Success Pond Road Condition?

Has anyone driven it in the last month or so? I saw an early September 04 VFTT report that said it was in rough shape and required 4WD to get through loose sand. I'm wondering if it has firmed up now with colder temps.
Thanks.

We were there on Oct 17 and found the road to be hard packed and in good shape. There were several regular cars parked at the Goose Eye trailhead with low clearance. There were a few pot holes you had to go around, but the road is wide enough for 2 cars.



There is a pic of the road on our trip report - next to last photo.
http://www.rbhayes.net/goose-eye.html

I'll decond what Bob & Geri said. I was up there twice in October and found the road was in terrific shape. I didn't have any trouble driving my Honda Civic on it. The lack of potholes (as compared to the dirt road near my house) led me to believe that it had been recently graded.

- Ivy

Many thanks for the reports. It sounds like the road is actually in better condition than when I drove it a lot last ('94-'96). Great pics, too. I love the Mahoosucs and have just one little section left to redline before I go back and repeat the whole area.

Fyi - The major landowner along the road, Dillon Logging is experiencing a lot of vandalism and has discussed gating the road, closing it to the general public.

Hey peakbagger!
I hadn't heard about the vandalism and possibility of closure. Is there any indication that the damage is hiker related? Do you know if it would it be gated at both ends or just the more heavily accessed Berllin end? This would be a major loss to hikers!
-veg

success township in danger

peakbagger said:

Fyi - The major landowner along the road, Dillon Logging is experiencing a lot of vandalism and has discussed gating the road, closing it to the general public.

Click to expand...

Where did you hear this? (sorry for the timelapse, I missed this thread in November & didn't come across it until today on a search for a different post)
When is someone going to do something to secure access to the Mahoosuc spur trails & surrounding lands? It's not just the road, the trails themselves (Success Trail, parts of the Goose Eye / Carlo trails) are on TR Dillon land. The Outlook is on TR Dillon land, and some rare alpine bogs are probably on TR Dillon land. Unless I'm missing something, these are probably the most extensive and significant hiking trails in the state that are on private land and not covered by any kind of conservation easement.

(p.s. there have been some good AP articles in the last few days on the timbering aspects of this: http://www.newhampshire.com/articles/showularticle.cfm?id=53452 )

Boy, you did take awhile to look at the thread. The vandalism was reported last fall. Currently the road is blocked off due to mud season. You are correct that access to several trails and trailheads are at the mercy of the landowner who owns the property. Note that the Success Pond road association has a right of way over the road so it probably will remain open to some extent (although maintenance will most likely become more of an issue).

Local speculation is that once Dillon has cut it over, that he will attempt to "greenmail" some group into buying it in one block rather than cutting it up into recreational lots. The property on the southern face of the Mahoosucs has been on the AMC "secret protection" list from a few years back, so maybe the carnage on the north side will draw some interest.

Based on recent sales in the area, out of the area buyers could care less how they get hold of a piece of land and what condition its in. Unless the market cools down its going to be tough for non profits to pick up land