Yes - digging it by hand sucks
I rented a ditchwitch and it was impossible to get working correctly. Got all pissed off and dug the 60' by hand. I went down about 24 inches, the width of a garden rake. The width was so that I could use the rake to level the bottom and 'shave' places that needed it (for a level run). Plus with 4 pipes, I wanted to have plenty of width for them to lay next to eachother and not on top of eachother. Yeah, could have gone below the frost line but I figure the odds of it getting pushed to the surface are pretty slim.
The 4 pipes:
1. CATV/Phone
2. PEX for water (down the road)
3. #8 & 2 12-3's. #8 for power, 12-3's for 3 way switches for the garage lights - want to be able to shut them off from thehouse
4. Empty with a string tag
Proably overkill , don't know that I"ll ever actually do the water, but once it was dug, the extra few $'s wasn't a big deal.
Made one big mistake - didn't properly measure the lenght of #8 on the house end. Went to hook it up and was about a foot short. I could reach the box but not cleanly. Had plenty of extra on the garage end. Tried to pull more thru but it wouldn't budge. Thought I was going to be SOL but then decided ot give wire lube a shot. I opened up the corned boxes (not sure the real name, have that box with a plate on the back for entering a structure?) and pulled the wires out of both buildings. Hooked my shop vack up to one end as best I could and with it running, poured in most of a bottle of lube on the other end. Worked it down best I could, and then dumped more down the end where the vac was. After letting it sit for a while, I gave it a shot. With a bit of effort, it worked. Seems the sticking points were the 90 degree bends where the conduit turn up out of the ground from the bottom of the trench.
Made a hell of a mess (wire lube is awful stuff) but it worked.
So to sum it up:
1. Put in more capacity than you need
2. Measure and measure again
3. Pay someone to dig the trench
Also, when the trench is open, it's a great place to get rid of any extra stone or gravel youy might have laying around. Having an old house, we have lots of stones pop to the surface along with quite a bit of old coal furnace clinkers.