A while back I posted about the problem of losing titanium stakes. They are small, have a rather dull color, and don't take paint. You can avoid misplacing them by being careful but that's not the problem that concerns me. My problem is when a big gust of wind (or a clumsy person getting up in the night) dislodges one and then you have to find it in the dark.

Well I think I may have a solution. I tried two candidate solutions. As I mentioned titanium doesn't take paint. So I tried reflective tape and heat shrink tubing, both available at Walmart for under $2.



To use the tube I cut about 1 inch



and then slide it over the crook of the stake and heat it with a lighter (the package claims a hairdryer will work as well but I'm an impatient guy).



For the tape I simply wrap some around the crook of the stake.

I was thinking that the reflective tape would make it easier to see but when I experimented I couldn't really tell that big a difference. The main issue was to make the color something bright that you don't see that often in nature. The heat shrink tubing package has pink, blue, and bright yellow. Here you can see the difference between the pink and the reflective tape. As you can see they are pretty similar.



This past weekend my daughter and I camped during a wind storm. The wind gusted all night really loud. The first big gust sent one stake flying from the corner of our tarp. I was able to find it and put it back (and set a rock on top) even though it was dark.

I think I prefer the head shrink tubing and I hope that my days of lost stakes are over!