Sawyer River Rd will be closed to vehicles for 2024 until further notice

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B the Hiker

B the Hiker

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On March 20, 2024, the WMNF Facebook page issued the following announcement:

If you’re planning to recreate in the Mt. Carrigan or Sawyer Pond area you should be aware Sawyer River Road in Bartlett, NH is closed to all vehicle access due to storm damage. A heavy rain event in December 2023 washed out a portion of the road making it impassable to vehicles. Foot travel will be allowed, although parking at the gate located on US Rt. 302 is limited. At this time there is no estimate when the road will be repaired.
 
That road washes out on a regular basis. I believe the last time was 2017-2018. I finished my 4's over 70 and waited until 09/01/18 so that the road could be repaired.
 
Isn't the road scheduled to be closed sometime this year for major maintenance? If so, then it's a long trip to Carrigain.
 
This is great news for a tolerable weekend trip to Sawyer Pond.
 

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I do wonder if the above linked project is to repair the current washout or the bridge immediately before the parking lot? When I measure oof a map to the current washout area its about 1 mile in from Rt 302 while the bridge adjacent to the trailhead is 2 miles in. Then again to rebuild the bridge next the trailhead they would need to fix the washed out road.

Pretty standard for the road to washout, the FS budget used to get raided annually for the fire budget and things like fixing roads got delayed sometimes for years. Reportedly, at one point, roads like that might have to stay closed until a timber cut was scheduled and the repair would be included in the budget for the harvest. The alternative would be a declared disaster where special funding may be earmarked for repairs. Unfortunately those disaster budgets go into weird places like FR 871 near Lincoln Woods, closed to the public traffic, substantially upgraded with multiple new vehicle rated bridges designed for the sole purpose to pump out the now out of service vault toilet at the Franconia Brook tentsite which was replaced with compost type toilet a few years after. That burned up a lot of disaster dollars. Note at one point the road was closed for multiple years and it was speculated that the FS was trying to "smoke" out the camp owner on the inholding at the former Livermore village. That inholding apparently was on one of the district supervisors hit lists at one point.

The budget process changed a few years back so that the regular budget, slim as it may be, cannot be raided by the fire budget, therefore routine repairs seem to get done quicker, albeit the bureaucracy still makes repairs a multiyear effort. These days with mountain bikes and ebikes, there is still good access except for folks working on lists that require foot travel from the nearest accessible road.
 
peakbagger said:
I do wonder if the above linked project is to repair the current washout or the bridge immediately before the parking lot?
Click to expand...

Neither. It's to replace two culverts between the washout and the trailhead bridge with a new bridge. There are several SRR projects on the list but it's unclear to me what, if anything, has been completed. This is the project for the trailhead bridge.
 
peakbagger said:
Thanks the problem is the soils along that road and the drainage area above it just inherently are not well suited for a road.
Click to expand...
Mother Nature always wins. Amazing to think there was a Railroad back up in there during the logging days of Livermore.
 
We hiked Carrigain a few weeks ago and it looked as though the road was being maintained by a groomer of some sort. Anyone know by what or why?

Also interesting to see on the project list that the Rocky Branch bridge is slated to be removed permanently.
 
MikeC said:
We hiked Carrigain a few weeks ago and it looked as though the road was being maintained by a groomer of some sort. Anyone know by what or why?

Also interesting to see on the project list that the Rocky Branch bridge is slated to be removed permanently.
Click to expand...
Rocky Branch bridge is an interesting case of bureaucracy momentum. The bridge approaches were washed out by a major flood event tied to I believe Hurricane Irene in 2011. Structurally the bridge was not damaged but debris running down the river turned it into a dam and the river flowed around it particularly on the east side. That led to a washing out of a 1/4 mile of the road approaching the bridge. In order to remove the perfectly good bridge, the road would have to be rebuilt and has been to access the site with a crane and equipment. All that would need to be done is haul in additional loads of gravel to fill in the approaches on either side of the bridge to put it back in operation as the bridge is in fine shape even as of this spring. The area it accesses is not designated wilderness (the boundary is nearby). It does make the remaining Rocky Branch Shelter #1 and campsite very accessible to someone in a car. In the past, that led to a lot of ongoing issues regarding unhoused folks moving into the shelter and other users partying. Should the FS decide to do a timber cut on the west side of the river in the future, they will just haul in a temporary portable bridge at great expense and charge it to the cut budget.

My opinion is that this is just another long term effort on the national forest plan to remove maintainable infrastructure. Note the Moriah Brook Suspension bridge in the Evans Notch area was also removed due to the same storm, in that case one abutment was damaged and to rebuild it would have required a substantial alteration to the design as the east abutment was hanging out into the new channel.

BTW , many folks have hiked the upper Rocky Branch Trail to access Mt Isolation. The lower section is far less visited but its worth the long car spot. The former logging railroad grade starts just below the crossing where folks working on the 48 turn right to go upriver. The lower section follows the river closely, on occasion having to divert away from the railroad grade to avoid the rivers meandering. One crossing and diversion in particular is mother nature in progress as the river is cutting a wholly new channel in an area of very steep gravel slopes. Definitely a nice way to spend a day checking out the river.
 
Last edited:
peakbagger said:
BTW , many folks have hiked the upper Rocky Branch Trail to access Mt Isolation. The lower section is far less visited but its worth the long car spot. The former logging railroad grade starts just below the crossing where folks working on the 48 turn right to go upriver. The lower section follows the river closely, on occasion having to divert away from the railroad grade to avoid the rivers meandering. One crossing and diversion in particular is mother nature in progress as the river is cutting a wholly new channel in an area of very steep gravel slopes. Definitely a nice way to spend a day checking out the river.
Click to expand...
From just below those steep slopes you can whack over to the Langdon slabs and can make your way up the slabs through a large vegetated weakness in the middle. Very nice little outing. Just need to go later in summer when water levels low.
 
Fyi someone posted a picture on FB of the crossing where the Rocky Branch bridge was, its gone. Assuming I have the correct bridge, we walked across last August.
 
I was there this past spring and it was there despite being scheduled for a prior year. Not an issue unless the river is running high.
 
peakbagger said:
I do wonder if the above linked project is to repair the current washout or the bridge immediately before the parking lot? When I measure oof a map to the current washout area its about 1 mile in from Rt 302 while the bridge adjacent to the trailhead is 2 miles in. Then again to rebuild the bridge next the trailhead they would need to fix the washed out road.

Pretty standard for the road to washout, the FS budget used to get raided annually for the fire budget and things like fixing roads got delayed sometimes for years. Reportedly, at one point, roads like that might have to stay closed until a timber cut was scheduled and the repair would be included in the budget for the harvest. The alternative would be a declared disaster where special funding may be earmarked for repairs. Unfortunately those disaster budgets go into weird places like FR 871 near Lincoln Woods, closed to the public traffic, substantially upgraded with multiple new vehicle rated bridges designed for the sole purpose to pump out the now out of service vault toilet at the Franconia Brook tentsite which was replaced with compost type toilet a few years after. That burned up a lot of disaster dollars. Note at one point the road was closed for multiple years and it was speculated that the FS was trying to "smoke" out the camp owner on the inholding at the former Livermore village. That inholding apparently was on one of the district supervisors hit lists at one point.

The budget process changed a few years back so that the regular budget, slim as it may be, cannot be raided by the fire budget, therefore routine repairs seem to get done quicker, albeit the bureaucracy still makes repairs a multiyear effort. These days with mountain bikes and ebikes, there is still good access except for folks working on lists that require foot travel from the nearest accessible road.
Click to expand...
I looked hard at this route to get to the Giant Stairs (Stairs Mt.) I'm doing multiple rounds of the 52wav list and I'm trying to do as many different routes as possible on the peaks. With the road closed and the bridge in its current state, I didn't think this was a viable day hike, at least for me. I do hope it opens again, because it's really access to an amazing area, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
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