First North American Geocache Traditional Cache
First North American Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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11/2022 - cache is temporarily a micro to see if it can better withstand muggles! This geocache, located in a public park near the borders of Newton, Waltham, and Weston, was found to predate all modern geocaches by at least one-thousand years. Vikings originally settled in Weston in 1000 A.D, lured by the excellent school system and good property values.
Leif Erikson recorded the cache's location using lodestone compasses and sundials. The nearby tower commemorates the hide. The name Norumbega may be derived from the local tongue - Nor [hidden]; Um [trinket]; Bega [food storage container].
. . .or maybe not.
The trickiest aspects of finding this cache will be, first, finding Norumbega Road in the spaghetti-interchange at Routes 128 and 30 and the Mass Pike, and second, finding legal parking. Try parking at the WCRB parking lot if you don't want to take your chances parking on Norumbega Road.
For business travelers, it's an easy 1.1 mile walk or drive (map) from the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel to the cache. Route 30 can get busy, so please be careful.
Super-simplified driving directions (thanks to Team Spoonhead):
Take route 20 West from 128. Take second left onto Summer Street. Follow Summer to end where it merges with River Road (approx. 1.5 miles). Turn left on River Road, go across route 128 and Norumbega is first right. Cache area is less than a quarter mile down on left.
GPS reception can be spotty at times due to the contour of the hill and the tree cover (and maybe the Viking dead protecting the cache?). Trust your instincts.
Additional Background Information
Norumbega Tower
Viking navigation
Did Leif Erikson once live in Cambridge, Massachusetts?
Imagine Weston as home to 10,000 Vikings (Link courtesy of Ktom)
Scan link for smartphone users:
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatvat ba n cvar