9 years ago I attended 'First Mass - 16 Years!' celebrating the 16 year anniversary of the first cache placed in Massachusetts and New England: GC74 - AKA First Mass. I enjoyed that event and hike so much I have tried to make every year after that Loch Cache has hosted the event. This year First Mass is celebrating its 25th birthday and what better way to use my Community Celebration Event than to host a birthday party.
Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Time: 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Rain or Shine
BYO: chair, water, hiking poles
On October 1, 2000 Jeremy Gilbert placed the first “GPS Cache/Stash in MA state”. This was the first geocache hidden in New England. Vermont followed on 10/14/2000, New Hampshire on 10/29/2000, Connecticut on 12/11/2000, Rhode Island on 12/16/2000 and Maine on 01/02/2001.
Hidden inside the 5 gallon Home Depot bucket was:
- A bottle of water from a car dealer
- Some breath savers
- Some tokens from Jullians
- Some fun bubbles
- Play dough
- Tickets from skiball at Jillian's
- Some old coins
On Oct 2, 2000 the cache was found by a cacher named intuition. 25 years later over 3,520 cachers have logged this cache as found.
This event will celebrate the birthday of GC74 - AKA First Mass and geocaching in New England!
The Evening Plan:
An early evening event up on the mountain near First Mass to see the sunset and celebrate geocaching in Massachusetts.
The Evening Schedule:
4:15 - 4:30 Optional - Gather at the parking coordinates and start making the walk up (N 42° 27.865 W 071°09.160)
4:30/4:45 - 6:15 Congregate near First Mass GC74
6:15 Head over to the sunset coordinates (N 42° 27.711 W 071° 09.520)
6:25 Observe sunset
6:30 Event officially ends
Hope to see you there,
CuriousKDB
Community Celebration Events - 2025
This Event is part of a limited release of Community Celebration Events to celebrate 25 years of geocaching. Geocachers hosted events between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. Learn more about Community Celebration Events on the Geocaching Blog.