Success Pond Rd via Rt 26 Impassible to Cars

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csprague

Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
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Location
Portland, ME
I don't know if it is proper to start a new thread for this, but I did a search and couldn't find anything recent that mentioned this, so here goes.

I had to abandon a backpacking trip to Carlo/Goose Eye/Mahoosucs on Saturday (did Grafton Loop West instead) due to the Success Pond Rd having a completely impassable washout about 1.5 miles in when accessed via Rt. 26 past Grafton Notch. The washout spans the entire width of the road, is about 5 feet across, and perhaps 1.5-2' deep. A high clearance vehicle would probably be able to navigate it fine, but my Mazda 3 stood no chance. We even tried to pile up some rocks and branches in an attempt to build a "causeway" of sorts, but to no avail. At least two other hikers we encountered on Old Speck (on Sunday) said the same thing, and they were climbing Old Speck as an impromptu Plan B hike.

Be warned - the road is currently not passable to cars from Rt. 26. I do not know how long this has been the case, but like I said, I haven't found anything recent on this site, and would have made different initial plans had I known. Perhaps this will be of service to somebody.

Csprague
 
In the past I found that road to be gated. Never thought much about it because I would expect the stretch between Success Pond and rt. 26 to be maintained mostly in conjunction with logging and it would seem that trucks would most likely be headed towards Berlin rather than rt. 26. I'm curious what peakbagger knows.
 
hmmm..

did you access success pond rd. from york pond rd. off 26 (which is success pd. rd.)? last month the access was from north pond rd. off 26, then that takes you to success pond rd. and the rd.'s were fine, but york pond rd. off 26 was a no go..
 
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