Breakheart Flume Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
Related Web Page
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This cache is hidden in Breakheart Reservation, just off the Flume Trail. There are multiple ways to get to the Flume Trail, being marked trails off the main paved roads or from a fire road. Please take note that the lid of the cache might come right off when you open it, so please take the couple of seconds to put the hinge back together and close the cache securely. Thank you! :)
Running from Silver Lake (the upper lake) to Pearce Lake (the lower lake), the flume can have a good amount of water flowing along or practically none at all, depending on the time of year and recent precipitation.
Many cachers already know this, but for anyone not aware: Please do not leave any type of food, liquids, scented, or meltable items in the cache, such as energy bars, candy, gum, bubble liquid, candles, crayons, etc. Also, please be sure close the container securely, re-hide it back in the same place, and replace the camo the best you can. Thanks!
Trackables: If you find and take a trackable (travel bug, geocoin), please remember to log the trackable at least two times - first when you take it from a cache, and then again when you place it in another cache. See this page if you need help.
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A bit of history gathered from a park ranger, DCR literature, and mass.gov web pages:
In the 1890s, two men (Benjamin Johnson and Micajah Clough) owned some of the land that is Breakheart Reservation, using the area to hunt and fish. Their damming of two spring fed marshes, for the purposes of attracting game and improving fishing, resulted in the formation of Silver Lake and Waksau Lake (renamed Pearce Lake in the 1960s).
The State (Commonwealth) of Massachusetts acquired Breakheart in the 1930s for use as a state park. Between 1935 and 1941, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp worked at Breakheart to make the land more recreation-friendly. It was the CCC which placed the stone work you see at the flume. The concrete work in this area was later done by the Metropolitan District Commission (which, along with the Department of Environmental Management, ceased to exist in the early 2000s when the duties of both were merged, becoming the Department of Conservation and Recreation).
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Maps of Breakheart are sometimes available at both the Saugus and Wakefield entrances, but the maps go quickly. You can, however, print a map (look for the PDF file) from the Friends of Breakheart Reservation website, linked as the "related web page" near the top of this page. Or, for a direct link to the map referenced, click here.
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Congrats to geodecks on being first to find!
And to doublewe for same-day second to find!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Svaq gur ebpx grag.