If there's any breeze at all, I'd prefer one of these. I have one, and you can just throw them up and off they go with the most minimal of breeze. Stake it down and leave it. Pack up really small (no frame - they're a parafoil - totally soft). This small 5 square foot model has plenty of pull to loft an LED light/flasher. The bigger ones pull like a mother and will actually lift you off the ground. Launching in a tall dense forest would be tough, but the same goes for a balloon. You'd just have to find a small clearing. You don't need much room, and you don't have to have a friend hold it while you run away, like the delta kites we all had as kids. Of course, if you had dead still skies with zero breeze, then it wouldn't work.

Note: To those who don't know kite designs, simple "parafoils" fly themselves. "Sleds", which are often advertised side by side with parafoils, not so much. Many kite designs require you to "fly" them (e.g., don't get a multi-line "stunt" parafoil). Get a simple single-line parafoil for stake-it-and-leave-it signaling use. As with any kite, the stronger the wind, the higher the angle it will fly at.

Plus, it's really relaxing to launch this kite, stake it or sit down on the string and just lay there in the grass, gazing up at the bright colors against the sky.

http://intothewind.com/Item--i-5152