Road status - northern N.H.

[srhigham]

Here is a link to the official road status page (gate list) for northern N.H. It's useful this time of year.


http://www.nhstateparks.org/uploads/pdf/CLHWF_Gates-Status.pdf

 

[Hillwalker]

Yes, except that it is dated April 16th, and it is now May 18th. Things have changed substantially.

 

[srhigham]

Yes, except that it is dated April 16th, and it is now May 18th. Things have changed substantially.

My assumption is that it is official until they update it, and that things have not changed at all.

 

[Jazzbo]

Yahoo!!!!!!!! Bear Notch Road is open!!!! so says Trails NH. Good time to take a day off from daily drudge for a visit to Sable and Chandler before the ferns and hobble bush leaf out on Monday. Water crossings on Slippery Brook should be interesting on Monday. Bear Notch Road is a nice road to have open enables access to so many nice areas from my base camp in Plymouth.

 

[Salty]

Yes, except that it is dated April 16th, and it is now May 18th. Things have changed substantially.

They are usually very good about updates, so I would expect everything is still closed. I think in the next week or two (season dependent, of course) is about the time you start to see some roads opening.

 

[Salty]

Many roads now open, at a glance it appears to be mostly as expected, the major roads to certain points. Good news for me, supposed to go fishing up there in less than 3 weeks, and hopefully squeeze in a hike or two.

https://www.nhstateparks.org/uploads/pdf/CLHWF_Gates-Status-5-24-18.pdf

Main link: https://www.nhstateparks.org/visit/state-parks/connecticut-lakes-headwaters-working-forest.aspx

Be aware that this time of year (albeit my June experience is limited) that the roads can be very rough until they get in there to grade, etc. Getting to Boundary Pond as well as the Perry Ponds parking made Success Pond Road look like a breeze (was astounded to see a couple passenger cars at a camp), and I needed to chainsaw on Perry Stream Road.

 

[peakbagger]

Now if they could just come up with map that corresponds to the road numbers the reports would be real useful.

 

[Salty]

I struggled with that for some time as well, but was able to put the pieces together through a couple sources. The gates are shown here (and at other sources at the main site):
https://www.nhstateparks.org/uploads/pdf/Rec-Features-Facilities_2016.pdf

The numbers in that document correspond with the last two numbers of the gate status doc. So gate 12 in the map is really gate 112. I seem to remember they changed the numbering system some time ago from mostly 2 digits to 3.

I ended up making a kml file of where the roads (some with the numbering) and gates are at (with some guesswork involved). If anyone wants it, PM me. So far, it's worked pretty well for me.

 

[srhigham]

Besides the cryptic gate numbers, there are several other things they do that are not helpful in us getting and using this info:

Road numbers paired with road names are also not publicized.
The road closure updates do not have a consistent file name, and have no link that I can see from the main page.

Makes all this more mysterious than it needs to be.