Getting towed near Mt. Tremont trailhead

[galaxy]

Some friends of mine got their car towed while doing a day hike on Mt. Tremont last weekend. They said that they had to park on the side of the road because the parking area was not plowed.
However, they pulled the car completely off the road and they saw no signs to indicate any parking restrictions.
Does anyone know why they would have been towed and why the usual parking area isn't being plowed?

 

[1HappyHiker]

Sorry that your friend's car got towed. That would be a very unhappy ending to any hike!

The widened shoulder area on the north side of Rt 302 serves as a parking area for the Mt Tremont Trail. For at least the past several winters, that area has been unplowed.

As Brian correctly states, during the summer months cars are often parked all along the road at places other than the widened shoulder area. But as to why a car might be towed in winter and not summer, my guess would be that it has to do with road crews who need unrestricted access to the shoulders of the road to push back and tidy up the snow banks that line the roadway. If a car is parked on the shoulder, then this becomes an impediment that needs to be worked around. Perhaps this could be a safety issue not only for the road crew, but also for motorists since the truck would need to swerve in order to work around the parked car.

In winter, I have parked at the Sawyer River Road lot, and then walked across the road to meet up with the railroad tracks and then followed the tracks down to a point near the Tremont trailhead (just a bit before a railroad bridge crosses over the river). This adds about 2 miles (round-trip) to the Tremont trek. However, winter-hiking sometimes involves doing stuff like this!

 

[Stash]

In winter, I have parked at the Sawyer River Road lot, and then walked across the road to meet up with the railroad tracks and then followed the tracks down to a point near the Tremont trailhead (just a bit before a railroad bridge crosses over the river). This adds about 2 miles (round-trip) to the Tremont trek. However, winter-hiking sometimes involves doing stuff like this!

All I can think of with this are the folks who park in the no parking area at the gym so they're closer to the door. Only to get inside and run for 10 miles on the tradmill... I guess they just don't like the cold...

 

[audrey]

In the winter I would never count on the trailheads being plowed as early as I'd like...a few years ago we beat everyone to the Ferncroft lot only to find many feet of fluffy snow and nary a track. Luckily we decided to wait and the plow came along soon and quickly made room for a few cars at the beginning of the road. The Old Mast Road was skier's heaven.

 

[RoySwkr]

However, they pulled the car completely off the road and they saw no signs to indicate any parking restrictions.
Does anyone know why they would have been towed and why the usual parking area isn't being plowed?

Many parking areas are not plowed in winter, NH DoT took a big budget hit this year so we can expect more of that in the future. If you'd rather not walk the extra distance or need an upper body workout, you can shovel through a fairly big plow drift in half an hour.

Some people's ideas of what is completely off the road vary, I have shoveled a spot only to see people come along and park on the roadside. The tow truck driver should be prepared to tell you who called him and why, they don't just tow cars on spec

 

[DSettahr]

However, they pulled the car completely off the road and they saw no signs to indicate any parking restrictions.

Many rural municipalities in the northeast have winter parking restrictions that are "blanket restrictions" that apply to all roads in winter, and there doesn't necessarily need to be signs posted on the roads to inform the public of the restriction (although often you'll see the regulation posted as you enter the municipality along with all the "welcome to such and such town" signs). However, most of these restrictions involve parking bans at night only (typically between 2 and 6 am), so that the roads can be cleared by plows when they aren't getting much use. I've never heard of a municipality that had a day time parking ban in effect in winter unless it was an emergency.

Regardless of the specifics of what parking regulation your friends broke, though, does anyone else think that it's completely inexcusable on the local municipality's part to tow a car in winter that belongs to a hiker and is "completely off the road?"

What if the hikers had gotten back late, after dark, and were stuck trying to find alternative transportation? What they'd had an emergency, and needed to get someone to medical help ASAP? I'd be livid if I came out of the woods in winter and found my means of transportation was gone. If an emergency had arisen, I'd think they'd probably have grounds for a lawsuit. At the very least, I'd give the municipality responsible for towing the car a serious piece of my mind when I went to retrieve it.

Seriously... if it's not blocking traffic (and it sounds like this car wasn't), a parking ticket will do. If it is blocking traffic and needs to be towed/moved, you'd better damn well leave someone at the trailhead until the owners emerge from the woods and provide them with safe transportation to get their car back.

 

[Raymond]

The car could have been towed just because the company saw a chance to make some money, couldn’t it? There was an article in the Globe not too long ago about a Boston parking lot that is notorious for having cars towed from it after hours.

The one time I climbed Mount Tremont I parked at the Sawyer Rock parking lot. I don’t know if that’s an option in winter, however, or if it’s closer than Sawyer River Road.

 

[MichaelJ]

I know we've discussed this in the past in the context of the 19-Mile Brook Trailhead; however, searching the board for that (since "19" isn't indexed) is proving too frustrating for this early hour of the morning. Suffice it to say that when there in winter, you park in the designated parking area only. There is no parking before or beyond the trailhead, even if you're off the road, in order to allow snow removal. I don't recall if they were ticketing or towing, though I agree that there should only be towing during an actual snow event.

Perhaps someone with more morning patience than I could find that thread?

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

I know we've discussed this in the past in the context of the 19-Mile Brook Trailhead ...

My recollection at this early hour (just started on my first coffee ) is that it was at one of the Imp trailheads, not 19 Mile Brook. My memory may well be faulty, and at this early hour I am in no mood to do a search

 

[peakbagger]

I dont know if its the law or tradition but the state DOT has required that vehicles be parked completely off the pavement (which includes the paved section on the right side of the white line all the way to the dirt) or they will tow. The only legal way a tow truck driver can do a tow is if they are requested by the state or town (and possibly DOT). There are also many towns that ban parking on the road side overnight and some that ban it all winter. If a hiker does plan on leaving a car overnight, the odds of a tow will increase as the state tends to do a lot of work off hours.

At many of the trailheads, the snowplow drivers may at their option plow the road a little wider but no guarantees. This is difficult at a popular trailhead as there is rarely a clear shot for them to clean up and once things freeze, its hard on the plow and the driver.

Do note leaving a car near the travel lane in winter is good way to get broken glass and dings on your vehicle as when the state is sanding the road, there can be some pretty good sized rocks that appear.

Most folks dont want to go to hassle of shoveling a spot off the pavement so I expect its a tradeoff of getting on the trail versus taking a chance of getting towed. The reality is that with strained state and federal budgets, diffucult parking for winter hikers isnt going to get any easier.

 

[MichaelJ]

I dont know if its the law or tradition but the state DOT has required that vehicles be parked completely off the pavement (which includes the paved section on the right side of the white line all the way to the dirt) or they will tow..

I just want to emphasize Peakbagger's point here. This is true even in summer: you must be completely off the pavement.

 

[RoySwkr]

Regardless of the specifics of what parking regulation your friends broke, though, does anyone else think that it's completely inexcusable on the local municipality's part to tow a car in winter that belongs to a hiker and is "completely off the road?"

I know it would bug me as it happened to me in NY :-(

Instead of asking on the Internet, the victims should ask the police/Forest Service/tow operator for a definitive answer on why the car was towed.

Most folks dont want to go to hassle of shoveling a spot off the pavement so I expect its a tradeoff of getting on the trail versus taking a chance of getting towed.

We twice dug a space at the Elephant trailhead (once each for old & new peaks) not from fear of towing but because after watching the trucks with snowmobile trailers whipping along we didn't want to chance coming back to a totaled vehicle as they were often over on the shoulder. Considering the drive is over 4 hours each way 45 minutes digging didn't seem that much extra.

Once in the Catskills we dug a space for a shuttle vehicle and parked the rest elsewhere, with a dozen digging it went pretty fast

 

[erugs]

Thanks for reminding me in this "snowless" year to put my shovel in my car. (And take the trail rake out.)

Reading of parking, we were at the Glen Cliff Trailhead yesterday and two cars were parked facing the signpost. I'd never noticed anyone parking that way before. The forced two or three more cars to follow their lead, leaving a space for others to head-in park the usual way.

 

[Guthook]

Yikes. I parked on the side of the road at the Nancy Pond Trailhead on Sunday, since the parking area wasn't plowed out. Glad I didn't come back to a missing car

Maybe next time I'll park at the Sawyer River Road parking area and walk the road a little.

 

[Remix]

A converse question-

If you have a 4WD pickup and sufficient ground clearance, can you park inside in an unplowed parking area without fear of getting towed? On one hand you are off the road- on the other it will make it more difficult to clear the lot.

 

[peakbagger]

Parking in an unplowed lot unless posted shouldnt be a issue. Unfortunately if its blocking access to plows they may just drive right by and not plow it adding to the problem. During a typical winter this can lead to a real mess in parking lots as things freeze up.

For those familair with Harvard Cabin on RT 16, there are two wide sopts on either side of the road. I believe the policy was that anyone staying at the cabin had to park on alternate sides of RT 16 every night so the plows could get the other side. Not sure if that is still practiced.

 

[Remix]

I dont think anyone would park their truck in the driveway entrance to the parking lot, but sometimes its feasible to get into a parking space that is covered by snow if you are not afraid of psushing through a snow bank .

In retrospect I have never heard of anyone getting towed out of a parking lot near trailheads in the Whites if they have left their car or truck in a lot after a major snow event, so *nm*