Cache Mania

Night Caching

How much of a hint is too much?  I think that all depends on the person that needs the hint.

I was out with a group of eight to do some night caching .  This wasn’t just caching at night this was attempting to find geocaches that have been designed to be found at night.

Our first cache got off to a roaring start.  We found the fire tacks, the container, the coordinates and headed off.  Thirty minutes at the coordinates and we had nothing.   Did we do something wrong?

We read some of the logs and it appears we were not the only group to have encountered a problem.  How pure do you play the game?  Is reading the log like getting a hint?  We decided to go back to the start and see if we missed something.  Others before us had done this also.

We returned to the first stage and reread the instructions.  How could we be doing this wrong, the coordinates were there for us to read.  Yes they were written as words, even homonyms but still, it was really straightforward.  Having done a few caches by this player in the past I should have known better.  They are NEVER this easy.

We searched some more.  We reread the description.  We searched some more.  We read previous logs.  We searched some more.   We had already read the hint provided but it wasn’t helping.  In retrospect the hint makes sense.  That hint will give you reason to stay at the first stage until you can do what is suggested in the hint.  Something had to be done.  It was time for phone a friend.  Were we taking an unfair advantage by calling someone that has already done this cache?  Should we have abandoned our search rather than call for help? Once the call was made we had the correct coordinates for stage two in a matter of seconds.

The next two stages were challenging but not anywhere near as tricky as the first stage.   Having completed the cache I noticed that the first stage’s instructions would have seemed different had they been in of the later stages.

We really enjoyed this cache even more so because we were thwarted in the beginning.  It feels better to have triumphed than to be defeated.  I did get to thinking though, at what point is a hint a spoiler?

Follow this link to read my complete log for this geocache.

Tags: BFL, hints, Night Caching, spoilers
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This was my third BFL Boot Camp and I was not disappointed.  The organizers did a superb job. Everything from finding a suitable location to host the pub night to creating innovative and fun night caches.

I’ll review each cache that we did and then give a wrap up of the night overall.

My team for the evening consisted of myself (teamvoyagr), Bakers Dozen and Shadefrog.   After enjoying some libations at the pub we headed out for the evenings caches.  There were 11 caches in total but you only needed to do one from each set of two in order to get the details for the final.  We were able to get five caches done but we were beat.  It was 0330 and we had been at it since 2100.  It was time to go home for sleep.

GC1YQG4 – BFL Boot Camp IV: A Reflection

As our first cache of the night we lucked out in that this was one of the easier caches.  We didn’t have any trouble finding the final.  This was a good cache to get us going.  Nothing too hard.   We had a leisurely stroll to and from the cache.

GC1YYM8 - BFL Boot Camp IV – Nocturnal Creatures

This was a cute cache.  There was a nice story to go with the props.  I’m not sure how long this cache will last in the wild.  We tracked the clues and had the container opened without too much difficulty.  We were FTF on this cache even though another team was essentially at GZ.  That team didn’t realize that the final was close to where they were.    This one is kind of fun if you have younger members of your team.

GC1YNKA - BFL Boot Camp IV – Telecommunication

This one proved far more challenging than it needed to be.  We missed stage one and spent a considerable time finding it.  Getting the correct answer for stage one was also a bit trickier than stages 2 and 3.   We used walking talkies so we didn’t have to keep yelling.  We really liked the team aspect of this cache.  It’s near impossible to do alone.

GC1Y19Z - BFL Boot Camp IV – Signs of Night

Hands down our favourite cache of the evening.  We were on the wrong side of the trail on our first attempt to decided to try and find the other sign.  We figured if we found one it would be easier to find the other and it was.  This was a unique night cache as it didn’t involve firetacks.  The clue even stumped us until we tried it on our first sign.

Not only was this cache not overly long or difficult it was also interesting to do.  If you are looking for a night cache in this area this one is highly recommended.

GC1YVKX - BFL BOOT CAMP IV – SPOTTY CACHE

This was hands down our least favourite of the night.   As a night cache it was fairly straightforward except for stage two.  On that one write down both of your guesses.   Our sense was that this was a beautiful forest.  As a night cache you’ll never get to enjoy that.  Our strongest criticism of this cache was the length.  Long caches can be fun but not so much on a night were you are trying to get a series of caches in order to get to the final.

We called it quits after this cache.  It had been a long night and it was time to go home.  It also meant that we didn’t get to do the final which was disappointing.

Final Thoughts

This was a great night of caching.  The caches were all different and offered their own challenges.  It is always fun to do a challenging cache but there are limits.  There is no doubts that this evening of caches pushed those limits.  I think the evening/morning was a great success.  This is due in no small part to the organizers.  If there is one thing I would change about the evening it would be to time it such that most people have a shot at the final on the evening of the BFL.

If you attended the event I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Tags: BFL, Night Caching
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