My secret plan to spread flashaholism worked!

The other day, when I posted that me and my friends were putting out some reflective trail markers, I didn't really explain what we were doing. We were setting up a geocaching game field. (Well, actually terracaching, but that's another story, and way OT.) Anyway, what you were supposed to do is follow a trail of reflective markers, at night, with your flashlight. (This type of game is really just an excuse to walk in the woods with a flashlight - as if you really need an excuse for this!) At the end of a long string of reflective trail of markers (about 2 miles worth), I placed a box with a nice new yellow SF G2, free for the first person who got to it and claimed it. It's pretty fun to do these - the markers really show up well with decent flashlights, and the wooded trails we picked have a lot of nocturnal animal activity.

Well, it worked beyond my expectations - one of my friends who went out there tonight told me there were at least 12-13 people out there, wandering around in the woods with flashlights, all looking for that SureFire. I really didn't expect that many non-flashaholic people would wander around in the dark with a flashlight looking for another flashlight...

WTG MrB... Wish I knew about it. I would have attended if it was semi local /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

super secret trick use a headlamp or hold the flashlight near your eyes. the reflective markers shine light back to the source so the closer it is to your eyes the brighter the marker.

What are reflective markers?
PS Very interesting game ! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Reflective tacks:
Generic
Bright Eyes
FireTacks

Just FYI, I was using 3 different colros of 3D firetacks. They are exceedingly bright, especially when the light source is near your eyes. I think if I ever buy more of them, I'll get the 4D ones. The 3D tacks are shaped like little pyramids. This is neat looking - but it's hard to press them into a tree because the point at the top of the pyramid kind of hurts your fingers as you push them in.

I guess next time I should give away a headlamp!

I've thought about doing one of these that didn't require a GPS, and opening it up to local CPF folks. (I'm in DFW.)

That would be fun!

There are a good deal of local CPFers here in DFW, and I know many of them do have a GPS. I've personally found many of the local Geocaches in the NW Fort Worth area with an older Garmin GPS 40.

How exactly are you doing this exercise? It sounds like a great idea for training for my WSAR team as far as night training. They don't do very much as far as night tracking, and I think this would be a great idea. .

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ACMarina said:
How exactly are you doing this exercise?

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Typically you find a spot with some trees, and work your way into the woods, leaving markers behind on the trees, say every 20-30 yards, depending on the tree cover and terrain. You make a trail of markers that terminates in some type of hidden container. The last one I did was a camo'd ammo box, more or less buried in really tall grass out in a field. The trick with the trail of reflectors is to position and space them so that from any reflector, they can see at least one other reflector with their light.

Then you give them a starting coordinate for the first reflector, and tell them to go get it, using a flashlight and a GPS. The reflectors shine brightly when you hit them with a flashlight. (You could dump the GPS and make 'em use map and compass too.) We do it as a game, but I suppose it does help you get used to moving around outdoors at night.

Variations
- Time it
- Throw in some terrain obstacles, creek crossings, stuff like that.
- Split the trail - have the first part of the trail of markers lead to a small hidden container that holds another set of GPS coordinates. Then the trail picks up again at those coordinates.
- place the markers mostly on a trail. Then after they've gotten used to walking on the trail, have the markers go OFF trail, but continue to place markers on the trail. That way they have to notice the offtrail markers and check them out, or they miss the target waypoint.
- make 'em do it in crappy weather. I've done this before. Why is it that it never starts to really rain hard until your past the point of no return?
- make 'em do it alone - it can be spooky and disorienting to walk in the woods in the dark alone. I've seen this happen to guys I know who are pretty experienced. It's easy to panic a little. (It's happened to me before.) If you don't have a compass and you lose track of your orientation, being lost can happen really fast.
- Make the reflectors represent a set of distances and bearings, so for example, 1 reflector means move 200' N, 4 relflectors means move 185' ENE, etc.

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ACMarina said:
How exactly are you doing this exercise? It sounds like a great idea for training for my WSAR team as far as night training. They don't do very much as far as night tracking, and I think this would be a great idea. .

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I'm pretty sure SAR is search and rescue but when I checked WSAR with Acronym Finder I got this:

WSAR Weekly Significant Actions Report.

That can't be right, can it?

Brightnorm

So, did someone find it yet?

Yeah, a dozen people went looking for it on wednesday night, and 7 people have logged it. Most of the ones who were successful were working in teams. The only person who found it solo turned his lights off and followed other people in who were ahead of him. He figured the primary cache was already found, so he went looking for the secondary where he'd seen other's lights, found the trail, and nabbed it before anyone else got to it.

It sure sound interesting/fun. Were there any limits for the flashlight, say could a person use a Thor?

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JOshooter said:
It sure sound interesting/fun. Were there any limits for the flashlight, say could a person use a Thor?

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It is fun! No limits on what lights a person can use, although spotlights often work worse than smaller flashlights just because they are so bright that the glare on nearby objects drowns out the light coming back from the reflector. Usually the course is such that there are trees and junk in the way, preventing you from getting enough range to where a spotlight would really help.

But hey - that gives me an idea... Maybe I'll set one up where a spotlight would be required, and call it "The Flashaholic's Revenge!" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif