7487-R1_MSA_Mar2021_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News most of our meeting schedule. The directors have met off and on, on an as-needed basis. The grooming crew continues to work very hard han- dling many outdoor chores as well as meeting weekly and grooming almost daily. What a value this is to our club, along with the members who do all of this work. Members and others have been posting photos and comments on our Facebook Page. Please visit our site and like our information. It is also a way to keep updated on trail con- ditions and what is going on in the club. The logging operation recently finished up on trail 105N behind Ber- nier and Son Repair and the groomers are working on getting more snow on the plowed portions of the trail. Use caution in that area. The trails are all great and waiting for riders! We have just begun a fundrais- ing activity where anyone can take a photo of making snow angels (where ever you may be, even the beach?) and post a photo on our Facebook page and viewers may donate through PayPal to our cause, to support our club and its grooming operation. Any zany photo of snowmobiling/ snowmobilers may be sent in. If you have any questions about our Face- book site, please contact Christina at 551-8255. With no public events, fundraising is a little more difficult this year. All trails are groomed reg- ularly, so we must still buy diesel fuel for the machine and heating fuel and pellets for the clubhouse. Some pri- vate events are still being held there. Please contact Bob at 554-8080 if you have questions about rentals. If you have questions about mem- berships or trails, please contact Mickey at 764-1236. Snowmobile applications should be available on our website, at the Mapleton Town Office or Mapleton One Stop. The 2021 ATV memberships will go out in May. See you on the trails! Sue Maynard Secretary PORTAGE LAKERS sc Portage Lake, ME Contact Us! portagelakersmembership@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/portage.lakers The Portage Lakers are thrilled to finally have snowmobile season up and running with the latest snow! Make sure all your sledding friends have joined a club and if they haven’t, send them our way. Email us at por- tagelakersmembership@gmail.com Or visit us on the web: www.portagelakers.org Find us on Facebook!

we have had. Discussed how Sponsor A Mile program has done since inception this year. We have 14 sets of signs that will be out on the trail. Each person/busi- ness interested purchases two signs with a donation of $250 and renews the following years for $200. This has been received well by those con- tacted. Anyone in the club can pro- mote this fundraiser for the groomer fund. Contact Charlene, if you need more information. Thank you to Clay, Kobe, Israel, and Tim for helping out with putting signs on the backers and hanging them. Thank you Clay and Nate at Richardson’s Hardware for providing the plywood for backers. The forecast sounds like there is much needed snow coming this week. Let’s hope we get the amounts needed to make the ride nicer. If we can sal- vage a few weeks of riding, it will all be worth our dedicated volunteers work put in this season. Thank you All. Charlene Fraser Rockabema Snow Rangers, Secretary ST FRANCIS SNO-ANGELS St. Francis, ME Braaapp! Braapp! The sound of snowmobiles fills the air. We have the snow and we have the sleds. We have had the pleasure of having peo- ple ride our trails from many differ- ent states and we sooo hope you are enjoying our winter wonderland. Please remember as you travel our area to help out our local clubs. So many of our clubs are unable to open their doors due to COVID but still are out there giving their all to make your riding experience something you will talk about for years to come. A lot of clubs have set out donation containers to defray our expenses. Be generous if you can and remember “Ride Safe”. Respectfully Secretary Kim M Ouellette CHAPMAN RIDGE RUNNERS sc Dear Members, As with all organizations and indi- viduals, the past few months have been difficult. We remain somewhat separated from friends and fam- ily. Here’s hoping that the next few months bring some positive changes and we can all return to our normal routines. At least we are able to snowmobile on groomed trails with our friends, keeping our distance even outdoor! Chapman Ridge Runners continues to scale back all public activities and Mapleton, ME www.crrsc.org

or visit www.portagelakers.org ($15 Associate Club Family Membership; $30 Family Membership; $50 Busi- ness Membership). PLSC member meetings are held on the first Friday of the month, 6:30 PM at Dean’s Motor Lodge. Whether you are traveling by car or by sled, plan to join us at one of our coming meetings; March 5 and April 2. This sledding season has definitely been different compared to previ- ous years. With the lack of snow, COVID19 and not having any events the Portage Lakers would like to thank all our club members, businesses and everyone who donated to our club this year. We can’t begin to tell you how appreciative we are of everything! We’re an extremely lucky club to have a great group of people! It was our first year with our new groomer and drag and we couldn’t not be happier with it! All our guys love working with it this year! Our Building Committee has been meeting to make a plan for the future to expand our groomer shed. Our cur- rent groomer shed is a little tight and club feels it’s time to start planning for an expansion. We’re hoping to maybe start the ground for it this summer/fall but won’t be building anytime soon. We hope that everyone enjoys the rest of the season! The guys will be busy keeping our trails up for every- one! We’ll also have a few projects during the summer/fall that they’ll be working on. Looking to volunteer? Please contact us at info@portagelak- ers.org Without our remarkable crew we wouldn’t exist and neither would our amazing trails. ~ Chelsea Stratton We have been blessed with SNOW and riding is excellent!! Our groomer has been going almost every day to make sure the trails are in good con- dition and ready for everyone using our system. The guys doing the grooming are reporting that all area groomers are busy at the same time and happy to see the trails being used. All of the activity we are seeing on Route 161 with pickups and trailers heading north makes us happy and shows everyone from South to North are excited to get some miles on their snow sleds!! Some of our loyal members braved the cold temperatures and went for a great ride February 9. They met at Eureka Hall, rode to Portage and had lunch at Dean’s. After leaving Dean’s they rode to Ashland, then to NORDIC LAKERS sc Stockholm, ME

Scopan Lake, to Mapleton, Presque Isle, Washburn, Caribou and back to Stockholm totaling 115 miles. They reported trails were excellent  . Members are hoping to have the opportunity in the next few weeks to enjoy some more group rides and have fun! Due to COVID we are still not able to hold Club meetings in per- son so officers get together via Zoom monthly. Hopefully next season we can get back to life as it was before COVID and enjoy the camaraderie with others. If anyone is interested in joining our Club please reach out to nordiclakerssnowmobileclub@ aol.com. We would love to see those enjoying our trail system become a member  . Just to remind everyone please make sure to respect landowners and thank them for their generosity of let- ting us access their land to enjoy our trails. Please do not litter. That’s all for now but remember - drive safely and stay safe during this time!! Barbara McKeen Hello friends it’s been a crazy win- ter with temps up n down and little snow to work with but with the snow fall over the past week the trails are shaping up! We had our potluck / meeting and it was very well attended. We got 2 new drags and 1 roller Made in Maine. They work great behind our Skandics. We wanna thank the groomer people who stepped up when some stepped down. We know how to git-r- done .... many hands make light work. Thank-you all... your work never goes unnoticed .... team work it is .... We had our poker run Sat Feb 20th what a fun filled day again thank- you all. Bussiness,members and nonmembers we never could do this without all your help ! We have gotten lots of trail compliments and mem- berships are doing great!!!! We ARE ALL volunteers but we git-r- done. Til next time ride right, ride safe n keep on keeping on! Deb Long (MVSD Club President) EASTERN REGION MOLUNKUS VALLEY SNO-DRIFTERS Sherman, ME

Deadlines for club news is the 25 th of the month prior to the publications. Please submit articles to editor@mesnow.com

NORTHERN REGION

ROCKABEMA SNOW RANGERS Patten, ME FB: Patten - Rockabema Snow Rangers Email: rockabemasnowrangers@gmail. com Opened the meeting with a wel- come from our President Bob Howes. The secretary and treasurer’s report were read and accepted. Discussed the reroute of ITS81 which goes through Libby’s Lodge & Canty’s property. The signage on the reroute was completed by Laura & Charlie. Most sledders showed appre- ciation as they passed them while working and realized the hard work the Club has put in to make this trail passable in a short amount of time. Thank you goes to all the volunteers that put time in to make this happen and to Travis Libby for excavation work. Reminder this is a new trail and needs a decent amount of snow to make it more than passable. Mother Nature has not worked with us this year. Groomer breakdown on the 2003 NH Tractor. Thank you to Elijah and Charlie for all the work in the woods to try to get it running again. Many hours were put in with the wind and cold being brutal this week. Jon came out with the Pisten Bully to tow it to the farm the next day. There was addi- tional towing needed to get it to the garage for repair, but it did arrive! We have had our fair share of little issues with the groomers from fuel gelling, hoses blowing, headlight issues and brakes. However, we still have 3 out of 4 groomers running. Trail groomer update of who grooms which in our area: Travis goes north from his Lodge to Point of Pines. Most traffic has been routed to ITS81 via Lane Brook Road due to logging on Snowshoe Road. So, there is much more traffic using this trail to head to Patten or Shin Pond Village. Also, the portion of 64 going to Wilderness Variety (Skin- ner’s) is done by Travis in the New Holland (05). Jon grooms in the Pis- ten Bully the 62 - 112E North of Town and ITS81 to intown this year. Charlie grooms 112W and ITS81 down the RR Bed. Thank you to all those taking the time to make the trails, as good as we can, with the little bit of snowfall

CLIFTON AREA sc Clifton, ME

One Year!! That’s how long we have all been waiting to see a light at the end of the COVID tunnel and it is (Continued on Page 22)

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