The Bradford Pines Natural Area is a 5 acre tract of land owned by the NH Department of Forestry. The land was given to the state in 1951 by the Davis and Symonds Lumber Co. to permanently protect the giant white pines located here.
This relatively small area contains fourteen white pines towering over 100 feet high! We were astonished to see the size of these magnificent old trees! It is incredible to realize that just 250 years ago, most of New England's forests contained countless numbers of these huge trees! We placed the geocache here to increase the awareness of the existence of these amazing giants, which otherwise go unnoticed by most passersby!
In October 2022 the cache container needed replacement and was hidden close to the original cache location which is very near to the largest of these giant pines at N 43° 15.975 W 71° 57.601.
Convenient parking is located at N 43° 16.063 W 071° 57.484 off of Route 103 near the intersection of Route 103 and Route 114. The trailhead is marked with a "Trail" sign about 50 yards to the northwest of the parking area.
The family-friendly walk to the cache is on a mostly level ¼ mile trail. There is one moderate incline which precludes handicapped access. A bridge simplifies the stream crossing near the start of the trail. Trails can be followed to within less than 10 feet of the cache, so bushwhacking should not be necessary. (You definitely don't want to bushwhack directly from the parking area, as you'll encounter plenty of poison ivy and a stream if you try that!)
The cache container is a medium camo-taped peanut butter container so only small trade items will fit. Please rehide the cache well as this area is surely frequented by non-geocachers. (Be very careful to ensure that others aren't watching you; the first cache placed in this spot was stolen in 2005, and several replacement caches have also disappeared.) The tree cover can add a bit of difficulty to the find but we were able to get a 6-satellite constellation and 19' accuracy at the cache location.
This cache was the first geocache that we placed. In addition to increasing awareness of these wonderful trees, we placed this cache here as it "fills in a blank" spot for geocaches in NH. When we placed the cache in August 2004, the nearest cache to this one was 5.9 miles away, but we think this location is well worth a special trip! We hope you enjoy the cache!