Its is easier to understand the issue if you pull up the tax maps from Bethlehem. Before the owners of the bridge built their house, one option (the one I first used was to go across the private bridge and go straight down an old road that eventually hooked up with the Haystack road, then take a left on Haystack road. That is the way we did it in the early 90s. There were a couple of gravel pits in that area that are visible if you use the history function on Google Earth. Doug and Mary own the bridge and have a right of way from the end of Little River road. The river frontage is owned by the same family group that owns the land around the turnaround and also the land across the river where the old railroad right of way runs which is accessed by taking the hard left turn after crossing the bridge. The former route going straight across the bridge goes directly up what is now Doug and Mary's driveway past their house. I respect that they probably would not appreciate a stream of hiker traffic up their driveway so they graciously offer the hiking public the privilege of crossing their bridge that they own and have rights to. They do not own the land where hikers normally take a left onto the old right of way and thus they can not give permission to hike on it. Doug and Mary did at one point have signage directing hikers away from their private driveway to the former railroad right of way effectively pushing hikers across the extreme corner of their property. Perhaps where the confusion lies is that many people may assume that the river is the property line between properties on each side of the river, that unfortunately is not true, in this case the river and the frontage on either side of the river is owned by the same group of owners that are the descendants of the original owner. I think it was tied up in probate last year so the actual owner may now be one or all of the descendants. Given that it apparently still posted this year that implies that the current owners do not want to public to trespass and they have a right to do so. Their land is in the town of Bethlehem so the officers in the village of Twin Mountain in the town of Carroll NH are not really the right group to ask about the legality and prosecution for trespassing on land in another town. This little block of Bethlehem is landlocked by the national forest so I dont expect its routinely patrolled.
I was not aware that Seven Dwarves was in operation last winter (or this winter)In the past it was the recognized option for accessing the snowmachine trail crossing a short distance down the road from Doug and Marys bridge. I have never parked there and used that option. Note long before Doug and Mary built their home the bridge was blocked on the Little River Road side of the river with a full width gate. Whether it was locked or not varied year to year. There was construction equipment parked in the pits on occasion and expect there could have been issues with vandalism. The first time I did it in around 1993 possibly 1994 the gate was open on New Years day and definitely snowed in.
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