Pick your own trail and hike Northfield Mountain and make a stop
at our cache when you hit the summit.
Northfield Mountain Recreational Area in Northfield, MA. is home to
the FirstLight Power Resources (prev. Northeast Utilities
Northfield) Hydroelectric plant located INSIDE the mountain.
(No, I'm not kidding)
See here: Power
Generation: Northfield Mountain - FirstLight Power
Resources
Years ago my father was one of hundreds of people on the
construction team that helped hollow out and construct the plant
inside the mountain. He has told me many stories about the
unbelievable task it was to engineer and construct such a site.
I've been inside once to see it for myself, however they don't
allow tours anymore.
There is a Visitor's Center at the base of the mountain which
teaches all about the history of the system, etc.
The Mountain is open to mountain bikes, hikers, horses, picnics,
and educational tours (including orienteering) during the warm
weather. During the winter it's a cross-country ski and snowshoe
facility.
At the top of the mountain is a man-made 300 acre reservoir
where they pump water (up to 5.6 BILLION gallons) and store it
until there is a need for more power production. It's very pretty
to stop there after a nice hike and rest; There's an observation
deck at the end of a trail off the paved road.
Cache is a regular 30mm ammo can. The hike's a good 1.5 hour
hike on some really nice wide trails, and about 2 hours or so on
the rougher foot-trails (The Rose Ledge trail is what we took, and
has some great views near the top.)
2009-08-09 UPDATE: Hiked the mountain with the girlfriend
via 'The Rose Ledge Foot Trail' (Upper ledge Trail), was about
1.75hrs with a rest to view the sights. We completely swapped out
the cache. Was an tupperware container, now is traditional ammo
can, olive green. Tossed any junk, resupplied with lots of new
kid-friendly trinkets, and put a new log in. So happy to have a
real water tight container there now! That cache has been there for
4 YEARS so it was time for some spring cleaning. :-) Thanks to all
the cachers again and again for taking good care of it.