Well today we did a short section (3.9 miles) of the Ossipee trail. We started with South End and did #1 through #19 plus the odd ones in between. First off, it is not bicycle friendly. This is not a rail to trail, it is a rail. All the railroad ties are still in place. We ditched the bikes in the bushes at the first cache and walked the full 7.8 miles. I wish we had known the condition of the overgrown trail as we could have left the bikes at the end and then just walked 7.8 miles in one direction to double the caches found. This trail is for numbers only. Each cache was simple to find and only a couple had any amount of challenge. The walk is straight, level, and tedious. We will be going back to 5 or 6 cache days with good scenic hikes. Be prepared for horseflys as mosquito spray does nothing for them. I crushed more than 50 and they never stopped landing on my neck and biting. If you end up walking in and out, do what my wife suggested after the fact. Bypass some caches on the way so the walk back isn't so boring. I filled my backpack with pieces of coal along the way and unless you want to carry out an extra 25 lbs, I would recommend getting your winter heating fuel another way. If my car was steam powered, the coal would have come in more handy than waiting for December. An hour and a half of driving time made it about $1 per cache. Now I have to spend two hours logging in each find as I don't know how to repeat the same message for each one like I have seen people do. Some other cachers we met on the trail mentioned a rail trail in Salem NH that is tarred. You may want to check that one out.
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