[southerngurl]

We were told by a woman at the forestry office (about !5 years ago) that the forstry dept. did NOT have any obligation to maintain their roads if they decided not too. I reackon she said that because we had mentioned that we were thinking of building a house on our land.

Our land is off to one side of the forestry road, which is only way to get there. How can I find out if what she said is true? If the forestry does not maintain the road from washouts, is there any way someone could get it turned over to the county? Or is this going to be our expense to maintain 1.5 mile of the road?

Thanks for any information you can give us. We may not build a house, just put a small camp there for winter deer hunting. Also, there will not be electric there, maybe small solar, if anything. Discouraged about the whole mess.

There is only one other deer camp down this road, just the forest, no campsites, fishing, etc.

[RogMar]

Originally Posted by southerngurl

We were told by a woman at the forestry office (about !5 years ago) that the forstry dept. did NOT have any obligation to maintain their roads if they decided not too. I reackon she said that because we had mentioned that we were thinking of building a house on our land.

Our land is off to one side of the forestry road, which is only way to get there. How can I find out if what she said is true? If the forestry does not maintain the road from washouts, is there any way someone could get it turned over to the county? Or is this going to be our expense to maintain 1.5 mile of the road?

Thanks for any information you can give us. We may not build a house, just put a small camp there for winter deer hunting. Also, there will not be electric there, maybe small solar, if anything. Discouraged about the whole mess.

There is only one other deer camp down this road, just the forest, no campsites, fishing, etc.

No, forestry does not have to maintain the road.

You are outlining a situation that many of us have dealt with. The bottom line is if you want peace, soltitude, and mother nature, you are going to have more responsibilities.

If you want to build a house there, you're certainly going to want electricity, and most electric companies won't run it until you have a foundation in place.

If you did build a house, and you want to take care of the road, a tractor with a grading blade does a fine job, that's what I and all around me use.

If you just want to set it up as deer camp, that doesn't take much. I know a number of them that have an outhouse and no running water.

You might want to think about what you're undertaking. The rural lifestyle is certainly not for everybody.

Above all, get a 4 X 4 with some good tires on it. Come spring, this ground will have frozen/thawed a number of times, and the "soil", composed of clay and silt loam which is normally like concrete, will turn to pure mush. When that happens, if you don't have 4WD, you're not going very far.

Now, that's what *we* call fun!!

[southerngurl]

the road starts out with flat land on both sides, then there is a ig mountain it winds around for about a mile. What I am mainly concerned with is the rain/water gushing down the mountain in several spots and maybe eroding the road. Since the start of the road looks like dirt, latter looks like mostly rock, not concerned with grading as there is no gravel on it to grade. Might find a few good size rocks on it or a few trees down. No problem there. Just concerned with washing out.

Rural life suits me fine. Not hearing traffic, the privacy means a lot to me. We need a lower stress type of life before the ratrace kills us.

Putting electric in for 1.5 miles would be way too much money we're willing to pay. Could pay for nice size solar system with that money. NOT having electric there would discourage others from moving there and destroying any peace and quiet there is. Plus I don't think we are willing to pay for other peoples electric to be accessible for no expense to them at all.

[ArkansasSlim]

Everything RogMar wrote is correct. The forest service does not even own any road maintaining equipment. If for some reason they need to use one of their roads and it needs to be repaired, they have to contract it out. There are a few main roads across the forest that are "county owned", but not many. The rest of the roads are for the purpose of timber access and access for fire fighting.

And that's another thing you need to be aware of. If you build "in the woods" without a wide fire break around your structure, the possibility of loosing it to a forest fire is great. So, with all that in mind, good luck and enjoy. If I was in the market for something like this, your property is exactly what I would look for. I would get me a good high clearance 4WD and tell people; "Welcome, if you can find me, and get there"

[RogMar]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

Everything RogMar wrote is correct. The forest service does not even own any road maintaining equipment. If for some reason they need to use one of their roads and it needs to be repaired, they have to contract it out. There are a few main roads across the forest that are "county owned", but not many. The rest of the roads are for the purpose of timber access and access for fire fighting.

And that's another thing you need to be aware of. If you build "in the woods" without a wide fire break around your structure, the possibility of loosing it to a forest fire is great. So, with all that in mind, good luck and enjoy. If I was in the market for something like this, your property is exactly what I would look for. I would get me a good high clearance 4WD and tell people; "Welcome, if you can find me, and get there"

Zacto mundo, Slim.

For the O.P., good luck on that Solar system. I've seen others do that, and $30k in they're still not there. You'd probably want to invest in a couple of large generators, at least 7-8 kilowatts. Most run around $1100 each.

Yes, it's not cheap to get the electricity run to you, I had to write the check also, but if anyone builds and taps on to that line, you get your money back. Nobody's going to ride your checkbook.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by RogMar

Zacto mundo, Slim.

For the O.P., good luck on that Solar system. I've seen others do that, and $30k in they're still not there. You'd probably want to invest in a couple of large generators, at least 7-8 kilowatts. Most run around $1100 each.

Yes, it's not cheap to get the electricity run to you, I had to write the check also, but if anyone builds and taps on to that line, you get your money back. Nobody's going to ride your checkbook.

Solar works fine if you use energy efficient appliances, etc. Independence is worth more than convenience anyways.