Winter is approaching, and we are already seeing repeated questions about road closures. It is time to start updating the road closures page. I would like, with help from the community, to upgrade it considerably, moving away from the old system of relying on reports of what people happen to see.
I see my role as providing the web site and doing the posting, I am not willing to do any of the required data gathering myself.
Old System
In the old system the information came from hikers who reported the status of the Forest Service roads they observed from the highway. Roads that are off major highways (Gale River Loop, Haystack Road, Zealand Road) were always up to date, as I had many reports on each after every weekend. I live close to Tripoli Road, so that also was usually up to date.
But even as important a road as Bear Notch Road was often out of date, since you cannot see the gate from the Kanc. As for the more obscure roads (Sandwich Notch or North-South Road) almost nobody passes by them, and so I did not include them. I believe that no information is preferable to wrong (outdated) information.
Proposed System
One approach would be for a group of people to volunteer to each call one Ranger District Station every week and ask about the status of the roads within that district's jurisidiction. If you can think of an alternate way please suggest it here.
I would like people to discuss possible alternatives for a week or so, at which time we should have worked out a viable system. After that I will ask for volunteers to implement it.
If the Forest Service made that information available on their web site there would, of course, be no need for us to do this!
I see my role as providing the web site and doing the posting, I am not willing to do any of the required data gathering myself.
Old System
In the old system the information came from hikers who reported the status of the Forest Service roads they observed from the highway. Roads that are off major highways (Gale River Loop, Haystack Road, Zealand Road) were always up to date, as I had many reports on each after every weekend. I live close to Tripoli Road, so that also was usually up to date.
But even as important a road as Bear Notch Road was often out of date, since you cannot see the gate from the Kanc. As for the more obscure roads (Sandwich Notch or North-South Road) almost nobody passes by them, and so I did not include them. I believe that no information is preferable to wrong (outdated) information.
Proposed System
One approach would be for a group of people to volunteer to each call one Ranger District Station every week and ask about the status of the roads within that district's jurisidiction. If you can think of an alternate way please suggest it here.
I would like people to discuss possible alternatives for a week or so, at which time we should have worked out a viable system. After that I will ask for volunteers to implement it.
If the Forest Service made that information available on their web site there would, of course, be no need for us to do this!
