7817-R1_MSA_Nov2021_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News

a job with it. This position was done by Caro- lyn for as long as I can remember and a lot of work. As of Oct. 1st, we were between 50-70 members, and the goal according to Randy is to get to 150. Get your memberships in guys, we can do this. Thanks again Randy!! In closing, let me tell you that THE SNOW- GANG NEVER SLEEPS!! Even with all the changes that have taken place we are always ready to serve the snowmobiling community!! Before I go, I need to say a special THANK YOU for the signs that club member Steve Neal had made in honor of Carolyn and I for our dedication to the Snowgang. These signs will be on ITS81 in Benedicta, they are AWE- SOME ~~ Thank You again Steve, and YES, Carolyn got to see them - she was pleased and humbled. Jim Splan, Reporter @ Large MOLUNKUS VALLEY SNO-DRIFTERS Sherman, ME Hello from up north! As I sit and write this on Oct.18th it’s cloudy, rainy and 50 degrees MVSD members are hitting the ground running and digging in for another great upcoming season with lots of snow, potlucks and meetings have started with great turnouts. Memberships are rapidly coming in and the only club where there are no strangers only friends you haven’t met! On Oct 16 th & 17 th some of us re-decked the 85 foot bridge over the mighty Molunkus. We had a great crew and made the best of it con- sidering it rained all weekend but they never gave up.

the signage and checking our trails to make sure there are no downed trees etc. and the big NEWS IS…… drumroll…… we have what to us is a new groomer; a 20l6 Tucker 2000. So we have upgraded by 7 years newer. The stork …eerr… truck made the delivery on Thursday, October 7th. Since then, there is seldom a day that Roland and Jeff have not worked to ready this new trailbuster for its maiden voyage. We have held our election of officers and the officers remain the same as last year, David Connor, (The Prez), Erwin Jackson, The VP, Judith Taggett, Treasurer and Kim Ouellette, Secretary. Roland Taggett continues as Trail Master. We’ve made initial plans to restart our Sat- urdays at the Lodge, tentatively after January 1st, where we offer a hot meal until we run out. We also plan on having our annual “Race your Neighbor” Ski Doo race. March 12th is our tentative date, so put us on your calendar for then. As Covid concerns still fill our lives, what better place could you be than out on the open trail, and we know our trails will be even bet- ter than last year with our new groomer. Fresh air, wide open trails, breathtaking scenery, northern hospitality, maybe a hot meal. Just what the doctor ordered. Come north, you know you want to. Hi Everyone, Here we are, in November, already! Where has this year gone? We are gearing up for a busy season once again. The weather is chang- ing, and the leaves have mostly all fallen from the trees. Our schedule of events has been set for the season, so be sure to follow us on Face- book or check out our website portagelakers. org to see what we have going on. The Big Woods Grass Drags event we cohosted with Ashland Snowmobile Club was a huge success. We just had our wrap up meet- ing for the event and are happy to report that we will be hosting the event again next year, in August. September is a busy month with grass drags events, so we are hoping to draw in more racers by moving the date. As we gain experience, we hope to make the event more successful each year. Again, we would like to thank all the volunteers that work to make this possible. The guys are lining things up to resurface the Beaver Brook Bridge on ITS 90. There will a workday planned soon, so that project will be completed before the snow flies. Monthly meetings are the first Friday of the month at 6:30 pm at the Portage Town Hall. Please join us! Be on the lookout for your membership information packets. Jen will be sending those out soon. If you love our trails, join our club! As always, stay safe & healthy, and think snow! Tammy Kenney, Club Secretary PORTAGE LAKERS, sc Portage Lake, ME Greetings from Washburn Trail Runners! On behalf of everyone at Washburn Trail Runners SC, I would like to say thank you for a great 2020-2021 snowmobile season. While it was one of the strangest years in recent his- tory, we had a better-than-expected snowmo- bile season in the County. As we look forward to 2021-2022, we certainly expect to see a more normal season with lots of familiar faces in the clubhouse and on the trails! Currently, we are in prep mode. We have already had multiple work details to clean up the clubhouse and get the grounds looking a little better. Areas of focus this year are on the narrow bridge on ITS 83 where we meet up with Presque Isle and the large bridge located on ITS 105 as you head towards Aroostook River’s system. While these bridges are safe WASHBURN TRAIL RUNNERS, sc Washburn, ME Washburntrailrunners.org Facebook @washburntrailrunners

for use, we are making small modifications to make them easier to maintain with grooming equipment. Yes, the narrow bridge on ITS 83 will be groomed this season. Thank you to all the members who took the time to make the drag. It will certainly make for a nice transi- tion over to our system. Unlike last season, the kitchen will be open this year! Friday, January 7, 2022, will be the first day we are open for the season. As usual, the hours of operation are Friday & Saturday 7AM to 2PM and Sunday 7AM to 12PM. We will also be open every day during February Break. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more information. Dick, Audrey, and the entire Kitchen Crew are looking forward to serving up delicious meals to keep you ener- gized for long days on the trails! We have great news for this season. We have (finally) made the move to Tucker and are tak- ing delivery of our new 2022 Tucker Terra in January of 2022. Do not worry, we already have a Tucker loaner until ours arrives! We are looking forward to the move to Tucker and the improvements it will bring to our trail system. A huge thanks to Paul at Track Inc. for all the great customer support. Not only with the pur- chase of the new machine, but for all the sup- port while we had no machine to use at the end of last season. These guys are great to work with and are exception people in general! Lastly, if you are a member stop by anytime and warm up in the clubhouse. If you are not a member yet, why not? Your membership is a fantastic way of showing that you support the efforts of our club and helps us keep things going. If you are a member and live in the area, please consider being an active member and helping with things around the club. We can always use an extra set of hands. Club meet- ings are the 2nd Wednesday of every month starting at 6:30PM. We hope to see you there! In closing, we at Washburn Trail Runners hope you and your families have a Happy Thanksgiving! Kindly, Tim Stitham – President Hi Gang, What a beautiful Fall we have had, just hope our Winter is just as nice for all you sledders out there! I need to start by listing our offi- cers as there are a lot of changes this year. Our Snowgang officers are as follows: Pres.: Keith Sanford, Vice Pres. : Randy Bates, Sec.: Kim Joyce, Treasurer: With the passing of our beloved Carolyn Splan, this position is open. Carolyn was our Treasurer and a founding member of the Snowgang, and held this posi- tion for 30 years - she will be sorely missed and never forgotten. We are in hopes to fill this position at our first club meeting. The club held our annual Landowner Appre- ciation BBQ at Keith Sanford’s event barn last month. We had a very nice crowd, and with the BBQ feast including chicken, ribs, pulled pork, hotdogs and hamburgers, salads and des- serts --- no one left hungry. Thanks again to Keith and company for an AWESOME meal!! Moving on to trails, I am told by Trailmas- ter Patrick Joyce that we have a couple of reroutes on ITS 81 in Benedicta. The first one is on the “Mill Road” where the building of a new home will force us off the road, but luck- ily, we will only have to move past the ditch line with a minimal amount of work. The sec- ond reroute is South of Benedicta on Lawler Ridge, only a mile past my house. Again, we have to move off the road due to a house, but the landowner, who has a big tree farm there is going to let us cut a new trail right through it!! This to me is unheard of ~~ THANK YOU Dr. BREEZ!! Again, this year we will have to use the club trail as ITS81 coming out of Sherman towards Benedicta, please follow the signs closely!! On the membership side of things, Randy Bates has taken this on and is doing a heck of BENEDICTA SNOWGANG Benedicta, 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

CHAPMAN RIDGE RUNNERS SNOWMOBILE AND ATV CLUB Mapleton, ME Facebook and Crrrsc.org

Dear Members, As I write this newsletter, the beautiful fall leaves are nearly gone, but the peak time for the colorful trees was gorgeous this year. The fall rains have started now and we have had to give up on some projects that we were trying to complete. Most of our summer/fall work has cen- tered on trail 105 South, or the Swanback Trail that links up with Walker Siding Club’s trails. This is our oldest trail, established in the 1970s-1080s. We have ditched, replaced culverts and removed “crowning” in the trails. Much bulldozing has been done and some excavating. There were many beaver dams to remove. Beavers certainly are “busy” crea- tures! We may yet find some more. Trail 81, into the town of Mapleton also had a dam right up the side of the trail and there may be some closer to town, where it is very wet. Some of the work may have to be done after the ground freezes. Also, we are in the process of check- ing trails for downed trees and have removed quite a few of those. There is so much work to get ready for the winter. The culvert replace- ment will also benefit the ATV members, as 105 S is used by both snowmobiles and ATVs. The older club bulldozer that we purchased last year has really had a workout. The club Ranger ATV (with tracks) was especially help- ful with transporting fuel and crews to the site. This trail remains closed until all of the equip- ment has been removed. Watch Facebook for updates. Club members will soon be working on the roof of the sign shed (the old Chapman school house) on the rear addition portion. The build- ings have to be preserved to protect tools, equipment and supplies. Several members also worked this spring on caulking bolts on the roof of the “Bull Pen,” the groomer storage building. This repaired most of the leaks! As for winter activities, we will hold off for just a few weeks to see how the Covid num- bers are looking. We are anxious to get back to “normal,” but do not want to jeopardize anyone’s health. We had a very successful Indoor Yard Sale in October. Thanks so much to generous community and club members! People were so grateful for our friendly prices and our willingness to help out others. Even with social-distancing, the workers had a great time interacting with the customers and visit- ing with friends! The club is now getting ready to apply for grants to replace our 20-year-old groomer. It’s a great machine and we have mixed emotions about selling it, but another club may gain a really dependable machine. Financially it is the right time. In closing, if you have any questions about applications, call Carolyn at 762-3702, ques- tions about activities should go to Sue at 764-1236, and questions about trails should go to Mickey at 764-1236. Remember that our applications are now available on Face- book, with Christina Olsen’s help. Have a nice Thanksgiving, hopefully with our families! Sue Maynard Secretary

Members have been busy selling MSA raf- fle tickets. Money will be used on our trails. We also have club raffle tickets, which we will only sell 100. Nov 28 th at 3:00 pm we will hold our 17th Annual Christmas Parade (Twice Around) weather permitting and after the parade at our Clubhouse Santa will visit with the children with milk & cookies. Anyone wanting a membership sound send us a message on our Facebook page and we will get you one. Pray for Snow! Until next time, keep on keeping on. Deb Long, President ROCKABEMA SNOW RANGERS Patten, ME Email: rockabemasnowrangers@gmail.com FB: Patten - Rockabema Snow Rangers At the October meeting, the Trailmaster of Patten ATV updated the club on the reroute on IT81N from the RR Bed to the K&C Quik Stop. This is a multi-use trail for ATV and snowmobile. Since it is a fresh trail and still soft, it is not open to ATV this year. The trail will be good to go this winter. K&C Quik Stop is the only place in town

ST. FRANCIS SNO ANGELSS St. Francis, ME

As I sit here tonight, the weatherman is announcing our first snow flurries for early next week. Just like that the fun begins. Our volunteers have been very busy working on

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