WMNF Road Status as of May 10th

[peakbagger]

A bunch of roads are now open. I got it from the Facebook posting dated May 10th.

I recent saw trail reports that Dolly Copp (Pinkham B) was being used for access to Pine Mountain trail. The state of NH usually does not update the road status of roads they maintain but usually shoot for Memorial Day. Jefferson Notch Road may sometimes only be open from the Base Station road end. The state may open the gates but sometimes they have not yet regraded the road. One trail report noted that someone had repainted the tops of the all the rocks sticking up out of Mt Clinton Road. I was asking the road agent about running my backhoe on Durand Road in Randolph which is currently posted, he said the frost is still coming out some of the shaded gravel road along Randolph Hill Road so that is probably a good indication that some higher elevation roads are still not ready.

Current List of Open Roads:
Cherry Mountain Road
Connor Brook Road (partially open)
Crocker Pond Road
*Dugway (Passaconaway) Road (Town of Albany)
Elbow Pond Road
Gale River loop Road
Mill Brook Road
*Mt. Clinton Road (NHDOT)
Oliverian Boat Launch
Pattie Mill Brook Road
Ravine Lodge Road
Tripoli Road
Upper Hall Pond Road
York Pond Road
Zealand Road

Current List of Closed Roads:
Basin Pond Road
*Bear Notch Road (NHDOT)
Bog Dam Loop (Kilkenny Loop)
Bowen Brook Road
Deer Hill Road
Dolly Copp Road (Pinkham B)
East Branch Road
Fifield Brook Road
Haystack Road
Harriman Brook Road
*Hurricane Mountain Road (NHDOT)
Hut (Great Brook) Road
Langdon Brook Road
Little Larry Road
Long Pond Road
Meserve Brook Road
Moat Mountain Mineral Site Access Road
Peaked Hill Road
Rocky Branch Road (closed indefinitely)
Rte 113 (Evans Notch Road, Maine)
Sawyer River Road
Slippery Brook Road to Mtn Pond
South Pond Road
White Ledge Road
Wild River Road

 

[NHClimber]

Thx. What does the asterisk denote?

 

[David Metsky]

Thx. What does the asterisk denote?

From the Facebook post:

> *Be aware that some of these roads are not managed by the WMNF.

 

[peakbagger]

At some point Sawyer River road will be closed to replace the bridge before the trailhead. Not a lot of good options for parking along the road while still allowing construction equipment access so I expect they may just shut the gate down at Rt 302.

 

[Ken MacGray]

Here's the link in case anyone wants to follow along:

 

[peakbagger]

I really dislike that WMNF has decided to use Facebook as the medium used to distribute this information. I would much rather it be on their website (who knows how Facebook is abused this data to collect info on people accessing it).

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

I can confirm that Zealand Road all the way and Gale River Loop Road were open on my back from Tuckerman’s on 11 May, but Bear Notch Road and Haystack Road still closed, as are both Sugarloaf campgrounds. Bear Notch Road should be good for bicycling right now without the vehicle traffic.

 

[skiguy]

I really dislike that WMNF has decided to use Facebook as the medium used to distribute this information. I would much rather it be on their website (who knows how Facebook is abused this data to collect info on people accessing it).

It does seem counterintuitive that a Government Agency and a Social Media platform are intertwined for me. Not to mention the potential SPAM factor. Although of note the Forest Service has been a bit less than efficient when it comes to reporting updated road status on their Website season after season. On a positive note FB seems to be filling that gap as of late.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Kimball Rexford’s TrailsNH.com has a section on road status that is crowd-sourced and fairly up to date.

 

[Ken MacGray]

I really dislike that WMNF has decided to use Facebook as the medium used to distribute this information. I would much rather it be on their website (who knows how Facebook is abused this data to collect info on people accessing it).

When they moved these updates to Facebook, I recall reading something about not having enough resources to keep the website up to date. Or maybe it technically more cumbersome to do so. I don't remember now.

 

[peakbagger]

Ultimately its a matter of priority, some manager has made the decision that road info is a low priority not worth internal resources and employees are probably sick of having to answer the phone calls asking about road status, so they found a cheap work around and Facebook will gladly make it easy to do so as it gets them more "eyeballs". Years ago they did the same with VFTT, employees sick of waiting posted Ice storm reports on VFTT when their own internal system could not come up with a way of doing it.

 

[DayTrip]

Facebook has its good/bad aspects but you can't deny its speed. You get almost instant replies to questions on most of the larger forums. I don't really follow any of the forums anymore but it was nice on a FRI afternoon to ask questions about parking, road conditions, etc and get 20-30 replies in an hour or so. Once you figure out the user names of reliable people it can be a pretty valuable resource for planning and intel on a trip.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Bear Notch Road open for my drive home to Thornton from Tuckerman Ravine on Monday May 22nd; saves about 5 miles vs driving “over the top” via Gorham.

 

[NHClimber]

Hurricane opened on Wednesday.

 

[peakbagger]

One road that seems to be behind the curve is the road to the North Twin Trailhead. My guess is there must have been a washout.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

One road that seems to be behind the curve is the road to the North Twin Trailhead. My guess is there must have been a washout.

I think that Haystack Road is usually the last USFS road to open because it probably has a softer base than the others. I recall one time in mid-May we were completing a Bonds-Twins traverse before the road was open and it had very deep recent ruts in the soft sediment, presumably from a USFS inspection vehicle.

 

[maineguy]

And, on the other side of the country...WY 130 thru the Snowy Range just opened to traffic today. Will check out the area next week. Gotta learn a whole new bunch of websites