Mud Season

[jhetley]

"Mud Season" has struck Maine with its usual force, turning gravel roads into quagmires and sloughs of despond. Freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw, you need a vehicle on the order of an old army-surplus "deuce-and-a-half" to navigate. Which means that folks who live down dirt roads, for the duration, no longer have mail delivery, school bus service, ambulance or police or fire coverage.

This comes as a surprise to some people.

Maybe, along with lead-based paint and asbestos disclosures and structure inspections, the real-estate people need to include "dirt road warnings" in any sales agreement.

Comments

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

On behalf of our local ambulance crews, I have to say that they always try their damnedest to get up the road, even if they have to slog the last part of the way on foot. But yeah, it's a tough time of the year for those way-out-the-hell-and-gone calls. At least in the depths of winter the crews can take the snowmobile rescue sled in if they have to.

(And you speak jokingly of Army surplus deuce-and-a-half trucks, but one of our local friends who lives on a road like one you're describing actually owns one.)

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I think I'd prefer to own a Uni-mog. We used to live down one of those roads but down in NC you only have a problem during hurricane season. That's easily cleared in a few days with the help of a chain saw.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

You thought that was a joke? We have property (not our residence) down a dirt road. I left a 4WD pickup sitting on its axles, one spring. The road _looked_ okay. 99% of it _was_ okay. Took a farm tractor to pull us out...

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Roads are pretty forward. My great-grandfather's house was built to be accessed by boat. The road was a later addition.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

There are a fair number of "camps" in Maine that can only be reached by water or on foot, plus all the island places. People expect some isolation there, even want it.

The problem comes up most with new places built on back roads, where the buyers expect to mix city-level services with the peace and beauty of the Great North Woods.