In Search of NJ’s First Cache

A bright, clear sky awoke me today as it shone through the skylight. I was up a few minutes later, donning the stained, torn, and patched clothing from my caching wardrobe. I grabbed my bag, kissed Gert goodbye, and headed out for an interesting morning.

I decided to finally go check out the very first cache ever hidden in New Jersey. While preparing for the event last month, I did some research on South Jersey caching. I unearthed two interesting caches: Atsion Crossword Cache - Pine Barrens and Geocache. The Atsion cache was destroyed in a fire and I temporarily hid a cache in its place as a memorial to that cache. That was an old cache that had been found. Geocache was even older and never found.

Geocache sits as #130 in the GC.com database. I loaded the coordinates and headed off for familiar territory . . . exit 32 off 295 to Cherry Hill. My pre-work had indicated this was a development. I figured there was a patch of woods nearby that I might find a three-plus year old cache in. It was a stretch to be sure, but a one-time cache by a cacher in the early days was enough of a draw to look.

Well, despite the rash of drive-and-dumps that riddle South Jersey today, none compared to what this must have been. Yes, it was residential. An older development. At the corner, within 100′ (I didn’t stop to let things settle, but it would have been about 15′ from the road) was a hedge. This is absolutely the only place a cache could have been hidden. I surmised this must have been the cacher’s residence. The hope of a three year old cache still sitting there on his property seemed null, so I high-tailed it out of there after making another pass. Sheesh . . .

It was back down 55. I contemplated my next move for the morning as I was really limited on time. Gert and I have been so busy. I didn’t even load the coords for the new Ronzoni and Mac-aroni caches that were within 2 miles of this place. Instead, it was off to the East Creek Trail. How I love this hike! I spent more time at EC trying to locate it. It must be gone. I know the coords in this place are a little daffy, but I had a 200′ radius going from ground zero and found nothing. The thing that puzzles me about this is that it seems an unlikely location for someone to be and then to stumble upon the cache. Oh well . . . I archived it. On the loop back, I picked up Swamp Island too. I had been wanting to pick that one up too. The log reports it was a fun cache for everyone (I even had to take the circuitous route through today), but I was always unhappy with this one.

All that and I was home in the 10 o’clock hour.

Also blogged on this date . . .

One Response to “In Search of NJ’s First Cache”

  1. By Bob on Jul 6, 2005

    Note that the link to Geocache brings one to an “unapproved” cache. It wasn’t always like that. That cache was listed. That is how I found the description and coordinates. I even posted a note to the page. I have that link around here somewhere. If I recall, the log is still viewable, even if the cache page is not.

    So, what happened? Why is the page not available? Ask NJ Admin. He, out of spite, had the page removed during the summer of 2004. He will tell a story that it is not the first cache in New Jersey. He will tell you that Jeremy hand-entered all the first caches and they were not necessarily in the order they were actually placed. He may even tell you that Geocache was not even a real cache. He and others will point to cache_ninja’s gerbiL cacHe hidden on 25 November 2000. Geocache was hidden 12 October 2000. I am confident cache_ninja’s cache was second.

    To point that this was actually viewable at one point, look at Dave’s post.

    So, we know for a fact that it was viewable and we know it is not viewable now.

    Why deny the community access to its history? I doubt a reviewer/moderator has the ability to pull the activity of a cache. I suspect a programmer (i.e. Jeremy) had to be involved to hide this one. And this was purely out of spite.

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