Now the traveled way is narrower and you see white blazes for the AT, and a few blue blazes at crossings with the local Pinkham trail network. This is transitional forest full of minor drainages and ledge outcrops. Large beech trees, yellow birch, and spruce cover an understory of small firs and hobblebush discouraging too much off-trail travel.
The OJR starts at an elevation of 2032' right behind the AMC Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and runs northerly for about 1.5 miles, climbing 650 feet until it meets the Auto Road. A hundred and fifty years ago, teams of horses pulling loads of sightseers from Jackson ten miles south, and bound for Mt. Washington passed through here. The teams had already climbed some 1300' to this point and the shortcut eliminated the additional miles and elevation loss getting to the Carriage Road's gate and tollhouse at the Glen House.
Continue on up a quarter mile the Auto Rd. to a large turnout. In summer, down-bound motorists cool their brakes here and pose for pictures alongside trail-hardened AT thru-hikers who are soaking up the tourist culture in this unusual clearing on the edge of the Great Gulf Wilderness. Drop the skis at the turnout and scramble the usually packed Madison Gulf trail a quarter mile to Lowes Bald Spot for a nice view.
Next, ski the 10% grade down the road about a mile to connect with Connie's Way for the return trip to Pinkham, making it a decent half-day loop. Large Bombardier cats from the State Park and Mt. Washington Observatory and the Auto Road Snowcoaches travel the road daily, so the surface can be chewed up, sometimes frozen, or just right if you get it early right after a light storm. Too much snow and it can be a bit of a slog. If the surface is rough, ride the untouched snow high on the road shoulder. The return trip along Connie's Way has its ups and downs with a beautiful, bridged crossing on one of the Peabody River feeder streams and lots of moose sign. The trail was named for 1975 Pinkham croo member Connie Waste.
At the end of the trip, stop into the "Trading Post" at the AMC for a snack and some cocoa. As they say, "The latchstring is always out." The Joe Dodge Lodge, Trading Post, and support buildings are spread out on the site of an old logging camp first used by the AMC for summer visitors in 1920. Joe Dodge, an early Pinkham hutmaster and so called, "Mayor of Porky Gulch", first opened the AMC camp to winter visitors in 1926. That year the notch road was unplowed and the only way in was on skis or snowshoes. The area was full of porkupines, hence the nickname Porky Gulch. Since the state was paying a 25 cent bounty for a porkupine nose, Joe pretty much cleaned them out of there and used the proceeds on town trips for ice cream sundaes.
Nowadays, the AMC offers the only overnight accommodations high in the notch and township named for Daniel Pinkham, a fellow widely believed to have pushed the first road through here in 1836. There are conflicting reports about the origins of what was originally called the Shelburne Road. According to Russell Lawson in his book Passaconaway's Realm, the Province of NH hired a Fryeburg woodsman named John Evans in 1774 to build the first road though the "eastern" notch. Ten years later Evans was reportedly guiding the Cutler Expedition to "the Great Mountain", and found his road all but impassable from wind and water damage, neglect, and disuse; sound rational for a second, planned road sixty-two years later.
