Nash Stream Road status, likely open Sun 11/1?

[TwinMom+1]

Anyone used Nash Stream Road lately to comment on its status? TrailsNH suggests the gate remains open until December, so I'm hoping it will be open this Sun 10/25. Trying to knock off #52 of 52WAV before wintry weather, esp since the magic bus driving us to trailheads remains a 2012 Honda Odyssey which is not exactly dirt road-friendly, eso. way down the road at the Sugarloaf trailhead.

Always in awe of this community's knowledge. Thank you.

 

[TwinMom+1]

editing my post to ask about road status THIS weekend which is Sun 10/25 (not 11/1). Sheesh. Time for caffeine.

 

[miehoff]

Nash

Anyone used Nash Stream Road lately to comment on its status? TrailsNH suggests the gate remains open until December, so I'm hoping it will be open this Sun 10/25. Trying to knock off #52 of 52WAV before wintry weather, esp since the magic bus driving us to trailheads remains a 2012 Honda Odyssey which is not exactly dirt road-friendly, eso. way down the road at the Sugarloaf trailhead.

Always in awe of this community's knowledge. Thank you.

I believe they usually close it after a significant snowfall, or sometime in December.

Bring a tire repair kit. That road can do numbers on your tires.

Also, give yourself a bit of extra time to explore the area. There are some beautiful areas along the stream. It is a long and boring slog up Sugarloaf, but the views are fantastic.

 

[TwinMom+1]

many thanks, and will do! The Percy Peaks certainly were great. We tried to get to Sugarloaf last year but failed to use the odometer for the exact 8.2 mi drive, picking the wrong parking area 2 mi short and wandering down ATV trails instead. Amazingly Google serves up Zillow listings for that road....not sure I'd like to own property with that rugged an access road.

 

[TEO]

I believe they usually close it after a significant snowfall, or sometime in December.

Bring a tire repair kit. That road can do numbers on your tires.

Also, give yourself a bit of extra time to explore the area. There are some beautiful areas along the stream. It is a long and boring slog up Sugarloaf, but the views are fantastic.

Really? I've never had issues with Nash Stream Road, both in an Honda Civic and a Honda Accord. (As in a puncture repair kit? Wouldn't you also need an air pump?) A Honda Odyssey should be fine.

Per the 2017 Nash Stream Forest Management Plan Revision, Section 12.2, p. 165:

Open to Automobiles - The main gate is closed in early December each year and opened each spring when road conditions allow. Some interior roads remain gated year round.

 

[Lefty E]

Yes Nash Stream Road is open and usually closes the first Monday in Dec (this year the 7th day after deer hunting season closes)..it's a super smooth road compared to Success Pond Road from the Berlin side!! If it closes before Dec 7 I will post, as I keep track of Success Pond Rd and Nash Stream Road since I live n the area...enjoy Sugarloaf!! The trailhead is right after the bridge 8.2 miles from Northside Road in Stark!!

 

[TwinMom+1]

thank you Lefty E! for helping with the biggest impediment: the spouse who needs arm-twisting that the car would survive. Success Pond Rd. was quite the religious experience a few weeks back, as in I've rarely prayed so hard for the car to make it up one extremely sandy hill. Good to know the road to Sugarloaf won't be as bad.

 

[CaptCaper]

I just did Sugarloaf 2 weeks ago. Columbus Day weekend actually. Saw 7 people all day. Did it May 24th of 2020 as well. Saw 3 people. About a mile up that day snow started and in short order was waist deep some points to the summit.

I'm so thankful most people always hit the lowerWhites and the chaos that's there. Or always try to nail the 48 from many ways. Saves these awesome hikes like Sugarloaf for us and our dog to have to ourselves.

I disagree its' a boring trail up. It changes as you go along. Also there are Geocaches up there along the way to search for.

Rogers Ledge is a nice one two with very few people. The road in is closed now but we park at the gated area and walk it to the trail head. No big deal having an extra few miles or so.

 

[miehoff]

Tires

Really? I've never had issues with Nash Stream Road, both in an Honda Civic and a Honda Accord. (As in a puncture repair kit? Wouldn't you also need an air pump?) A Honda Odyssey should be fine.

Per the 2017 Nash Stream Forest Management Plan Revision, Section 12.2, p. 165:

Open to Automobiles - The main gate is closed in early December each year and opened each spring when road conditions allow. Some interior roads remain gated year round.

I was driving in Nash Stream Road this summer to do trail work for the Cohos Trail, and I rescued Kim Nilsen after he had blown a tire. It was a weekend and we had to work several days to get it fixed. It was a rental and the tire was worn. We were told that, along with the sharp rocks on the road, snowmobiles scatter sharp fragments from their traction that are left on the road and can puncture a tire. Kim and I both agreed that we would not venture on that road without a puncture kit and a pump. And that come from a guy that knows Nash Stream, I would say.

So yes. Be prepared, but please do not be intimidated. That place is like heaven.

 

[miehoff]

I also disagree that nash stream road is "super smooth." That can depend on time of year.

 

[peakbagger]

When I hiked this with a friend last year, her car picked up a a couple of nails in here tire. I do not think sh picked it up on the actual road but on the road getting to the forest.

 

[Grey J]

I just did Sugarloaf 2 weeks ago. Columbus Day weekend actually. Saw 7 people all day. Did it May 24th of 2020 as well. Saw 3 people. About a mile up that day snow started and in short order was waist deep some points to the summit.

I'm so thankful most people always hit the lowerWhites and the chaos that's there. Or always try to nail the 48 from many ways. Saves these awesome hikes like Sugarloaf for us and our dog to have to ourselves.

I disagree its' a boring trail up. It changes as you go along. Also there are Geocaches up there along the way to search for.

Rogers Ledge is a nice one two with very few people. The road in is closed now but we park at the gated area and walk it to the trail head. No big deal having an extra few miles or so.

Aye aye CaptCaper! I knew if I waited long enough that we'd agree on something. Sugarloaf was a great little hike on a day when rain was expected by early afternoon so I was up and down by noon when I did it in August of 2019. I did not see a single person on the trail or at the summit and I still had great views before the clouds rolled in. I had a picture of that old stove on the summit but I can't find it. That's a neat little hike even if it is up an old eroded road for a good part of the way.

 

[Grey J]

I found my Sugarloaf photos. Might need to thin out the archives sometime soon as they are getting a bit unwieldy to search. So there's the stove, presumably from the old cabin, and the view which encompasses Long Mt in the center and the Percy Peaks on the right. I believe that's Whitcomb Mt in the left foreground. The snake was my only companion.

 

[Lefty E]

I also disagree that nash stream road is "super smooth." That can depend on time of year.

Hey I only said it was "super smooth compared to Success Pond Road"...I have been up many many times with no issues with flat tires or rough rough roads..

 

[CaptCaper]

Aye aye CaptCaper! I knew if I waited long enough that we'd agree on something. Sugarloaf was a great little hike on a day when rain was expected by early afternoon so I was up and down by noon when I did it in August of 2019. I did not see a single person on the trail or at the summit and I still had great views before the clouds rolled in. I had a picture of that old stove on the summit but I can't find it. That's a neat little hike even if it is up an old eroded road for a good part of the way.

Glad you waited I guess. Me? I don't know who you are or whatever. So I'm numb to you I guess.

What old eroded road? All I saw was my Golden running free and smiling as well as Birch,Beech etc trees singing in the breeze even thou they have many odd shapes (like people) from life in nature. Landscape art painted by mother nature that changed evey few feet I traveled along. Joined in by the smoothing song from the everflowing stream of Sugarloaf.

 

[Andrew]

Just don't drink from the streams below the snow machine trail crossings.

 

[miehoff]

True

Hey I only said it was "super smooth compared to Success Pond Road"...I have been up many many times with no issues with flat tires or rough rough roads..

Yes. True. I now see that.

 

[ChrisB]

Yes. True. I now see that.

What we need to clarify this issue is the definitive road condx report from TwinMom+1.

What was the road REALLY like TwinMom???

 

[Grey J]

Hey I only said it was "super smooth compared to Success Pond Road"...I have been up many many times with no issues with flat tires or rough rough roads..

Coincidentally, I hiked Success and Sugarloaf on back to back days in August 2019 and the difference in the approach roads was striking. Though certainly not perfectly smooth, Nash Stream Rd was about as level of an unpaved road as you are going to see while Success Pond Rd leading up to the Success trailhead looked like it had been the subject of a sustained mortar attack the night before. It was rutted and cratered and in spots you had to be very careful but it wasn't so bad as to make it unusable.

 

[Andrew]

Coincidentally, I hiked Success and Sugarloaf on back to back days in August 2019 and the difference in the approach roads was striking. Though certainly not perfectly smooth, Nash Stream Rd was about as level of an unpaved road as you are going to see while Success Pond Rd leading up to the Success trailhead looked like it had been the subject of a sustained mortar attack the night before. It was rutted and cratered and in spots you had to be very careful but it wasn't so bad as it to make unusable.

Although you might attribute the better condition of Nash Stream Rd. to the skill of Albert Cloutier and his nephew David, who happen to do the most work on the road, and are the most skilled heavy equipment operators that I ever worked with in the North Country; it has more to do with the better funding opportunities the managers can access there.
The road for the most part can only improve over the years as it is largely in good stable condition, and often repairs have to happen at the places where drainages cross the road from the more often strong freshets that hit. A couple of more recent freshets travelled great lengths of the road beyond the crossings and forced major reconstruction, so you might find the best maintained sections in areas where the road is most at risk.
Albert the last I knew is the president of the Groveton Trailblazers snowmachine club, and chair of the Nash Stream Citizens Committee, so has a vested interest in the integrity of the road and trails in the forest, and is a working man of great integrity himself (so does good honest work). One of his aggregate pits id adjacent to the forest on the SE corner. So being a wholly state owned road and a snowmachine trail, they can access quite a few grants for snowmachine trail maintenance to maximize any additional funding. NH Forest & Lands also invests funds into the road often in cooperation with a grant request- but there is often also non-grant immediate repair $ floating around between club/Trails Bureau/F&L to respond to emergency repair. Since the road is such a major north-south corridor for snowmachine season- problems are not left for long.

You know you can just call the NHF&L office in Lancaster to ask questions about the status of the road. 788-4157 and Maggie is the State Forester and Todd the assistant, although they put in an automated answering system that is a bit tedious. If you were wondering about my water comment- I unfortunately had to help out a broken down snow tractor right over that stream crossing closest to the hiking trail. I was radioed over as I was grooming the Nash Stream Rd. way up past the bog to the north, when I got there my heart sank when I saw all the pink snow. Many hours later I was shocked by how much hydraulic fluid we were returning to the reservoir from multiple gas cans in order to get the tractor to go after finger numbing repairs (sorry I like reading stories of people working in the woods- so naturally enjoy writing them).