived we were the only people in the maze, but after a while I saw some flashlights being shone at us from the other section of the field (there is an area where you need to cross a road to get to section 2). I could only see the light from the other group but since they were aiming at us I returned the favor with the M6. They were too far away to hear but I wonder what they thought of it. :devil:
We had been there for about 2 hours and my gf was getting cold (it was 30F) so at 9:30 we decided to head back to the car. That is where the GPS was great. Virtual bread crumbs had marked out the maze and determining a clear path out was pretty straightforward. As we were on the final path out we met up with the last group of 4 the night coming in. They asked me if it was easy to find the punches, I told them it was a lot of fun just to aim the flashlight around and look for the orange twine that held the punches. The woman looked at me strangely, pulled out her cellphone, and told me that they each had a cellphone but that was all the light they had. I suggested that they probably come back another night because there wasn't much of a chance if that was the best they had. After declining to give them one of our lights (they probably thought we were real !@$E%##@ at that point) we headed out of the maze stifling laughs until we had made it down the path away from them.
We had a great time, my gf wants to go back this weekend to finish our punches. I insisted that we go after dark. It will be warmer.
Anyway, if you have one of these in your area grab some friends and go, it was a blast! Exercise, Illumination, Quests, what a great way to spend an evening! :twothumbs
I really need to find an M6/A2 hybrid though...
For those of you who have never heard of it before (somehow I suspect it's localized to the midwest) it's a cornfield planted like an old Victorian hedge maze. The corn grows to be about 8' tall and fairly thick (It's also fairly sharp. I think the guys over on Bladeforums need to look into corn leaves as an organic substitute for S30V). The maze we went to last night covered approximately 15 acres. From what I understand, each maze has an objective, when we gave over our $5 we were given a piece of paper with about 25 symbols around the perimeter. Each symbol had a corresponding hole puncher located somewhere in the maze, and the objective was to find each punch and punch the corresponding hole on your slip.
I called the people who ran it earlier in the day and explained I had never been to a corn maze before. They advised me to prepare for the weather, wear old comfortable shows and an old jacket. They also suggested a flashlight if I was going to come at night :twothumbs. During our conversation they also mentioned that the fastest this year's had been completed was just over 1 hour.
I spent all day thinking about what I might need to take with me. Need (ok, ok, WANT) Flashlight, GPS (yes, it's probably cheating but I'm a geek...), HT, Boots, Jacket. I wanted to take my M6, but requiring over 1 hour of runtime made that prohibitive. Since the M6 is just totally impractical, I charged up my 17670's popped in the MN61 and took it anyway (less current draw than WA1185). I've been using an MN61 since before I knew it was supposed to insta-flash thus in typical 80's cartoon fashion mine works just fine even though I can't even get a WA1331 to work :thinking:.
I still needed a reliable (with stamina) light and I don't own many models to choose from. I absolutely love A2's so since that's mostly what I own the main choice came down to which one. I grabbed my trusty EDC A2/Strion/GS and a 4-pack of spare cells just in case and felt prepared for anything.
So we finish up in the barn with the owner and we're following the "path" to the maze entrance. They've used solar white LED lights to mark the path. They provide no usable light but they do give you a path to follow. I unholstered my A2 and pushed in the tail and...nothing. No leds, no main bulb. Nothing.
I use this daily! It always works! Always! Ok, even though I have a tailcap ring on it perhaps the batteries got drained since yesterday. I pop 2 more out of my holder while we're walking and slide them in. Still nothing. My gf is laughing as she pulls "her" A2 out of her purse to assist. So we get to the entrance and start the maze, I'm still trying to figure out what could be wrong with my A2 while my gf handles illumination duties. It is DARK in the middle of a cornfield in the middle of nowhere Iowa :candle:. Right around the time we find the first punch my "vigorous" twisting of my A2 has paid off and it decided to start working again. There must be something wrong with the tailcap, this is the first one I've had a problem with (but by serial number it's by far the oldest A2 I have, A10123, so maybe there is an issue there. I'm going to call SF today even though it seems to be working fine now :help:. The LED low beam was great for walking around the field although my gf is still complaining that hers is blue and she likes mine better. The punches we have to find are attached to rusted metal fence posts via now-faded orange twine. Using the incandescent to throw down paths to spot things is great, using the M6 is better. The M6 still makes me giggle every time I push the button. When we arrived we were the only people in the maze, but after a while I saw some flashlights being shone at us from the other section of the field (there is an area where you need to cross a road to get to section 2). I could only see the light from the other group but since they were aiming at us I returned the favor with the M6. They were too far away to hear but I wonder what they thought of it. :devil:
We had been there for about 2 hours and my gf was getting cold (it was 30F) so at 9:30 we decided to head back to the car. That is where the GPS was great. Virtual bread crumbs had marked out the maze and determining a clear path out was pretty straightforward. As we were on the final path out we met up with the last group of 4 the night coming in. They asked me if it was easy to find the punches, I told them it was a lot of fun just to aim the flashlight around and look for the orange twine that held the punches. The woman looked at me strangely, pulled out her cellphone, and told me that they each had a cellphone but that was all the light they had. I suggested that they probably come back another night because there wasn't much of a chance if that was the best they had. After declining to give them one of our lights (they probably thought we were real !@$E%##@ at that point) we headed out of the maze stifling laughs until we had made it down the path away from them.
We had a great time, my gf wants to go back this weekend to finish our punches. I insisted that we go after dark. It will be warmer.
Anyway, if you have one of these in your area grab some friends and go, it was a blast! Exercise, Illumination, Quests, what a great way to spend an evening! :twothumbs
I really need to find an M6/A2 hybrid though...
Other than that nearly everyone was using some form of LED. I saw mostly cheap 5mm LED lights, and also quite a few dynamo lights. 
