7881-R1_MSA_Feb2022_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News

bridges from Battle Ridge Rd west to Gus- tafson Rd. area. Another bridge rebuilt on Horseback Rd behind Crommett’s. Maps are available at the Clinton Town Office, Tradewinds I95 and Snow club house. 35 Clubhouse Rd makes a fine parking yard to off load your sleds. We keep the light on. Use the trails for cross country skiing and walking your dog. Let us know if you want a ride in a groomer, we are using Ford Rangers converted with tracks. Go ahead, it’s ok to cut a branch hang- ing in the snow trail. Snowmobile registration is $56.00 this year, a little more money to keep the trails opened and groomed. Our labor is donated free of charge. Snow trail grooming is challenging but it’s our snow play time. Summer is nice but Winter is ice. Our opportunity to explore local geography while treading softly on snow. Remember to thank a landowner for the privilege of riding over their land. Thank you Central Maine Power and local farms. February 26, 2022, Saturday is Open House 50th Anniversary. Grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and bonfire candle tree S’mores. After- noon club snowmobile ride followed by festivities. Remember, Keith Hunter saying, NO CLUB NO TRAILS Stop in, stay connected and all are welcomed Respectfully, Steve Wright, President 692-4040 Dale Hanscom, Trail Master 426-8144 Last month the topic seemed to be the lack of snow and the unseasonably warm tempera- tures. As I sit typing this letter (mid-January) some cold weather has finally arrived. Unfortu- nately, there is very little snow cover and trails in our area are not able to be groomed. Also unfortunately, the current forecast does not have any snow in it. We can discuss the accuracy of their forecasts next month. The Blizzard Bust- ers have completed the cleanup of all our trails, for now. Lots of shout outs and thanks to those club members who donated their time, energy and equipment to get the job done. Our groomer operators are looking forward to doing some rolling and grooming, when the snow allows. The new, tracked, Yamaha ATV the club pur- chased, and added to our grooming fleet last summer, has been outfitted and is ready to go to work. Let’s hope we need it. We are optimistic that the latter part of the season brings good riding conditions. Remem- ber, this article has to submitted to the MSA a full month before it will appear in your mailbox. So all this moaning and groaning about no snow could be mute. Whatever happens please ride safely and always stay to the right. Keep an eye out for the groomers and respect the landown- ers, without whom there would be no trails. So, let it snow and join a club. Marge and Lee Livingston Club Reporters WESTERN REGION BRIDGTON EASY RIDERS Bridgton, ME Due to the spike in Covid cases, the Janu- ary 14 th meeting was modified by holding the business meeting without our usual Fabulous Pot Luck Supper. Blaine Chapman, Presi- dent, called the meeting to order at 7:07PM with a pledge of allegiance. All 29 members in attendance wore masks and were socially distanced. Blaine reported that the Club now has 137 members plus 25 business members. The club has grown in size and is now allowed one additional Director. If anyone is interested in taking that position, please call Blaine. Groomers are ready to go, and one of the READFIELD BLIZZARD BUSTERS sc Readfield, ME Find us on Facebook

groomers will be moved to W. Bridgton for their trails. (A new photo of the Clubs 3 Tuck- ers is attached below.)

awesome! Our poker rally will take place on Saturday, February 26th at the North Fryeburg Commu- nity Chapel at 1225 West Fryeburg Rd (the intersection of Rt 113 & Fish St.) Poker hands will be sold from 9:00 AM to noon and all raffle prizes will be drawn at 3:00 PM. Thank you to all the local businesses for your gener- ous donations! If anyone would like to volun- teer to man a checkpoint or help sell tickets & food, please let me know. Always remember to ride safe, stay to the right and respect all landowners by staying on the marked trails! Greetings all, Well, a little bit of snowmobiling is hap- pening around town. I know snowmobilers are excited to be out on the trails. A few more inches of fresh snow would be greatly appre- ciated. The groomers are in tip top shape and ready to do their job. Thank you to Mark and John for their tireless work all year long keep- ing them in great working order. One has already been to the top of Streaked Mountain. We want to send a BIG thank you to Mark Bancroft for opening the trail to Streaked. It gets gated every spring and is always a matter of holding our breath waiting to see if snowmobilers will be allowed to use the trail for the winter months. It is greatly appreciated as that is one of the more popular trails with heavy use. Club members voted to sell the Polaris Ranger 6X we had owned for the past four years. The little use of it didn’t warrant keep- ing it. It went to a very excited teenager who worked hard for the money to purchase it. New club member Deb S. is enthusiastically collecting business and family memberships. She discovered there are many more registered snowmobiles in town than there are members to the local club. She will attempt to get their memberships. All riders need to contribute to the cost and maintenance of the trails as they don’t magically get brushed and smoothed without money and manpower. Hope to see you out on the trails. Stay safe (and warm). Respectfully, Leah Frechette, Club reporter Hello everyone, we hope your season is off to a great start and everyone is out taking advantage of the trails. By now we been out dragging and clearing, trimming trails. All trails are looking pretty decent. A big thank you to our dedicated few that are out keeping the trails up to par. Club meetings are the sec- ond Tuesday of the month at the Clubhouse, all are welcome to join. Ride right and ride safe. VP Ben Hadley Finally, we have some snow in the fore- cast!!! We hope everyone is ready to get out and enjoying it any way possible! We have taken taking this down time to get our trails finished up by repairing some bridges, rerout- ing some trails and preparing our grooming equipment. So, we should be in good shape to have some fantastic trail conditions when the time comes. This year we have decided again to cancel our usual community supper due to all the restrictions of COVID so if your town is doing a rally, please get out there and support them. It takes a lot of work to keep these trails going and any help you can give is greatly appreci- ated by all of us. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and share your experiences and pictures while riding MOUNT TOM sc Sumner, ME BURNT MEADOW sc Brownfield, ME Bridget Gorton Club Secretary STREAKED MOUNTAINEERS sc Buckfield, ME

Dan Trouant, Club Reporter

ROCK-O-DUNDEE RIDERS Oxford, ME

Hi there! We thought we would have had the last word about the Beaver Dam Scenario....I guess we all know what “thought” did. They actually cut down a tree that crossed our trail, and LEFT it there! Our trail groomer workers had to go down and cut it up and move it out of the way and the Beavers sat in the background LAUGHING! Other than the fact that we are desper- ately waiting for snow, we’ve made a lot of improvements on our trails. We are looking forward to January 15th. That evening our club is hosting the monthly MSA directors meeting and dinner. This will be our first time to do this. We expect every- one will enjoy. We have been able to fund a Scholarship for a student going on the college for the past few years. Requirements: Affiliated with our club, and/or Oxford Resident, and of course, acceptance to the college. This year we are making a calendar for the month of March. We have had enormous support from our local businesses. The calendar sells for $10. There are numerous cash prizes, gift cards, etc. All the winners of the prizes will be drawn at our April club meeting. Hopefully, when I check in with you next month, we will have some beautiful snow on our trails, the way we always do. We would appreciate any quirky thing you do to make that happen..... Terri Major, Secretary Season started off late, but certainly had the needed cold. January riding conditions were- ride-able, just not fast, a lot of ice. In January I rode locally putting a couple hundred miles on, North to Livermore Falls, Jay, Chesterville, Vienna, New Sharon, Farmington, Then to the East, Wayne, Fayette, Readfield, Winthrop, and Monmouth. I’m in hopes to go to Turner, Buckfield, Hebron, Minot, and meet up with the “Major” in Oxford, and get a local tour. Have you ever had a project on your to-do list that you never get to? Well I have, in Leeds, like in Wellington, we have a scenic bog trail. The 3” black spruce trees are 75 years old. To say the least, the branches grow pretty slow. We cleared the limbs back 15 years ago, and every year they grow into the trail ever so little, creeping year after year. So, for the last few years I said to myself, “I’ve got to get out and cut the limbs back.” This year they weren’t rubbing on the sleds, but the trail had grown in three feet on each side. On one of my trips through the bog, I discovered that the branches had been trimmed back and neatly put to the side. What a great improve- ment. Thank you so much Gary and Mel. for your dedication to the sport. I know you got my back. Respectfully submitted, Brad Hi everyone, Well, we finally received some snow and were able to open our trails. We could sure use more where that came from! Let’s hope it keeps up into the end of March so we can make up for lost time. We’ve had a lot of pos- itive feedback from people riding the trails so far. Everyone is appreciative of the work all the clubs have done to maintain with very lit- tle snow to work with and we thank you all for the words of praise! Our membership numbers are increasing every year and we are thankful to every- one who has rejoined and we welcome our new members also. Your show of support is LEEDS STUMP THUMPERS sc Leeds, ME FRYEBURG AREA SNOWMOBILE ASSOCIATION Fryeburg, ME

The brush cutter has been mounted on the groomer. Thanks to Mike for welding it, and thanks to Steve, Ron and Blaine who finished it and hooked it up. All signage is up, including the new ones at waters edge of Highland Lake and Moose Pond. The Kiosk, built by Andy Merrill has been installed near Rolph’s and at the intersection of ITS and Highland Lake. Blaine received permission at the Selectman’s meeting for our trail to cross town property. Jimmy Barber has put the map boxes out around town. Steve Emery talked about the upcoming Club Trip to Millinocket. Many thanks to Steve for his hard work in coordinating this trip, and for setting up restaurants and meals. Bob Corthell, Club VP, reported at our meet- ing that BER sold $2,770 worth of Super Raf- fle Tickets and took 2nd place for ticket sales in the entire State of Maine! Bob asked Kathy and Duane Hendrix to stand, so the club could show its appreciation for a job well done, for their work selling tickets. Bob also informed us of a program that allows the extended regis- tration of snowmobile trailers for a minimum of 5 years at $5 for each year. Just call 207- 624-9000 and have your registration informa- tion handy. Bob reported that the annual Free Snowmobile Weekend will be March 4 thru 6, 2022, allowing Maine registered sleds to ride free in New Hampshire or Vermont. There was a suggestion that we consider modifying the Club’s website, to include Pay Pal or Venmo to make it easier to pay for memberships, or merchandise, etc. At our next meeting, Friday, February 11th, we will be discussing our upcoming Febru- ary, 19th Rally. Since many members will be returning from the Millinocket Club trip, the Club will consider ordering pizza instead of the usual Pot Luck Supper. This would give a day off to the Great Club Chefs. Stay tuned for e-mail updates, and Please, keep doing your snow dances. Bill Preis Club Correspondent bridgtoneasyriders.com NORWAY TRACKERS Norway, ME Find us on Facebook norwaytrackerssnowmobileclub@gmail.com Hello Sledders, The mid-January storm provided enough snow for our groomers to open our trails. This puts us a couple weeks ahead of last year. Trails are thin but have a good base. It’s great to be out riding and reaping the benefits of a lot of time and work preparing our trails. With any luck, this weekend’s forecasted storm stays true and we welcome many more. Our three Tuckers groomed very well on their runs, however our VK groomer sled did not fare as well as it lost its motor. Into the garage it went for a new rebuild. Thank you to our members who sold Super Raffle Tickets and especially to everyone who purchased them from us. Your support of the Norway Trackers is greatly appreciated. Our club came in third in number of tickets sold for the western region behind Bridgton and Frye- burg who were also the top two in the state. We will be hosting our open house and light parade on Saturday February 19th. We wel- come everyone to join us and check out our trail system. We will also be scheduling a pro- gressive dinner ride and club rides. Follow us on Facebook for more information and other things going on. Enjoy the Maine snow

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