Yeah, I have one and am not a HUGE fan of it. However, if you are, say, stuck in a cave with no light, I'm sure they would be a huge help, but I couldn't read very easily with them, and in a campground they don't light up too terribly well. They also require almost constant shaking. Overall for your needs, they should work well enough.

 

couple of options, Take a good old fashon colman lantern with you. they burn for like 6-8 hrs on a tank of white gas. Get back to the truck and filler up for another 6-8 hrs.

LED mag light has the same run time as the little head gear versions with the output of normal mag lights.

and for emergency check out Krill lights


Its like a "snap glow stick" except you can turn it on and off. (think your indiglo watch, infact its the same stuff just on a larger scale)

check out http://www.equipped.org/devices27.htm#Chemical%20Light for a much more indepth discussion on protable/carry lighting

addionally why take a generator, a decent power inverter wired to one of the trucks would work great.

 

The problem with a coleman type lantern in a mine is it doesn't put the light far enough out where you need it AND there are times that you have to crawl or snoop low, a lantern will be too hot to really be handled in the situations encountered. The snap glow sticks are only good for emergencies(such as your batteries going dead 1/2 a mile or a miles into a mine) and shouldn't even be considered as a light source. We normaly tie one around our kids when they go in with us butr other then that they are nothing more then "camp toys". Prabaly one of the most reliable lights is the Black Diamond Moonlight LED head lamp. It throws enough light and your hands are free.

Scott the last time I was out at the war eagle my buddy and I drove our ATV's back to where the first stope is and dropped the rest of our groups climbing and reppeling gear. It was cool BUT after thinking about it when we were out it wasn't a smart move at all...we had no problem with light though! lol As for runing extention cords into it I'd say several hundred feet not just a few hundred, if I am remembering correctly to that first stope it was about a quarter mile from the entrance. Looks like I'll have to wait until your Janurary trip, December we are to Vegas for the NFR and this Thanksgiving it looks like Truckhaven..never been there just heard thankgiving weekend rocks there lol!

Here's a link to some pictures from the last time we were out at the war eagle. My son and I are in one of the top pictures in the red and blue shirts: http://www.ripleysghosttowns.com/peacedove.html

Dennis

 

Try one of these:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/7502/

its better than the original "shake constantly" forever flashlights.

 

Kinda OT, but what about spooling out monofilament line behind you. As a last resort you could always "feel" your way back to the top by following the line.

 

That's the best one I've seen so far. I'm gettng a couple. Thanks, Scott

 

Here's a link to some pictures from the last time we were out at the war eagle. My son and I are in one of the top pictures in the red and blue shirts: http://www.ripleysghosttowns.com/peacedove.html

Dennis[/QUOTE]That leach on the kids is a get idea also. My kids have seen the pictures and Video and are begging me to take them in next time and since it's solid rock, I don't have a problem with it, now that I got a leach.

 

Man, I wish we had stuff like that up here to explore... Last Thanksgiving the gf and I drove across the Mojave to get to relatives...there were all these enticing dirt roads every which way....but we were in her little Kia

As far as light, I wouldn't rely on those shake/wind flashlights. Get some good LED headlights. I use them a ton for backpacking. I have, and love, the Petzl Tak-tikka (Red light and white light, red doesn't cause you to lose your night vision) and a Black Diamond Moonlight. The Tak-tikka is much brighter, and I like it better, but both are great. You should get at least 60 hours of light from them, probably more like 75hrs.

Keep posting these pics, and we want video! I'm living vicariously through you guys

 

Those wind up flash lights are the same as the snap and glows, a cheap camp toy.

Scott the leash wasn't my idea but it sure is a good one anytime we brought the kids they got a leash. What kid doesn't want to play in a mine lol the leash is just a little bit of insurance things stay safe and fun, be it just a mummified rabbit or a wacko dressed in pantyhouse and a wig "protecting" his rocks you never know what you will run across underground lol. I just a new mapping program from Maptech, man it kicks ass! I've spent the past two days playing with it "planning" places to to check out lol.

Dennis

 

Here's some Night Vision pic's lifted from some of the mine videos. This is more what it's like as you find your way in a mine, (no-flash photography please) and larger rooms don't apear til you come apond them.

 

Some more pic's with nite vision off.

Walking along rails looking down

Looking up

One of the larger rooms

 

Lost Mine 5 way intersection. This mine had a huge natural cavern in it.


Looking down into huge Cavern (notice the dirt mound to keep you from falling in)


We came across a lot of White goverment SUVs with blacked out windows in the area of Lost Mine

 

Not a bad idea, even if you have lights this would probably help with that old ? "which way is out"! (bread crumbs anyone).

 

In cave and enclosed environment wreck diving we use stuff we call "cave line" which is nylon multi-strand. We tie the line very securely to the starting point. We tie the line at intermdiate points so that the line stays taught and off the bottom (using a knot that's secure but easily untied when exiting). Sometimes small plastic arrows (called "line arrows") are attached to the line so there's no confusion about which way is out. (See http://www.fifthd.com/store/index.ph...2068a30bb7d871 for some examples) I'd be concerned about using monofiliment in a cave for at least two reasons. 1) It's hard to see . . . especially in low light and 2) It tends to break easily when pulled tight over a sharp edge or rubbed against a rough edge. The white cave line we use is better on both acounts. I'm not sure what spelunkers use, if anything, in caves that aren't filled with water. Getting out quickly when necessary is a good thing even if your gas supply isn't limited.

 

So I took the gang on the Mojave road over Thanksgiving weekend to camp but the wind was kicking up and a nice sand storm so we drove from barstow straight through to Laughlin (136 miles in the dirt)and camped in a hotel ,and in the morning the kids got to ride the train. On the way home to avoid the traffic we took a poleline road from Ludlow all the way to the bottom of Cajon Pass where we turned and followed the Santa fe Fire Road to the bottom missing all that traffic on the 15 fwy everyone was parked on.

We also have a small group going out Mine Hunting this weekend.
Here's some pic's





No, that's not out of focus, that's sand blowing


It's a good thing we had GPS tracks from passed trips, at times the road would completly disappear from sand drifts and you couldn't see 50ft ahead.

 

I'm using my Lap top so I can't resize on here yet. I will edit photo's later

This cloud flew over us at sunset

 

Scott how far out you all heading? Might be able to tag(might have to work saturday) along if thats cool.

Dennis

 

Hey, great thread and pics. I can see youve done your homework researching locations.

I do alot of mine exploring myself, and have been to many of the sites youve mentioned. You should check out my new site and register for the message forum so we can discuss things further.

We will be going on many similar trips very soon. We currently are planning a Panamint Valley trip, so check us out, there are some mine pics in the media section as well, more to come soon.

www.nvttora.com

 

Dangit, one of these days I'm gonna hook up with ya, Scottz. You were right there across the river! Let me know next time you're heading out this way. Tomorrow Marc P and I are gonna go play around Oatman... there's a couple trails out there that are lotsa fun, and a grip of mines. My wrist is broken right now, so no rapping down the shafts for me, but I am itching to get my gear dirty again. Anyway, great pics. I'll post some of me and Marc's ride tomorrow....

 

Sorry Bro, Didn't get your posting til I returned from are trip. Still got my cell # if not I'll Pm it to you so we can hook up at the last minute if you don't get a response from here. You didn't miss out on much. We went back to Ludlow area to some mines I recently visited. :pat: Scott