Routes that are difficult to clinch

[froggie]

^ For an individual user, yes.  But not for all users at once.

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 84 since it is in two inconveniently places segments; one which slogs trough the Bay Area and the other over a ferry route. 

[hbelkins]

...US 6 ... doesn't really go anywhere that many people would want to go.

Cape Cod, Providence, Hartford, Bear Mountain, "the Grand Canyon of the East," Chicagoland (Joliet), Des Moines, Omaha, Denver, Glenwood Canyon. Hardly obscure places.

[oscar]

...US 6 ... doesn't really go anywhere that many people would want to go.

Cape Cod, Providence, Hartford, Bear Mountain, "the Grand Canyon of the East," Chicagoland (Joliet), Des Moines, Omaha, Denver, Glenwood Canyon. Hardly obscure places.

OTOH, you have to be pretty compulsive to clinch the whole route, or even major portions of it except for specific destinations, rather than stay on the Interstates that parallel most of the route.

Cameron Kaiser did it all in summer 2006.

[hbelkins]

...US 6 ... doesn't really go anywhere that many people would want to go.

Cape Cod, Providence, Hartford, Bear Mountain, "the Grand Canyon of the East," Chicagoland (Joliet), Des Moines, Omaha, Denver, Glenwood Canyon. Hardly obscure places.

OTOH, you have to be pretty compulsive to clinch the whole route, or even major portions of it except for specific destinations, rather than stay on the Interstates that parallel most of the route.

Cameron Kaiser did it all in summer 2006.

I remember that, and I wish his site fully covered the trip and didn't stop after Utah.

In all honesty, US 6 is one of the routes that I really would like to drive from end to end. I think it would be interesting because it covers such varied terrain.

[cpzilliacus]

I have not seen any mention of VA-42 upthread, which is chopped up into three segments.

Not so far away, the Blue Ridge Parkway can be closed during the winter season for the usual reasons in both Virginia and North Carolina.  Otherwise, it's just long

Then there's the matter of Quebec Route 138 (I have been on a few parts of this long ago).

From the U.S. border to Kegashka is long but possible, then there are several isolated segments that are not connected to other roads (one at La Romaine, maybe another at Chevery, another at Tête-à-la-Baleine, and maybe at La Tabatière). These appear to be reachable by coastal ferry.

The section from Old Fort (Vieux Fort), Quebec and east connects to the North American road network across Labrador.

[Beltway]

Clinch NC-12.  Several sections, a short ferry, a long ferry, and the long deadend to Corolla.

[hbelkins]

I have not seen any mention of VA-42 upthread, which is chopped up into three segments.

I actually have that route clinched, although not in one sitting. It's possible to drive between the disjointed segments via secondary routes, if I'm not mistaken, although I never attempted to do that.

[Mapmikey]

I have not seen any mention of VA-42 upthread, which is chopped up into three segments.

I actually have that route clinched, although not in one sitting. It's possible to drive between the disjointed segments via secondary routes, if I'm not mistaken, although I never attempted to do that.

Yes this is readily done...

Between the southern and central segment you use SR 730 which is a non-stop carnival of 25 mph curves, despite little change in elevation. 

Between the central and northern segment you use SR 615 to Eagle Rock to pick up US 220 north.  SR 615 is fairly decent and can be driven at near 55 mph in many places with the occasional 35-40 mph curve.

[Gnutella]

U.S. 64 in North Carolina. It's more than 600 miles long, changes direction several times, has many different segments built to vastly different standards, and doesn't pass through any major city other than Raleigh.

[oscar]

Any of the highways that take you through a National Park in mountainous areas.  In the winter, it's impassable due to snow; in the summer, it's a pain to navigate through the crowds piling into the park.  Possible examples include CA-120, UT-9, US2 in Montana, and anything passing through Yellowstone.

CA 120 officially ends at the national park's west boundary, and resumes at the east boundary. You still have to contend with the crowds, especially at the west boundary, but you can turn around before paying the stiff park entry fee. Of course, the detour needed to get to the rest of CA 120 is no cakewalk either, unless you can do the two segments on separate trips.

Similar situations for the US routes that officially end at the Yellowstone boundary, some of which restart on the other side (US 212, US 14, and US 16 simply end at the boundary, no need to go through or around the park to clinch).

US 2 in Montana runs south of Glacier National Park.

[Max Rockatansky]

Any of the highways that take you through a National Park in mountainous areas.  In the winter, it's impassable due to snow; in the summer, it's a pain to navigate through the crowds piling into the park.  Possible examples include CA-120, UT-9, US2 in Montana, and anything passing through Yellowstone.

CA 120 officially ends at the national park's west boundary, and resumes at the east boundary. You still have to contend with the crowds, especially at the west boundary, but you can turn around before paying the stiff park entry fee. Of course, the detour needed to get to the rest of CA 120 is no cakewalk either, unless you can do the two segments on separate trips.

Similar situations for the US routes that officially end at the Yellowstone boundary, some of which restart on the other side (US 212, US 14, and US 16 simply end at the boundary, no need to go through or around the park to clinch).

US 2 in Montana runs south of Glacier National Park.

And to make matters even more difficult CA 120 between US 395 and US 6 closes in the winter.  That said the route is quite doable if you hit it from the start either east from I-5 or west from US 6.  I'd personally rank routes like CA 4 given the massive length and incredibly difficult grade in the Sierras. 

[paulthemapguy]

Any of the highways that take you through a National Park in mountainous areas.  In the winter, it's impassable due to snow; in the summer, it's a pain to navigate through the crowds piling into the park.  Possible examples include CA-120, UT-9, US2 in Montana, and anything passing through Yellowstone.

CA 120 officially ends at the national park's west boundary, and resumes at the east boundary. You still have to contend with the crowds, especially at the west boundary, but you can turn around before paying the stiff park entry fee. Of course, the detour needed to get to the rest of CA 120 is no cakewalk either, unless you can do the two segments on separate trips.

Similar situations for the US routes that officially end at the Yellowstone boundary, some of which restart on the other side (US 212, US 14, and US 16 simply end at the boundary, no need to go through or around the park to clinch).

US 2 in Montana runs south of Glacier National Park.

I should have specified that I was talking about the crowds of traffic on the ROADS TO AND FROM the national parks.  Those can royally screw you over in the summer months.  For example, I spent two hours waiting in traffic on CA-120 in July 2016, to finally reach our parking space inside Yosemite National Park (a 2-hr drive turned into a 4-hr drive).  The roads leading into and out of the park can be really difficult to cover because of the traffic heading in and out, regardless if you're technically within the park boundaries or not.  And good luck getting from one segment of a highway to the other if there's a national park between them without going through the park directly; the nearest detour route could take many hours to traverse.

[TheGrassGuy]

I'll bet that there are hundreds of these in China. Just go to Google Maps (or Baidu Maps), zoom in to some mountain or rural area, and look for any route with a number that's twisty. China's numbered roads are not legislated, let alone signed, inside urban areas, so maintenance gaps are rife. It's also extremely difficult to legally drive in China; you need a Chinese license, and a decent vehicle (hopefully 4wd). And the drivers in China are hell. Thankfully, Google Maps is the only Google service not blocked in China... but only for the Chinese edition. So good luck getting anywhere if you don't know Chinese. Even so, it is very inaccurate for mapping China: routes haphazardly routed through urban cores where no signage exists, routes splitting in half, highways under construction that just terminate in the middle of nowhere with no interchange, you name it.

My favorites:
* Fujian S201: several disjoined segments along the coast, like FL-A1A on steroids
* Inner Mongolia S213: It starts out near Bayan Nur, which is already a great deal away from everyone else, at a junction with a national highway, at two places according to Google Maps. Good luck figuring out which one is real. You're then going to have to pray that you don't screw up at the next such split, because that one dead ends. And if you do take the right way this time, you'll have to follow the route through poorly signed turns and mountain ranges... only for it to end in god-knows-where several dozen kilos later.
* G219: remote, runs through no major cities, unpaved in many places, runs through Xinjiang, Tibet, and the disputed region of Aksai Chin (see below for evidence as to why this is so difficult), 2,086 km long, and up to 5,050 km high. Why on earth would anyone even dare to try clinch this one?
* G318: the longest national road in China at 5,476 km, from Shanghai to the Nepal border. A lot of high altitude sections, many twists and turns, and good luck even getting permission to enter Tibet, a region officially closed to road travel to foreigners due to political unrest. Even if you manage to do all of the above, it might all be for nothing, as the final stretch to the border is intermittently open due to hazardous rockfall (landslides have also turned the border towns to ghost towns). I'm not even sure if there's any place to make a U-turn there! As such, I believe that G318 wins the golden crown for "hardest road in the world to clinch".

[vdeane]

I'll bet that there are hundreds of these in China. Just go to Google Maps (or Baidu Maps), zoom in to some mountain or rural area, and look for any route with a number that's twisty. China's numbered roads are not legislated, let alone signed, inside urban areas, so maintenance gaps are rife. It's also extremely difficult to legally drive in China; you need a Chinese license, and a decent vehicle (hopefully 4wd). And the drivers in China are hell. Thankfully, Google Maps is the only Google service not blocked in China... but only for the Chinese edition. So good luck getting anywhere if you don't know Chinese. Even so, it is very inaccurate for mapping China: routes haphazardly routed through urban cores where no signage exists, routes splitting in half, highways under construction that just terminate in the middle of nowhere with no interchange, you name it.

My favorites:
* Fujian S201: several disjoined segments along the coast, like FL-A1A on steroids
* Inner Mongolia S213: It starts out near Bayan Nur, which is already a great deal away from everyone else, at a junction with a national highway, at two places according to Google Maps. Good luck figuring out which one is real. You're then going to have to pray that you don't screw up at the next such split, because that one dead ends. And if you do take the right way this time, you'll have to follow the route through poorly signed turns and mountain ranges... only for it to end in god-knows-where several dozen kilos later.
* G219: remote, runs through no major cities, unpaved in many places, runs through Xinjiang, Tibet, and the disputed region of Aksai Chin (see below for evidence as to why this is so difficult), 2,086 km long, and up to 5,050 km high. Why on earth would anyone even dare to try clinch this one?
* G318: the longest national road in China at 5,476 km, from Shanghai to the Nepal border. A lot of high altitude sections, many twists and turns, and good luck even getting permission to enter Tibet, a region officially closed to road travel to foreigners due to political unrest. Even if you manage to do all of the above, it might all be for nothing, as the final stretch to the border is intermittently open due to hazardous rockfall (landslides have also turned the border towns to ghost towns). I'm not even sure if there's any place to make a U-turn there! As such, I believe that G318 wins the golden crown for "hardest road in the world to clinch".

I presume, however, that a Chinese citizen wouldn't have many of these issues, seeing as they would have a Chinese licence, would be able to read Chinese, use Baidu maps instead of Google, etc.  Those landslides could certainly put G318 on the list, however.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

G219 is being extended to become the longest National Highway in China, as it is planned to run from the tiny section of Russian border between Kazakhstan and Mongolia near Kanas lake, Xinjiang all the way to where the Vietnamese border meets the sea near Dongxing, Guangxi Zhuangzu. It is one of three highways planned to go around the contour of China along with G228 (the coastal highway) and G331.

About Inner Mongolia S213, of the two routes Mr. Google has through Shanba (often labelled Hanggin Front banner), the bypass is the correct one, and is the only marked one in Baidu Maps (Which has messed up the numbering and has the first few km as S312, which is the road the Middle of Nowhere expressway, or G7 Beijing-Xinjiang expressway, parallels). As a rule of thumb, if Mr. Google shows two routes for a highway, the newer is the correct one.

The routes not being defined in urban areas thing also happens in Spain. So good luck clinching any National Highway going through several provincial capitals, especially if bypassed by a freeway. But my favorite route to throw onto this thread is not a National Highway (it's a 2nd order regional road) and is not that long (just 30 miles), but what a poorly maintained road it is. That coupled with the fact it is narrow and twisty, one just wants to turn around and never get again into that road. A-1604 in Huesca province.

[TheGrassGuy]

A particularly egregious example of Google Maps being outdated in China: in Zhejiang province (and a few others, I'm sure), literally every provincial at-grade road is wrong. They're marked with what I believe is an old numbering system for the province's routes, having two digits and using the same route markers as the provincial expressways. However, Zhejiang actually uses dark yellow three-digit routes, just like the other provinces. And yes, the correct route numbers do appear on the roads, but they are not immediately visible except at very close distances, making the determination of a Zhejiang provincial router's current number a real pain. It's been like that on Google Maps for a while now, but not on Chinese mapping websites.

See, that's the thing about China's road system. Unlike the US, where it can take years, if not decades, to get any meaningful construction done, China updates its road and expressway network on a consistent yearly, or even monthly basis. They construct new expressways, bridges, and tunnels (often breaking world records in the process, thereby attracting global news outlets); shuffle around the existing roadways; and assign new numbers to old roads, often involving an upgrade from provincial to national maintenance. I'm not exaggerating a single bit when I say that China's road network is far superior to ours. In fact, if I were in charge of it all, the first thing that I'd do would be to hereby nominate good old Fritz for the noble post of my loyal assistant.

(Not to say, of course, that what China's doing here is better than what we're doing. It's pretty obvious that we take factors such as NIMBYs, urban sprawl issues, and environmental concerns into much more consideration when proposing updates to the roads than China does.)

[Bruce]

Technically WA 339, since it is a passenger ferry (water taxi) that generally runs only during rush hours. During the winter sailing season, it only runs six times a day (with an hour between departures).

The ferry was originally state-run (hence why it was designated in the first place), but was transferred to the county government.

[TheGrassGuy]

Clinch NC-12.  Several sections, a short ferry, a long ferry, and the long deadend to Corolla.

That's actually quite a popular road trip route (well, maybe except for the dead end to Corolla ). In any case though, it's boring but easy, far from the hardest on this list.

[texaskdog]

I was driving up MN 210 in Jay Cooke State Park one year.  The road was so slippery (and it wasn't even very snowy out) that I couldn't get up the hill, and had to maneuver back around to go back to the east side, it was just too steep!