Very bright light on painter pole to find camp at night?

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:51 pm

How about a handheld GPS unit...?

phil · Post by **phil** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:04 pm

ibdave wrote:How about a handheld GPS unit...?

From an earlier answer to that question:

I have that, too. The battery died, though, on our way home. My goal is to have redundant resources. Lights are easy if we can see them; GPS is okay if the battery is working, but it takes time to turn on, tell it to take me home, etc. Just more work than looking at the light and walking toward it when we're dead tired. Orange poles are our fail safe, but the roads disappear after everyone's pulled up stakes, and you really can't tell if your in a road or a campsite anymore.

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:42 pm

phil wrote:
ibdave wrote:How about a handheld GPS unit...?
From an earlier answer to that question:

I have that, too. The battery died, though, on our way home. My goal is to have redundant resources. Lights are easy if we can see them; GPS is okay if the battery is working, but it takes time to turn on, tell it to take me home, etc. Just more work than looking at the light and walking toward it when we're dead tired. Orange poles are our fail safe, but the roads disappear after everyone's pulled up stakes, and you really can't tell if your in a road or a campsite anymore.

Damn speed reading classes are for shit........... Thanks Phil....

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:02 am

Just saw this:

> my North Face Trailhead 6 fared nicely, not too dusty inside

Wow! Congratulations. I'd have thought it would be a total disaster after those two storms. Props to Anti-M for the solution. The Trailhead is a good tent, and we've kept ours for summer camping.

Intubater69 · Post by **Intubater69** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:05 pm

Hi Phil, it helped that we didnt get it sep up until after the monday storm

but it also fared nicely saturday, not saying we didnt get any dust inside, just not like in ur pix from ur tent, and i might ad my ears stayed rather clean

anti-m's idea worked good, and we never even got the fly up.

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:40 pm

> anti-m's idea worked good, and we never even got the fly up.

Many's the time I never got my fly up, but it had nothing to do with anti-m.

Intubater69 · Post by **Intubater69** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:16 am

phil wrote:> anti-m's idea worked good, and we never even got the fly up.

Many's the time I never got my fly up, but it had nothing to do with anti-m.

phil · Post by **phil** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:11 pm

> i might ad my ears stayed rather clean

Note Paul's, Critter's, and my ears all need the attention of Mr. Q-Tip:

Large size here:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3263/283 ... 7340_o.jpg

Obligatory flickr page here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/civex/2837529610/

I believe Louise took this on Sunday, as we were preparing to head out for the Temple Burn. The flags and my hoodie were really whipping around.

Louise and I were lucky and got early admission, so we set up on Sunday. We usually get their Monday morning, and this year promptly at 10:00 am (about our arrival time), the playa set in with a dust storm and 30 to 40 mile an hour winds that lasted _all_day_. I don't know what we'd have done if we'd arrived on Monday and had to sit there waiting for the wind to abate. I guess we'd have cleared out the floor in the van and pumped up our air mattress there, but we'd have had to open the van to throw stuff out. I can't imagine what the interior would have looked like. Thank Loki, I guess, for not pranking us.

Intubater69 · Post by **Intubater69** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 4:02 pm

We pulled up to gate monday morning at 1030ish. God knows what time we made it to kidsville where we struggled to get the first shelter up. Eventually we also contemplated sleeping in the truck. About 8 we finally was able to get our shelter and tent up. Dusty beer never tasted so good

phil · Post by **phil** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:19 pm

I saw Ken Dueker today and bought a powerflare; video on flickr at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/civex/2853978883/

And I've ordered one of those obnoxious blue airport lights. What I think we really need to light up our camp:

Link to flickr photo:

And how we plan to get around on the playa next year:

Link to flickr photo:

Intubater69 · Post by **Intubater69** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 7:39 pm

phil wrote:
And how we plan to get around on the playa next year:

Link to flickr photo:

Ohhh, that would be nice for my commute, even with the smiley face....

I see you...!

phil · Post by **phil** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:09 pm

Why I want lights and a GPS and whatever else I can think of:

After the street signs disappeared on burn night, the owner of this camp was unable to find his way home. He left the playa 2 days later. A week after that, the cleanup crew packed up his tent & his bike & his wallet & his car & his camera- along with a flash card containing 807 photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10111/2854123450/
Yes, his car. He has a follow-up post to Danger's photo, explaining what went horribly wrong. Follow the URL.

phil · Post by **phil** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:30 pm

Got my bright blue light today:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/civex/2879227375/

I'll wait till tonight and see how far away I can see it. Hope I don't attract cops with my blue flashing light. I can't remember state law on using flashing blue lights, but it's probably illegal.

The light is bigger than I expected, but it's not too big and heavy for the painter's pole with the proper attachment.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:46 pm

I know you'd get in trouble if that light was moving. The laws should be on line somewhere.

phil · Post by **phil** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:32 pm

> The laws should be on line somewhere.

Yeah, I can find the vehicle code for California, but I can't find anything about blue light specials being illegal if the light is on my porch.

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:57 pm

Okay, I've been asked to post info on how long the blue light flashed. I used a 7.2 Amp hour battery that I'd charged before Burning Man, but not used. At the time I hooked up the blue light to it, the battery showed 13.16V - not quite a full charge, but very close. I ran the light on the battery from 10:25AM to 6:10PM, then shut it off for the rest of the day. The battery showed 11.8V.

I hooked it up this morning at 11:10AM, and the battery showed 11.96V; I shut off the light at 1:00PM when the battery read 10.56V.

I think that means I ran the light 7 hours, 45 minutes yesterday, and 1 hour 50 minutes today, a total of 9 hours 35 minutes. A quick video at

shows me with the light, gives you an indication of its size, and shows a 2.5 Amp hour SLAB hooked up to it. For what it's like holding the leads to the battery, see here about 65 seconds in:

Laugha while you canna, Monkey Boy!

Artemis · Post by **Artemis** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:39 pm

phil wrote:Why I want lights and a GPS and whatever else I can think of:

After the street signs disappeared on burn night, the owner of this camp was unable to find his way home. He left the playa 2 days later. A week after that, the cleanup crew packed up his tent & his bike & his wallet & his car & his camera- along with a flash card containing 807 photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10111/2854123450/
Yes, his car. He has a follow-up post to Danger's photo, explaining what went horribly wrong. Follow the URL.

Thanks for posting this link to the last camp story. It's hilarious (laughing with him, not AT him). I followed the links and read the "last camper's" account of what happened. I found it very heartwarming to find that he assumed (not unreasonably) that someone had stolen his stuff when in the end DPW tracked him down and got all his stuff back to him. His story is INDEED a great reason to want that strobe light.

Very bright light on painter pole to find camp at night?

Flashing blue light on a 7.2 Amp hour battery

The last camp