About Tim Rowland

Tim Rowland is a columnist, author and outdoors writer living in Jay.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. gebby says

    Surprise, surprise. First, take all the roadside parking away and other parking areas. Second, permit parking at the Ausable Club. Then don’t supply a viable shuttle system. Hey, NY, why don’t you look at New Hampshire and the Franconia Notch where they did not take away the parking UNTIL a shuttle system was up and running!

  2. Zephyr says

    The goal now appears to be to make hiking from Rt 73 so miserable that nobody will want to do it, thereby reducing numbers and impacts. Let’s see, the major problem is parking, so eliminate parking, don’t provide an alternate means of getting to the trailheads, require parking permits that will be impossible to get on busy weekends, then add steel posts blocking off the shoulders to make the road even more dangerous, and add major road construction. Sounds like a plan!

  3. Boreas says

    The shuttles were a feel-good, knee-jerk reaction to a complicated problem. They were purchased before any kind of long-term plan had been formulated. Of course, COVID was another major complication for ridership. Their usage will create as many problems as they solve until an actual long-term hiker plan is devised and implemented. We aren’t even close to a plan.

    • Aaron says

      Having nothing is worse than having something, even if it’s a knee-jerk reaction. The shuttles would at least have demonstrated some action in a positive direction, even if still inconvenient and limited. Now the DEC has, yet again, for the third time in six weeks, made a unilateral decision without consulting with the community the decision will impact. What’s more galling is that they put those delineators up knowing that they were going to postpone shuttle service for another year and made no mention of it during the forum in Keene last Monday, so all this talk of transparency and cooperation is nonsense.

    • Melissa Hart says

      Funny you should mention that….we’re planning a feature on that shuttle, as a story that we’ll run this summer. Thanks for sharing the link!

      • gebby says

        It took a while. I’ve been sharing links about the Franconia Notch shuttle with almost every article about this parking debacle on 73!

  4. J says

    So when and how can we sue?

    Sure seems like enough evidence that the club/whoever they paid off at the DEC and Keene are intentionally restricting access.

    Time to eminent domain their golf course

    • Zephyr says

      The perfect parking area would be the AMR property. The state should take it over and make it into the High Peaks Visitor Center the region deserves.

    • Aaron says

      The Town of Keene has nothing to do with any of these decisions beyond just being steamrolled by the DEC.

  5. no hike for you! one year says

    Wow! What a bunch of incompetent idiots. Looks like Basil Exposition and the gang decided it’s too dangerous to drive on RT 73. I think I’ll try that with my boss. I’ll tell him I can’t work anymore because it’s too dangerous to drive in. Are you going to return all the grant money the state gave you to run the shuttles?

  6. Dum-Dum Driver says

    Too dangerous to turn around the shuttles, and need another year to plan and ‘study’ how to do it??! This is insane beauracracy. How can anyone make such a big deal about a simple decision! No wonder America is falling behind in so many metrics, because no one can do anything! I’ll tell you how to solve the problem, turn around in the AMR parking lot. Going to go up to Chapel Pond and too worried about turning around there? Then turn around at that crazy loopy Elizabethtown intersection. And also Turn around at the Marcy Field Parking Lot, and also drive through and stop at the Roostercomb and Garden Parking lots. There, problem solved.

    • Zephyr says

      They can’t use the AMR parking lot for a turnaround because the whole point of this fiasco is to keep the riffraff from disturbing members of the exclusive Ausable Club. They don’t want any bus dropping people off or picking people up. Are any local officials in the loop on these decisions? They should be getting an earful from their constituents.

  7. D'oh says

    Seems like they had the entire year to “figure this out” but they waited until just recently to actually prove out the route. Great planning! But wait…they ran shuttles before and never mentioned any turnaround problem that I recall. hmmmm

    • Zephyr says

      Most people would figure out the route and feasibility of a shuttle system prior to purchasing the shuttles. I hope someone is maintaining those vehicles and running them periodically or they will not be in good shape after sitting for two years.

  8. Brian Sullivan says

    I believe the word “FUBAR” was coined during WW II to describe situations just like this.
    Nevertheless, the so-called “Greatest Generation” managed to defeat Hitler and go on to put men on the moon.

    Now it seems that the current generation can’t even figure out how to drive a shuttle bus, never mind do a three point turn.

    The most charitable explanation I can think of is that COVID-19 left everyone at DEC & DOT with a permanent case of the dreaded “brain fog”.

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