8306-R2_MSA_March2023

MSA Club News

does not look very promising. We have not been as fortunate as the northern part of the state. The March meeting will probably be our last unless Mother Nature blesses us with sub stantial snow fall. This is all for now. Keep snow dancing.

was a lot of concern about a potential lack of snow, we never expected to be faced with good snow cover and terrible, potentially danger ously low temperatures. A ton of hardy volun teers and participants helped the egg ride go off smoothly, with lots of smiles and fun all around. Sunday’s radar run was a unique experience as well for the club, as it was our first time put ting on such an event, it was a lot of fun for all involved, and had some active club members murmuring about making it a more regular event at the club. A huge shoutout to our trail crew keeping the trails in great shape with what little snow Mother Nature has delivered, the various club members that put in the time to keep the club house open, and the many smiling faces that have stopped to say hi! As always, ride safe, ride right & be kind! Evan Yesmentes Club Reporter Middle of February here at the club and we are going full tilt! We get a bunch of snow- we get it all groomed flat and then it warms up and we deal with water holes and washouts and then hard ice. And then we go on repeat! Much thanks to our dedicated trail crew of volunteers that is staying on top of it and keep ing our club trails and connector trails open! As I write this, things are very thin and very icy but we are expecting a back-to-back snow storm before this weekend! So, if you do get out and ride the trails, please check ahead for conditions locally. Beware that under the new snow good lie a lot of ice. Please ride right and have fun! Upcoming Events Sunday March 19 th Board of directors meeting 5:00 p.m. Club dinner 6:00 p.m. Membership meeting 7:00 p.m. Sunday April 16 th Board of directors meeting 5:00 p.m. Club dinner 6:00 p.m. Membership meeting 7:00 p.m. Saturday April 22 nd Annual Dinner Auction * event” This is our annual dinner auction fundrais ing event. 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. This is always a fun event. members are cur rently in the process of procuring donations, gift certificates and items from area businesses and supporting business members. Also, homemade baked goods pies etc. from club members all to be auctioned off on a fun Saturday evening at the club. EASTERN MAINE SNOWMOBILERS Holden, ME EasternMaineSnowmobilers.com Find us on Facebook

GRAND LAKE sc Grand Lake Stream, ME

Trail Master Les has been putting a lot of hours out on the trails grooming, signing, and cutting trails back open. If he’s not working with Danny, he’s long-distance grooming in our professional Snow Rabbit groomer, or operating our new sled and new drag. It’s a lot of work, but he must also love it.

POODUNCK sc Dixfield, ME

WOW!! Another great Blessing of the Sleds! MANY thanks to all that came and helped. It is the biggest fundraiser for both the Mexico and Dixfield snow clubs. Our local businesses are so Very generous each year and continue to support our efforts. Can’t ask for more that. I love it when I see folks wearing our Blessing of the Sleds sweatshirts or T shirts!! It takes a LOT of work to see that each sponsor gets their shirt and all the “ads” are correct. Unfortu nately for the second year in a row, WIL’SAuto Body didn’t make the shirt??? WOW! what a terrible mistake on our part. But we finally fig ured out the problem, and no one really messed up on purpose but with another business with a similar name, kept getting the ad. We have FINALLY got the problem straighten out, but we sure owe Wil’s an apology AGAIN!! We will do our best to make it up somehow. But it was an honest mistake both times and we feel SO MUCH disappointment for Wil, as he always supports our clubs. THANKYOUWIL FOR YOU SUPPORT. I heard there was quite the “happening” at the Hampton Hotel in the county?? Of course we all know about rumors but I have this on a very reliable source that a local Mexico man, a BIG guy who is involved in many things. I understand he accidentally stepped outside his room with OUT any clothes on, because he heard a disturbance, he got out too far and the door closed on him. You know they auto matically lock on you so there he was. It was the fire alarm that went off and his room was next to the stairs, so of course, the elevators shut down and every person staying there had to walk pass him. No names will be mentioned BUT his first name rhymes with NAKED. It sure has been a CRAZYyear in theWestern Maine area for sledders. First we didn’t have the snow and cold needed to firm up the trails. Then the temps kept in the 30’s which didn’t help the situation. Once we did get snow, we also got rain, WAY too much rain. I understand in the county they had a pretty good season but down here, we suffered the warm weather and lack of snow. Anyone buying a new sled kinda got shafted. DA**, sure hope we get the weather in March to help make our season here a little longer?? Thanks to all that joined our club, its much appreciated. Of course, David and his crew did an OUTSTANDING job with what little snow we got. We have a great group of officers, each doing their job expertly. Such a joy working with these folks. Sure makes my job easy!! Until next time. Club Reporter, J.H. Hello. Well Mother Nature hasn’t been too kind to us so far this season. Either we’ve had warm temperatures and rain or cold temperatures with the prediction of a foot of snow and got ten 2-3” inches out of the storm. Makes for tough sledding. I will say our groomer opera tors have done magic with the amount of snow we do have still have some water bar issues but for the most part our trails have been good. We have had issues with our small groomer sled that we purchased new last year. It’s in the dealerships repair shop awaiting parts for the last two weeks, so we are down one small groomer sled. One of our big Piston Bully’s has been acting up on the right side of the track so it was decided to tear it down and found all the idler torsion springs were broken and we also decided to replace the idler wheels on both sides of unit. We are in the last week of Feb ruary with more snow predicted this following week let’s hope. Ride right ride safe and think snow. David Greely, Vice President EASTERN REGION NORTH FRANKLIN sc Phillips, ME Find us on Facebook

Trails Again, thanks to our very dedicated team of volunteers on our trail crew! They might be small in numbers but they are big and get ting the job done! Before we started actively grooming the trails we had logged 500 man hours in trail preparation (that is brushing, trimming,cutting trees, building bridges, etc) It certainly helped us maintain the trails this year with the wacky changing conditions. In closing I will ask that you join a club or two (more if you ride in other areas) thank a groomer when you see one. Lend a hand if you’re able. It really does take a team. Troy G Trail Grunt Okay, fellow snowmobile enthusiasts, let’s try this again. Rollercoaster weather pattern -SAME WINTER. If you think THIS winter is strange -remember last FEBRUARY 23 rd (2022) -record high temperature of 65 degrees, same date this year (2023) -22 degrees! New addition to the GLRSC family is one BRANTLEY JAMES PINKHAM son of TYLER andALEXA, grandson of EDDIE and MISSY PINKHAM great grandson of MAR ION PINKHAM congratulations to ALL. Tony L. has been busy on his new SKI -DOO doing the GPS coordinates for our NEW (long overdue) club trail map, thanks, Tony and he has a NEW trailer as well-I think Marion went along to picking out. Chris C. has a NEW SKI -DOO as well and has been out grooming trails on the other side of town, thanks Chris GLENBURN LAKESIDE RIDERS sc Glenburn, ME

Our VP John has been out several times dragging trails and doing required trail work, usually with other members, sometimes alone. Years ago, I’ve have been out with John sev eral times and it’s always been fun. President Brad and his son Jake were out with the Snow Rabbit and they broke up the pickup trail on the High Road, turning this unofficial trail into a snowmobile trail high way. They then went to the Dobsis Dam, grooming that trail. I have not been out in two weeks, enjoying all this great trail work, but I can’t wait. On 2/12/23 the club held a Pizza Blast at the School House. The Pine Tree Store donated drinks and several type party pizzas. The 40 attendees seemed to have a lot of fun. The eight members that took groomer tests and passed, received their certificates. We also held our famous raffle and the winners are below. It’s now time to sign off on another snow mobile season. At the time of this writing, we have 1/3 of the winter still to go. I have been out several times having fun checking camps. I put the snowmobile on its side during one trip. I needed help but ended up rescuing myself. The store has been snowmobile busy on weekends and more riders than normal have been visiting during the week. I enjoy riding by and seeing all the different machine colors and modern designs on today’s snowmobiles. I also enjoy stopping in the store and seeing everyone eating and laughing. Thank you everyone for taking the time to read about our snowmobile club and our spe cial little town. RAFFLEWINNERS: Otter Pro Tote Sled & hitch, Mike Grimanis; ION Ice Auger, Wayne Polk; Pack Basket & (2) Heritage Trap’s, Chris. NEXT MEETING: March 1, at the fire station. PINE TREE STORE: Hours 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, 796-5027. NON-Ethanol Gas. Always remember, for food, supplies and fun, “You can’t go wrong at The Pine Tree Store”. HELP NEEDED: Call 796-5027, Les, Brinda, or store worker. TRAIL PROBLEM: Call 796-5027, Les. He will solve or assign the problem. LODGING: Call 796-5027, Les, Brinda, or store worker. Please ride our trails and make our friendly little town a stop on your snowmobile adven tures. I guarantee you will come back. Mike Millard mikeremillard@mgemaine.com Brinda, CEO of the PineTree Store andTrail master Les, who claims he is the real CEO. There’s a few things you can count on in snowmobiling, and inconsistent weather, unplanned adventure, & really great peo ple are some. Just a few weeks ago, February 3 rd -5 th The Penobscot Snowmobile Club, along with sev eral of our neighboring clubs, experienced all three while hosting the 50 th annual egg ride to benefit Pine Tree Camps. This was no small feat, any & everyone involved went above and beyond to raise a ton of money to send kids to summer camp. It was a great time, to support a great cause. When trying to plan for the weekend, there PENOBSCOT sc Hermon, ME

Our NEW addition to our grooming team is our KUBOTA side by side ATV -we added the tracks (installed by EDDIE, TYLER and R.P. -GREAT job team -this will give us some more flexibility and a little bit warmer groom ing experience. Photo should be in this edition as well. GGLRSC -KUBOTA with NEW tracks.

We are honoring one of our members who has passed away a little while ago with a pair of trail dedication signs, one on each of the main trail to and from the GLRSC clubhouse. THANK-YOU to MICHAEL T. AUSTIN for your years of service and dedication -you are certainly missed by many. This photo should appear in this edition as well. We also have NEW news in the grooming front, Gene B. has just recently joined our grooming team (his 1st day out was FEB MICHAELT. AUSTIN ( GLRSC ) -trail dedication sign.

Donated materials used to fill washouts and wet holes along with a lot of shoveling.

(Continued on Page 12)

11

m o b

o w

0 2 3 l M a i n e S n

i l e

r

r c h 2

M a