I've lived in the area all of my life. I grew up in Winchester, and after graduating college I moved to Cambridge MA.
Probably back in mid 2000 I heard about the geocaching movement on a mailing list, and immediately found the idea to be exciting. Selective availability had just come off, and this new "sport" seemed like a great way to celebrate. I bought a garmin etrex GPS and was determined to go cache hunting. At the time, the only caches were in the western half of the country. Geocaching had just started its first web site, and I think most of the discussion was still happening on usenet and this one egroups mailing list. There weren't any caches in NE, and it seemed like it would be fun to set one up and try to help the movement grow out this way. I really wanted to find a location that would be easy to reach, so that people's first experience would be a good one. I bought a $4.95 bucket from home depot (the original container is long gone now BTW), and my brother (MJ) and I scouted up horn pond to find a good location. I had played around the abandoned reservoir up there when I was younger, and knew that the view was great and the walk wasn't too onerous. It seemed like a perfect location. I brought a can of black spray paint a few items and the canister. It pretty much worked like this:
We hiked up the "mountain" debating if we should place the item in the reservoir or just outside of it. It seemed like we should keep it out of the main area since people might not feel comfortable jumping any fences to get to the location and I knew from experience that it could get pretty wet down there. We eventually walked around the entire area (MJ got poison ivy in the process, I think), and decided that the closest area near the retaining wall to the main path would be the best place. We carefully spray painted the can and the lid black, and just in case wrapped everything in zip lock bags. The items were:
g-o-cachers:
Do you live in Massachusetts? Did you when you placed the cache? Do/Did you live near the cache location?
Sort of, I live in Cambridge both when I placed the cache and pretty much now as well.
Did you grow up around here? Do you have family here? Kids?
Yes, I grew up in Winchester and spent many childhood afternoons biking around horn pond trails.
I am married, and we don't have any children yet.
What type of work do you do now (and back then)?
I am a software consultant, mainly working on bioinformatics and ecommerce technology. I run a company in the area called Springboard Informatics. We help companies in the life sciences space (like pharmaceuticals) to better use computer technology to improve their scientific and drug development efforts.
What are your interests outside of work?
Any other background you would be willing to share that might be relevant?!
I'm actually not that much of an outdoorsman (I've never climbed any real mountains, and I don't fit the profile of a hiker very well), but I do really enjoy light hikes and I've always found horn pond mountain to be a special place.
How did you find out about hiding stashes?
A general internet mailing list has a posted a link to another posting by Jeremy Irish who started GC.
Did you know selective availability was going to be turned off in May 2000? Were you following the news groups at the time to know what was happening?
Yup I had heard the news. There was discussion about it for a long time. People were worried it wouldn't last. It was really cool and I bought a GPS about a month later.
Did you letterbox or any other similar type of activity before hiding the stash?
No, not really. I used the GPS a little bit to track my hikes around the area, but didn't do any of the earlier online activities.
Did you have a GPSr when SA came off? If so, what else did you use it for? What type of GPSr was it?
It was a garmin etrex. This is the photo of the reading I took to record the cache.
Did you personally know any of the people involved in setting up some of the early stashes?
Nope. I just read about it on line and decided to give it a whirl on my own. I had wanted to find a cache first but that wasn't very feasible.
Had you found any other stashes prior to hiding yours?
No, there weren't any to find around here. I had hoped that when I was in CA I would have a chance to visit one, but it didn't end up working.
Why did you decide to put out a stash?
See above. I really liked the idea and I wanted it to catch on as much as possible!
How did you decide to put out the stash where you did?
Horn Pond is a great location, easy walk and known to a lot of people in the area. I felt this would encourage adoption and give people a strong early experience with the activity and encourage them to keep doing it.
How long did it take you to prepare the stash?
An afternoon. I drove to home depot, grabbed a few items and a ziplock bag, and headed out with my brother. I had been planning to do it for a week or two.
Can you describe the original contents, container, log book, etc?
Sure. See photos above.
Do you remember placing the cache, your thoughts, issues you might have had, what the weather was like, one trip or multiple?
Yes, very clearly. I had a definite sense of excitement that I was starting something new and I had a lot of hopes that the cache would become a reference point that would bring others into the "sport". I also hoped that someone soon would start their own cache in the area so I could visit one myself! (Fortunately, this did happen a few weeks later but I never found out if that person had ever been to my cache to start with.) I was a little worried that the location would be found by a park ranger and removed, or that it might cause some trouble by its location. I was also a little worried that someone might give up and not look around once they had come to the coordinates.
What was important to you about the cache? What did you want people to take away from the experience of finding your stash?
I think geocaching is a powerful community activity. GC is a great way to bring online and offline communities together, and it is a fantastic family activity. I think it is incredible that out of this vast cobweb of GPS signals, internet sites and network connections real people come, maybe once or twice a week, to this one particular and otherwise ordinary spot on earth known only to those with the coordinates, and exchange a few tangible items with others in the spirit of community and treasure hunting. In the items that are exchanged we find a concrete memento of the truly global world we live in.
How did you "list" the cache so others could find it? Do you remember when it was listed on geocaching.com?
I listed it the same day I set up the site. I posed to the mailing list everyone used on yahoo I think.
Do you remember your first finder? Did you have a conversation with that person/group?
I can't remember. I probably exchanged a lot of emails with anyone who visited the site in the first few weeks.
Any memories from the first year after you placed the cache? Special finders? Trades? Maintenance issues? How many people found it?
A lot of people found it. The next time I checked on it (Spring), the logbook was overflowing. A few times also people would leave pot there and I'd have to drive out to the suburbs and deal with it. It seemed early on that there were more entries in the log book than there were on the web site.
After hiding the stash did you hide or find any others? Are you still involved in geocaching in any way?
Yes, absolutely. I have visited sites over the years. Any time I am in a new area and have time to kill, I check online for sites close by. I don't usually get a chance to visit any but I definitely think about it.
The cache was adopted from you by a team called Traaker sometime in early 2002, were you contacted then (I'm actually the third "owner" now)?
I have no idea who Traaker is. He may have been someone who had contacted me before about problems with the cache. I got really busy in 2002, and was working 80-90 hr weeks, so I was grateful someone was maintaining it. I got a few emails from one or two helpful folks over the years who have taken care of the cache here and there.
I have an account and I frequently look at the listing for my stash. It never occurred to me that anyone would want any photos until you asked about them.
Anything else you would like to share that I haven't covered?
A long time ago, someone from the Boston Globe wrote me and wanted to profile me. I didn't see the email until a week later and by then the reporter had already found someone else to talk to. But they wrote a really incredible article about the GC movement which I highly recommend you try to hunt down. It was published in 2001 I think. I believe this article really helped the NE Geocaching movement.
Thanks!!!!
Swing by and find a few caches -- there are around 10 in GBFSP and several more will be placed for the event! I would be happy to introduce you to the community (which you started!)
I’ll see if I can swing by!
THANKS FOR TAKING CARE OF THE CACHE!!!
