Routes that are difficult to clinch

[tribar]

I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned either the Dalton Highway (AK 11) or the Dempster Highway (YT 5/NT 8), considering that my understanding is that you need tires that can handle 400+ miles of unpaved road, a couple of spare tires, and a radio or satellite phone if you want to be able to count on making it back in one piece.  Also, the Dempster has the ferry/ice bridge crossings that are not passable in the spring and fall when the rivers are partially frozen.

You do have a good point. Maybe because they're kind-of obvious choices, as far as Canadian and American highways go? IDK. I think the general thrust of the thread was that of highways in the developed parts of the world that still remain difficult to clinch for reasons other than passing through hundreds of miles of wilderness. I mean, one could list any number of roads in [insert South American or African country here], for example, and probably be right.

Don't forget Siberia.

[jwolfer]

I would say Florida SRA1A.. Its lots of sections and some of the routing is not clear or signed well

LGMS428

[oscar]

I-185.  They have removed the turnaround at the old in-the-median visitor center and therefore you end up at the gate for Fort Benning...

...as I found out last year.

Similar fate for I-781 and Fort Drum, I'd imagine

Nah. There's a turnaround right before the gate, similar to the one at the east end of Interstate H-3 in Hawaii which ends just short of the gate for MCAS Kaneohe. If you must enter the base to snag I-781 (I doubt it), there are facilities and events open to the general public, unless the base is on a heightened alert status. Search for the thread on the completion of I-781 for more on the turnaround, and ways to get on the base.

HI 92 technically ends at the entrance to the Pearl Harbor naval base. However, there is a right turn just before the gate, that you can take if you're not trapped in the left lanes by heavy traffic on the right, and most people consider that "close enough". I was turned around inside the gate, pleading the "lost tourist" excuse. But that was before 9/11, and confusing signage on Interstate H-1 was changed to steer tourists away from the base, so YMMV.

I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned either the Dalton Highway (AK 11) or the Dempster Highway (YT 5/NT 8), considering that my understanding is that you need tires that can handle 400+ miles of unpaved road, a couple of spare tires, and a radio or satellite phone if you want to be able to count on making it back in one piece.  Also, the Dempster has the ferry/ice bridge crossings that are not passable in the spring and fall when the rivers are partially frozen.

Good points. Don't forget that there is no cellphone service on either highway, and very long gaps between gas/diesel stations (240 miles on the Dalton, almost as long on the Dempster) or other traveler services.

But it can be worse up there. Yukon's Canol Road (YT 6) is even worse, a summer-only road that has very little traffic and nobody lives there except perhaps the owners of a summer home (so you need a satphone, else nobody will hear your calls for help). For the ~300-mile round trip on the segment north of Ross River, aside from a free ferry that is open only eight hours a day, you have to deal with continuous potholes, with little "maintenance" other than orange flags marking the potholes most likely to destroy your wheels or suspension. No fuel at all north of Ross River, and the mountain grades and lack of pavement will do a number on your fuel consumption, so bringing a lot of extra fuel (I brought two 25-liter canisters, though not completely filled) would be a good idea.

YT 10, the Nahanni Range Road poses similar challenges, except the nearest fuel pumps are 75 miles south of the beginning of the highway, so you need to bring enough extra fuel for a 410-mile round trip. There's a tungsten mine inside the NWT border that sometimes is open, where you might be able to get refueled, but even if that's possible (call ahead!) it might have only diesel. YT 10 is the only primary Yukon highway I haven't clinched, turning back at Dolly Varden Creek about a quarter of the way in, knowing I didn't have enough fuel to attempt a round trip to the Northwest Territories border.

[formulanone]

I would say Florida SRA1A.. Its lots of sections and some of the routing is not clear or signed well

I think it's doable, but it would take two days to complete, and at least two days to get out of the state, if you need the portion along Key West. Probably best enjoyed if you broke it up over a week...

One's patience would be worn down somewhere around Melbourne (about half of it is 35 miles an hour or below once you get to Stuart). Perhaps if you'd never seen a beach or semi-tropic climate before?

[dgolub]

I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned either the Dalton Highway (AK 11) or the Dempster Highway (YT 5/NT 8), considering that my understanding is that you need tires that can handle 400+ miles of unpaved road, a couple of spare tires, and a radio or satellite phone if you want to be able to count on making it back in one piece.  Also, the Dempster has the ferry/ice bridge crossings that are not passable in the spring and fall when the rivers are partially frozen.

Good points. Don't forget that there is no cellphone service on either highway, and very long gaps between gas/diesel stations (240 miles on the Dalton, almost as long on the Dempster) or other traveler services.

But it can be worse up there. Yukon's Canol Road (YT 6) is even worse, a summer-only road that has very little traffic and nobody lives there except perhaps the owners of a summer home (so you need a satphone, else nobody will hear your calls for help). For the ~300-mile round trip on the segment north of Ross River, aside from a free ferry that is open only eight hours a day, you have to deal with continuous potholes, with little "maintenance" other than orange flags marking the potholes most likely to destroy your wheels or suspension. No fuel at all north of Ross River, and the mountain grades and lack of pavement will do a number on your fuel consumption, so bringing a lot of extra fuel (I brought two 25-liter canisters, though not completely filled) would be a good idea.

YT 10, the Nahanni Range Road poses similar challenges, except the nearest fuel plumps are 75 miles south of the beginning of the highway, so you need to bring enough extra fuel for a 410-mile round trip. There's a tungsten mine inside the NWT border that sometimes is open, where you might be able to get refueled, but even if that's possible (call ahead!) it might have only diesel. YT 10 is the only primary Yukon highway I haven't clinched, turning back at Dolly Varden Creek about a quarter of the way in, knowing I didn't have enough fuel to attempt a round trip to the Northwest Territories border.

That's just so awesome how you're clinched so many routes in the Arctic.

[dgolub]

I would say Florida SRA1A.. Its lots of sections and some of the routing is not clear or signed well

LGMS428

On a similar note, RI 1A has a number of sections that are not all that easy to connect between.

[hotdogPi]

I would say Florida SRA1A.. Its lots of sections and some of the routing is not clear or signed well

LGMS428

On a similar note, RI 1A has a number of sections that are not all that easy to connect between.

That doesn't make it any harder than any other 50-mile minor numbered road.

[sbeaver44]

I'm necro-ing this to say I one-shot clinched US 13 in PA on Sunday, and that was not easy.  A few times (once near University City and once in Chester) I missed a turn because of poor signage.  US 13 in PA is a perfect example of what I started this thread for.  Lots of TOTSOs and poor signage.

49 miles, and it took 2+ hours.  Did love the surviving button copy between US 1 and US 30, though.

Nexus 6P

[TheStranger]

Hopping in this thread for a couple of the previously mentioned California examples:

- The 44 mile gap between the north and south portions of Route 84 is actually mostly covered by existing highways (I-580, Route 4, Route 160 and a brief portion of Route 12) except for 17.6 miles of the county-maintained Vasco Road.  So not too difficult to clinch, but really the two 84s should be different routes.

- The Woodland-Sacramento gap in Route 16 has only existed since 1984; prior to that, the 1964-1984 gap was simply via I-5 and US 50 in town from J Street to Howe Avenue, with the western 16 segment continuing from Woodland eastward along River Road, Sunset Avenue, Sacramento Avenue, and C Street through West Sacramento.  Only since 1984 have the two portions of 16 been so far apart that they really should not be one numbered route.

Other california examples - maybe the most obvious ones - include the roads that have unbuilt portions through the Sierras: Route 168 and Route 190.  Route 169 up in the northwest part of the state has a center segment that got washed out in a 1960s flood and was never rebuilt.  Route 162 does have a road connecting the two segments, but it is the dirt Forest Highway 7 (interestingly enough, the west segment of Route 162 was a separately numbered highway, Route 261, from 1964-1972). And Route 146 has no road access between its two segments (as that is the heart of the Pinnacles National Park).

[swhuck]

CA 169. Two distinct parts, ending in the middle of nowhere. At least the western part can be reached by the well-travelled US-101, but the eastern part can only be reached from CA 96, which doesn't actually go anywhere that humans do. (I have clinched the eastern portion; it's basically a one lane road from nowhere to nowhere, although thankfully it is quite pretty. Never touched the western part.)

I-69W. Ends at the Mexican border on a bridge which accepts commercial traffic only. So, you essentially need both a passport and an 18-wheeler to do it.

[swhuck]

Other california examples - maybe the most obvious ones - include the roads that have unbuilt portions through the Sierras: Route 168 and Route 190.  Route 169 up in the northwest part of the state has a center segment that got washed out in a 1960s flood and was never rebuilt.  Route 162 does have a road connecting the two segments, but it is the dirt Forest Highway 7 (interestingly enough, the west segment of Route 162 was a separately numbered highway, Route 261, from 1964-1972). And Route 146 has no road access between its two segments (as that is the heart of the Pinnacles National Park).

Good call on all of those, and you got 169 in before I did, although I don't think it ever got past the proposed stage. 168 and especially 162 are probably every bit as tough to clinch.

[oscar]

I-69W. Ends at the Mexican border on a bridge which accepts commercial traffic only. So, you essentially need both a passport and an 18-wheeler to do it.

Actually, I-69W ends at a turnaround before the U.S. side of the bridge, that also is the last exit before crossing into Mexico or the commercial traffic-only zone.

The bridge is sometimes closed in off-peak hours. For example, the bridge was closed at the turnaround mentioned above, at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, when I went out to clinch I-69W.

168 and especially 162 are probably every bit as tough to clinch.

The forest road connecting CA 162's segments is not particularly tough. Signs on the eastern segment show distances to at least one destination on the western segment, so it's officially considered to be a manageable trip.

[Max Rockatansky]

Other california examples - maybe the most obvious ones - include the roads that have unbuilt portions through the Sierras: Route 168 and Route 190.  Route 169 up in the northwest part of the state has a center segment that got washed out in a 1960s flood and was never rebuilt.  Route 162 does have a road connecting the two segments, but it is the dirt Forest Highway 7 (interestingly enough, the west segment of Route 162 was a separately numbered highway, Route 261, from 1964-1972). And Route 146 has no road access between its two segments (as that is the heart of the Pinnacles National Park).

Good call on all of those, and you got 169 in before I did, although I don't think it ever got past the proposed stage. 168 and especially 162 are probably every bit as tough to clinch.

168 probably is the toughest considering the extremely rural desert alignment east of the Sierras.  190 was a bastard to complete but I did it gradually over the years by accident. 178 is kind of tough considering how it enters the state from the Nevada State Line.  173 essentially is impossible unless you want to walk the closed section.  39 can be walked on foot, just not legally.

[hbelkins]

In the past year, I finished clinching all Kentucky state routes 1-100. A handful of them were pains due to segmentation.

KY 72 has two discontinuous segments that dead-end, so I had to do out-and-backs on both of them.

KY 87 has two segments that end at the Tennessee state line, requiring either an out-and-back or the use of county roads to connect two segments.

KY 39 has no Kentucky River crossing, KY 92 has no Lake Cumberland crossing, and KY 70 and KY 93 have no Cumberland River crossings.

[OCGuy81]

How about WA 501? Isn't the gap due to a section being washed out by the Columbia?

[compdude787]

How about WA 501? Isn't the gap due to a section being washed out by the Columbia?

Partly that, but more so because it never got built in the first place.

[formulanone]

I would say Florida SRA1A.. Its lots of sections and some of the routing is not clear or signed well

I think it's doable, but it would take two days to complete, and at least two days to get out of the state, if you need the portion along Key West. Probably best enjoyed if you broke it up over a week...

One's patience would be worn down somewhere around Melbourne (about half of it is 35 miles an hour or below once you get to Stuart). Perhaps if you'd never seen a beach or semi-tropic climate before?

I weaved a few dozen points on Google Maps - at 6am in the morning - and found that it takes approximately 15 hours 50 minutes to go from the "start" of A1A in Callahan, Florida to the section in Key West. I used the fastest route between the sections in some places, US 1 for most of it, but used CR A1A from Stuart to Hobe Sound because it's vaguely more direct. I did not include the CR A1A portion south of SR 44 because that would involve a dead end and backing out from the same route. Add about 90 minutes if you want to include it.

There's construction between FL 810 and FL 844, so I added 10 minutes to the US 1 routing; I've driven that parts dozens of times; only one stop light but a lower overall speed limit. There's also the chances you'll have to deal with drawbridges for inlets and each time you cross the Intracoastal Waterway for some of the older and smaller spans. So add on 5-10 minutes each time that happens, although some narrower passes such as the Hillsboro Inlet can back up for 15-20 minutes on a two-lane road.

Again, this is from plotting it at 6 in the morning. You'll get different results depending on when you start...or if you choose a weekend or during the sunnier times of year. But any driving taking that long means hitting traffic somewhere. Realistically, give yourself 19 hours. It depends on meal breaks, bathroom breaks, and sightseeing.  There's not enough sunlight in a Florida day, not even at the Summer Solstice, to make it all the way to Key West via A1A. You probably don't want to drive on Overseas Highway at night (you'd miss out on a lot), so best to break that trip up to two days.

[Max Rockatansky]

I would say Florida SRA1A.. Its lots of sections and some of the routing is not clear or signed well

I think it's doable, but it would take two days to complete, and at least two days to get out of the state, if you need the portion along Key West. Probably best enjoyed if you broke it up over a week...

One's patience would be worn down somewhere around Melbourne (about half of it is 35 miles an hour or below once you get to Stuart). Perhaps if you'd never seen a beach or semi-tropic climate before?

I weaved a few dozen points on Google Maps - at 6am in the morning - and found that it takes approximately 15 hours 50 minutes to go from the "start" of A1A in Callahan, Florida to the section in Key West. I used the fastest route between the sections in some places, US 1 for most of it, but used CR A1A from Stuart to Hobe Sound because it's vaguely more direct. I did not include the CR A1A portion south of SR 44 because that would involve a dead end and backing out from the same route. Add about 90 minutes if you want to include it.

There's construction between FL 810 and FL 844, so I added 10 minutes to the US 1 routing; I've driven that parts dozens of times; only one stop light but a lower overall speed limit. There's also the chances you'll have to deal with drawbridges for inlets and each time you cross the Intracoastal Waterway for some of the older and smaller spans. So add on 5-10 minutes each time that happens, although some narrower passes such as the Hillsboro Inlet can back up for 15-20 minutes on a two-lane road.

Again, this is from plotting it at 6 in the morning. You'll get different results depending on when you start...or if you choose a weekend or during the sunnier times of year. But any driving taking that long means hitting traffic somewhere. Realistically, give yourself 19 hours. It depends on meal breaks, bathroom breaks, and sightseeing.  There's not enough sunlight in a Florida day, not even at the Summer Solstice, to make it all the way to Key West via A1A. You probably don't want to drive on Overseas Highway at night (you'd miss out on a lot), so best to break that trip up to two days.

A night time drive on US 1 on the Overseas Highway at night can be amazing if the sky is clear which it tends to be.  I used leave my house at 3 AM so I would miss the traffic on US 1 and Florida's Turnpike, it's actually incredibly scenic and surprisingly fun with no tourists. 

I'll second A1A being obtainable, especially for a Florida resident.  I just took a section at a time and managed to finish it back in 2013. 

[jwolfer]

Agreed on a clear night.  Amazing with a full moon

Moto Z2 Play

[djsekani]

Add CA-39 and CA-90 to the list. CA-39 has the gap between Whitter and Azusa as well as the closed off north end. CA-90 also has two segments, but there's no clear path connecting them.

Seconding FL-A1A being kind of a pain, since it's mostly just a neighborhood street that just happens to run along a body of water.

[Sykotyk]

Agreed on a clear night.  Amazing with a full moon

Moto Z2 Play

Did a lot of highway clinching one weekend. Got to the Keys by nightfall. Drove all the way to Key West. Stopped to eat. Sat and I actually pulled off the road just northeast of Key West where there was a pull off. Slept in the car. Listened to the sound of the ocean. Woke up, the key I was on was so small at that point that I could see the Atlantic and Gulf from the car when I woke up. Greatest morning wakeup ever.

[paulthemapguy]

In Illinois, a difficult state route to clinch is IL-108, because you have to cross the Kampsville Ferry over the Illinois River.

[Finrod]

Georgia 20 is one route that no one would be likely to clinch unless done purposefully; it makes a giant mirror-image C around the Atlanta metro area, and it's a slog the entire way.

I would think US 6 would be a difficult one to clinch, since not only is it a transcontinental highway modulo the decommissioned part in California, the terrain varies widely and it doesn't really go anywhere that many people would want to go.  From the wikipedia article about US 6:

US 6 does not serve a major transcontinental corridor, unlike other highways. George R. Stewart, author of U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States of America, initially considered US 6, but realized that "Route 6 runs uncertainly from nowhere to nowhere, scarcely to be followed from one end to the other, except by some devoted eccentric". In the famous "beat" novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac, protagonist Sal Paradise actually considers hitchhiking on US 6 to Nevada, but is told by a driver that "there's no traffic passes through 6" and that he'd be better off going via Pittsburgh (the Pennsylvania Turnpike).

[oscar]

I would think US 6 would be a difficult one to clinch, since not only is it a transcontinental highway modulo the decommissioned part in California, the terrain varies widely and it doesn't really go anywhere that many people would want to go.  From the wikipedia article about US 6:

US 6 does not serve a major transcontinental corridor, unlike other highways. George R. Stewart, author of U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States of America, initially considered US 6, but realized that "Route 6 runs uncertainly from nowhere to nowhere, scarcely to be followed from one end to the other, except by some devoted eccentric". In the famous "beat" novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac, protagonist Sal Paradise actually considers hitchhiking on US 6 to Nevada, but is told by a driver that "there's no traffic passes through 6" and that he'd be better off going via Pittsburgh (the Pennsylvania Turnpike).

Your guess is a good one. Only one Travel Mapping user has clinched US 6 from end to end.

In Nevada, US 6 is an even lonelier road than the "loneliest highway" US 50.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Is there a way to see stats for an overall US route rather than just by its individual state mileages?