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«I’ve never seen road this bad› The mud season is a nightmare for drivers and causes tow trucks to be swamped. Thetford — How do you feel about the gravel roads this time of year? Georgeann Faller will tell you. Faller is the child care worker who returned from a shopping trip to West Lebanon on Wednesday night with her dog and boyfriend 12 years old Chihuahua named Oliver, at the time that the 2003 Nissan Sentra got stuck in the mud along Quinnipiac Road a couple of miles from her home in Thetford. The phone didn’t have reception; therefore, they walked through the night light — carrying Oliver to their home located on Potato Hill Road, where they could contact AAA. After a few hours, a tow truck pulled up and towed the car out of the mud just before midnight. Thursday morning, The mud patches were so bad that a couple called in from work to avoid driving. «I’ve been in this area for seven years, and I’ve never experienced roads this way previously,» Faller said. «But people I speak to who have lived here for a long time say that this is how it was.» However, the tale wasn’t finished. When the couple returned to join the rat race, her vehicle was struck in the mud once more, and this time, in Robinson Hill Road, the couple was unable to get a signal on their cell phones. So they took her boyfriend’s vehicle to a nearby store, in which they were able to get an indication to dial AAA again; however, the Thetford police officer pushed the tow truck and found the car. It is stated that Northern New England has five seasons: autumn, summer, winter, mud, and spring. When the snow melts and the ground warms, the road surfaces that are dirt — which are technically known as gravel roads to differentiate them from paved roads are oozing with a gelatinous mush that could imprison vehicles in suction traps. Road officials and tow company owners say this year’s mud season is very ugly, and there’s a good reason for it. The temperature in March has fluctuated from sub-zero, from where they were throughout winter, and into the low 60s and warming the surface. However, the ground is frozen just a few inches below the surface. This frozen layer creates an airtight seal, which forces the groundwater upwards, transforming roads into mud pads, as explained by Ted Kenyon, a contractor who claims to have taken four cars using his tractor out of the mud on Dairy Hill Road in South Royalton. «I’m age 80 and have lived here for 55 years and have not seen roads as terrible,» Kenyon said Saturday, noting that «all the residents are happy» that he’s available to assist in the free vehicle rescue mission. Additionally, he «as as a service» manages Dairy Hill Road using his collection of heavy-duty equipment. Since Wednesday from Wednesday, alerts flooded Upper Valley social media groups and community Listservs with the latest information concerning the roads you should avoid. Three vehicles stopped at Turnpike Road in South Strafford on Friday; Wrights Mountain Avenue in Bradford «destroyed»; West Farms Road in Canaan «like quicksand»; Godfrey Road in Thetford «getting quite horrible»; White Brook Road in Sharon «the worst I’ve ever seen in my life»; Beaver Meadow Road from Sharon to Norwich «horrid on both ends» cautions against «actually all roads made of dirt that are in Cornish.» The town of Woodstock, Elijah Lemieux, «in my first season of mud» as director of public works, stated that he and two other team members were out Friday evening, tackling the mud patches along town roads and, on Saturday, had to shut off Prosper Road between Route 4 and Route 12 to allow through traffic. «It’s not impossible however there’s an opening and many drivers make use of Prosper as a way to bypass it,» Lemieux said. Mud season, which is not surprising, is a time of high activity for tow service operators. Kyle Blakeman, owner of Blakeman Towing in Tunbridge, told me that he’s had «probably more than 100 phone calls» from motorists stuck in traffic on Thursday but has been able to respond to just 25 of them. He also said that he often gets called to the same roads with mud three times in the direction of Dairy Hill Road in South Royalton, which is in which Kenyon has been dragging cars out of the dirt using his tractor as well as two times to Johnson Hill Road in South Royalton and numerous calls to Turnpike Road in Strafford, which Kenyon said was «very terrible.» «I’ve done this for the last 14 years and I’m sure it’s one of the worstthings I’ve done,» Blakeman said. There are roads that even tow truck operators should not cross. «If I receive a phone contact at Thresher Hill Road (in Randolph) isn’t something I’d want to be involved with,» Blakeman said. «Quite truthfully, I’ve beaten the junk out of my vehicle going along these roads. At 20000 pounds, it’s going to make the road even more.» Sharon Styles of Thetford described the mud-related issue at 5 Corners Road, where she’s lived for the past seventeen years, as the number of «nine or 10» on the scale of between one and 10. In the morning of Friday, when she left to start her job as a cashier at the Wing’s Market situated in East Thetford, she planned to travel on 5 Corners to Route 113; however, a driver going the opposite way told her there was a vehicle that was stuck further to the left. So Styles changed the 2009 Honda CR-V around and instead was planning to drive down Robinson Hill Road, then went around to see Faller’s Nissan stuck and then retraced her steps through Quinnipiac Road — the place where Faller’s Wednesday night incident with mud. «I am on Quinnipiac, and it’s deep ruts there which were wet, so I veered off, and the light was flashing, and somehow I recall to hold the gas, and I’m thinking, «Oh my God I’m going to be stuck on Quinnipiac, my God! I’m probably going to be the one who is stuck on Quinnipiac, and I made it,» recalled Styles. The experience and roundabouts caused her to be 15 minutes behind but in all pieces. But, «my heart was pounding,» Styles said.

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