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Optimists' Loop LbNA #9761 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Aug 1, 2004
Location:
City:Lebanon
County:Grafton
State:New Hampshire
Boxes:5
Planted by:Chapuline
Found by: Chapuline
Last found:Aug 10, 2009
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFO
Last edited:Aug 1, 2004
This series of six happy boxes is on the Northern Rail Trail, a 23 mile recreational trail from Lebanon to Grafton, N.H. Allow at least two to three leisurely hours for this hike along the Mascoma river. Excellent for biking also.

Driving directions:

Take I-89 to Exit 17 and head east toward Enfield. Take your first left onto Riverside Drive. You’ll pass the Riverside Restaurant and in about a mile on your right, you’ll come to the parking lot for the Northern Rail Trail. If you get to the covered bridge, you’ve gone too far.

As you face the trail map, go right along the trail, counting the bridges.

TWO-FER
Keep looking over your shoulder, until you can "almost" no longer see the overpass that you passed under. It's where there's a bend in the trail. On the left, look for a clump of 4 birch trees. These are medium-size birches (not spindly ones). You'll see the Two-Fer letterbox hidden under a pile of rocks. Please replace carefully and securely, since this is a busy biking path.

LUCKY DAY After you cross the second bridge (over the Mascoma River), before the 3rd bridge, you’ll see a grass-covered gravel road to your right. Continue on this road to the right, in the same direction you’re going. It's Mill Road, but there’s no signage. Soon the road swings away from the Rail Trail. At the second small stream cascading down a rocky slope (in rainy season, if season is unseasonally dry, look carefully for the uphill stream bed), you'll see a large fallen tree. Your Lucky Day has started if you poke around in the hollow end of this tree. continue to flourish in their new "home."

HAPPY FLOWER - Carved by #1 carver in my opinion, Gizz.
Continue on and when you see on your left what I call a graveyard of tree trunks, you're there. Lots of hiding places, but I chose a standing trunk, a couple of feet high, with hollow innards.

EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES
Continuing on this road, you'll come to an open space next to the river. Head toward the river and follow the trail on your left for a short distance. There was a small fallen tree blocking the trail when I checked in the fall 2010. You can easily step over it. When the trail branches to the right down to the river,(good fishng spot), keep left about 10 paces to a big, very rotted log. At the far end of this log roses are bedded snugly under a pile of rocks. Ain’t life grand?

Update: August 2007. This box seems to be doing fine, thanks to some kind letterboxers who have cared for it. Animals tend to find it and drag it out, so please replace carefully under the stones. Update: August 2009. Thanks to everyone who cared for this. The log book decomposed, but now a new log book is waitng for your stamp. Update: Aug. 2010. Box still there. The big rotted log is right after the path down to the river.


LAUGHING LILIES ... This box is missing. In its place was an empty beer case. Hints of a beer bash. They probably got a kick out of the Letterbox.

cAnyway, ontinue on to the orange and white gate. Here there's a sign indicating that you are indeed on Mill Road. There’s a parking area for anglers on the left. Keep on trekking a short distance to the next blockade and back on to the Rail Trail, cross the trail where.

A TISKET, A TASKET
Past the picnic tables, follow the trail down some stairs and make a U-turn to the left. You'll be in what looks like a cellar hole of an old building. Follow the cement wall on your left to the corner.

If the stairs are too steep/scary for you, follow the path on the left of the picnic table and go right at the end of the cement wall and then down a few steps into the foundation and the Tisket A Tasket is in nook in the corner of the stone wall straight ahead.

Imagine families of yesteryear singing and dancing around a warm wood stove. A Tisket, A Tasket is stuffed into a crevice in the stone wall.

It's had quite a history of being found out in the open, re-hidden, etc. but as of Oct. 2010 it was as snug as a bug in its rock crevice.

LET THE SUN SHINE IN
Continue right on the Rail Trail as you exit the picnic area. Go to the third bridge, which has a #3 on it. About 18 steps before the bridge you'll see a decrepit railroad tie on the right, about 15 feet off the trail. It's so decrepit, it looks like a log. "Let The Sun Shine In," is under this tie.

This Rail Trail is constructed along the former railroad bed of the Boston & Maine Northern Line. Daniel Webster gave the keynote address in downtown Lebanon in 1847, celebrating the inauguration of this railroad which connected Boston with White River, Jct. Vt. The fare was $4. However, passenger service ended in 1965, with a few freight trains operating into the early 1970s. Today, through the efforts of a local snowmobile club, the old rail bed has been turned into a scenic trail for use in both summer and winter. This flat, smooth trail along the Mascoma River is popular with hikers and bicyclists. No motorized vehicles are allowed during summer.