Accessibility of northern Pemi trailheads

[blacknblue]

Looking to venture into the Hale / Zealand / Guyot / Twins / Galehead area. I wasn't sure what the latest accessibility issues were with the various trailheads -- Garfield Trail, Gale River Trail, and North Twin Trail. Ideally, I'd like to go up the N Twin Trail to Hale, but I know the Little River Road and Haystack Road seem to have a different status every winter.

 

[JoshandBaron]

Access via Little River Rd is no longer an option. The land crossed by the herd path has been posted. You can park on rt3 for approaches via Haystack or Gale River Loop.

 

[blacknblue]

Access via Little River Rd is no longer an option. The land crossed by the herd path has been posted. You can park on rt3 for approaches via Haystack or Gale River Loop.

So basically no one touches the Hale FWT or North Twin Trail in the wintertime? Unless you roadwalk nearly the entirety of Haystack Road (2-3 miles)?

 

[peakbagger]

The parking at the end of the road where Haystack road meets Rt 3 is plowed and its usually full of cars on weekends so some folks are using it.

 

[Ken MacGray]

So basically no one touches the Hale FWT or North Twin Trail in the wintertime? Unless you roadwalk nearly the entirety of Haystack Road (2-3 miles)?

Sure they do. More people have been parking at Seven Dwarfs and then taking the snowmobile trail in from there. That avoids the private property issue.

 

[blacknblue]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something (quite possible), I'm getting conflicting information. Josh says Little River Road is not an option at all. Peakbagger, you're saying you can still park at the end of Little River Road (and, IIRC, cross the bridge there and then head south)? Ken, you're saying to avoid the end of Little River Rd and park down at 7 Dwarfs instead?

 

[bikehikeskifish]

The route from the end of Little River Road (plow turnaround) and over the bridge and then to the old North Twin Trail is now posted no trespassing as it crosses private land.


Instead people are doing what they did many years back and parking at 7Ds and paying Franz. From there they take the snowmobile trail to Haystack Road and then left to the summer trailhead.

Tim

 

[peakbagger]

I was referring to your post about the 2 to 3 mile walk up Haystack Road. I havent been by there this winter but last winter the FS was plowing the end of Haystack Road where it meets RT3. There is no parking sign there but last year it was temporarily covered for the season. Note there is not a lot of spaces to park in this location.

BTW Haystack Road road as is the North Twin trail to the first river crossing is quite skiable to even beginning level cross country skiers. Makes for nice glide out.

I have edited my original post

 

[blacknblue]

I was referring to your post about the 2 to 3 mile walk up Haystack Road.

I have edited my original post

Gotcha - thanks. Every time I drive that road, I tell myself to track the mileage. And every time I forget.

 

[blacknblue]

The route from the end of Little River Road (plow turnaround) and over the bridge and then to the old North Twin Trail is now posted no trespassing as it crosses private land.


Instead people are doing what they did many years back and parking at 7Ds and paying Franz. From there they take the snowmobile trail to Haystack Road and then left to the summer trailhead.

Tim

Okay - thanks. I've never parked at 7 Dwarfs, so I'm not familiar with that route. The snowmobile trail must cross the river near the hotel and then hook up to Haystack Road? It must track more westerly than southward if I'm understanding where the private property is. Is it easy enough to navigate, or is Franz amenable to giving directions? There's a good chance I'll be arriving in the dark, so it makes me a little apprehensive.

 

[blacknblue]

Plan A is to use North Twin Trail to do a Hale, Zealand, Bonds, Twins loop. Plan B is to use Garfield Trail for Garfield, Galehead, Twins, Guyot, Bonds, and return via Gale River Trail. What is the access to Garfield and Gale River trailheads? Looks like parking just off Rt. 3 for a roadwalk (~1 mile) to Garfield, and parking at the BB XC ski trails for Gale River?

 

[bikehikeskifish]

BB XC for Gale River works well. Follow the ski trails, staying right at all times, until you come out in the back end of a drive-in camp site, and then walk the road to the summer trailhead.

For Garfield, park at Five Corners and walk to the west end of Gale River Road. Sometimes, in low-snow, low-traffic conditions, there is plowed parking at the west end of the road meaning you can skip the Five Corners and Road Walk.

Tim

 

[blacknblue]

Perfect. Thanks, Tim.

 

[JustJoe]

I've got a question that I'm not sure has ever been mentioned. The posted "No Trespassing" is by the land owner of the herd-path/old railroad spur, correct? Didn't the owners (which are different) of the new bridge say it was alright to use it as long as you did not wear any kind of traction on the bridge? So my first question is, is there still some legal at the end of Little River Road? And if so, can you park there, cross the bridge, and connect with the snowmobile trail just past it? Before there was ever an issue that's what we did, not realizing the turn onto the herd path was immediately after the bridge. This is something I've wondered about since this started.

The Blue trail is from Seven Dwarfs, red arrow. The end of Little River Road and bridge, white arrow.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Hale-Fire-Road-Access-Little-River-Road-Winter-Access-Twins-and-Hale

tl;dr;

Doug and Mary, the Bridge owners, welcomed people to cross the bridge. Following the Old North Twin trail will put you at odds with different property owners, as will parking beyond the paved portion. Beyond those two constraints, I can't really comment, except to say that I did PAtN from the end of Haystack Road (not too bad), and then in December I did Twins + Galehead from Beaver Brook which was considerably longer than the Little River Road traverse. You may or may not (I haven't tried since the posting) be able to access the snomo trail from the bridge.

Tim

 

[peakbagger]

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.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I have heard that some people have permission from the landowner to use the route in question. This no doubt causes confusion. It’s really no different than hunting on posted land with written permission IMO, except for the attitude of the users.

I am curious about the route from 7Ds to the snowmobile trail. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve gone that way.

Tim

 

[Raymond]

I thought I had read here several years ago that parking was no longer allowed at the Seven Dwarfs Motel. But it is now all right to do so? What is the charge? I did that in May 2005, I think.

I can’t picture where this snowmobile trail is. Somewhere between the motel and the bridge at the end of the road, I take it, but with its own bridge?