7361-R3_MSA_Nov2020_MaineSnowmobiler

Maine, are healthy and doing well. I am sure that a lot of us have a lot of stories to tell, but will save that for a long ride sometime in the next few months. MSA Club News

Follow us on Facebook and visit our website windhamdrifters.com. Due to COVID 19, club meetings are being conducted by only key club officers at this time. Till next time, Shane Spencer-Club Reporter

ding season. We have several bridge repair projects coming up in the near future and as always, most of the trail system needs to be walked and brush trimmed. If you have some time and would like to volunteer to help with remaining tasks, please contact Bob Casey, our trailmaster. Contact infor- mation can be found on our website and on our Facebook page. Recently, a generous landowner in Windham offered use of their land to the club and created a trail for the club to use! Special thanks to Brian Mills for his generosity! “Thank you”, to all those who have supported our club, we welcome new individual, family and business members. Please look for new updated trail maps. The “gas trail” to the Citgo sta- tion on Rt 302 will be back open this season. The trail access to the west side of Little Sebago, south of the Narrows, is still closed. Watch for club rides and activities later this season. Lastly, a special, thanks to those dedicated officers and members who work year-round for our club to keep everything going.

a little easier: Ride right, ride within your abilities, STAY ON MARKED TRAILS, thank a landowner, register your sled, don’t drink and drive, be respectful of noise levels when riding by a dwelling. Doug Doherty, President SPSC ALNA sc Alna, ME Hello fellow readers and riders, I think we can all agree let’s rid our- selves of 2020 and start with a fresh blanket of snow to start the New Year fresh! We held our first meeting of the season on Oct. 1st. 25 members safely gathered and it was great see- ing neighbors and friends again. Many items were discussed, the bud- get was reviewed, signage for the town trails, dragging to Pittston, and memberships were among the agenda. Our next meeting will be voting in our officials. Several members met Oct 14th at Taylor and Kristina’s home to mail memberships for the 2020/21 sea- son. We hope to have a strong club this year. We are very happy to report 3 new members from our neigh- bors to the South, New Hampshire! Welcome! Our MSA raffle ticket sales are in full swing. By all accounts Paul and Estelle are running neck to neck, keep up the good work to see who is ticket sales King or Queen! Our thoughts are with the Puckey family. Priscilla is in Maine Med and we hope to have her back among us very soon! We hold our meetings the first Thursday of each month at the Alna Firehouse at 6:30 pm. All of our meetings are pot luck. Please mark on your calendars: our annual Christmas Party is scheduled for Thursday December 3rd. This gathering is always a fun filled event and we hope to see everyone in their festive Red and Green to welcome in the Holiday Season! Hope everyone enjoys the crisp Fall weather and please do your snow dance to start this season off early! Joel Verney, Club Reporter

COASTAL REGION

SACO PATHFINDERS sc Saco, ME Find us on Facebook

And just like that, the boats and campers have been winterized and the temperature has dropped 30 degrees almost overnight. Hopefully you got your sleds out from under cover and have started prepping them for the white gold coming soon. Times have been tough the past few years down here in Saco. It seems like every time we get a nice dumping of snow, we’ll get an inch of rain right after. We have our fingers crossed for some decent snow and cold conditions to maintain the base and have a good riding sea- son along the southern coast. Club meetings are back in full swing at the clubhouse. On the first Wednesday of each month, we begin the evening with a pot luck dinner at 6:00 and then the meeting at 7:00. On the third Wednesday of the month, we have just the meeting at 7:00. It’s always nice to see some new faces. We have been very fortunate in our trail work to date. Nearly every Sunday, we have 12 – 20 members show up ready to tackle our trails and bridges. The trails are in fairly good shape already and the solid number of members volunteering makes quick work when we can send out a few groups in different directions almost every week. I know people are so busy with everything going on in life, but the next time you are out cruising any trail, remember, that trail didn’t clear itself. Every landowner needs to be thanked for allowing us on their land. We’ve been very fortunate not to have lost too many trails to development as our area has just exploded with new homes being built everywhere. Nearly every year, we will need to move a trail or two, but the landowners have been overly generous in allowing us to do this. We always ask riders to stop if they see a landowner on their land and thank them for the privilege of riding on their property. The club has recently made two new equipment purchases. We would love to have the budget to afford a Tucker, but we aimed a little lower and got a 2016 Yamaha Viking VK Professional II and a 2009 Polaris IQ. About half of our trail system is too narrow for larger equipment, so these new grooming sleds will provide the perfect option for our trails. As we get ready to head out once the snow flies, we ask that you remember a few things to make everyone’s life

Meetings started back in Septem- ber. We have a general plan in place for a lot of trail work this fall. We have already accomplished a pretty signifi- cant bridge, and we’ve had some great club members out in Newfield doing a boatload of work over the last four or five weeks. It is always nice when you can get a jumpstart on the season. The new clubhouse down on Doles Ridge Road, has been 95% com- pleted except for the interior. It has been quite the project but with a lot of volunteers and a lot of community support we’re finally seeing the end result which is completely awesome. Now that the season is upon us, I’m sure we will have a lot more club members that can assist in finalizing the project. By the time this article runs I’m sure we will have covered all of our trail maintenance and all the signage should be put up. A lot of hard work over the last few years has paid div- idends, so this year should be rela- tively easy. Sleds and drags have been serviced, we will not get a new sled this year but stay tuned 2021 is going to be completely different. Please get membership forms in as soon as possible. They are available at the clubhouse in the box outside. If you need one mailed to you please call me direct at 207-712-6662 and I’ll put one in the mail for you. Be well, let’s ride, we all need it! Shawn Yale/ club reporter/ V.P Greetings Folks, What a year it has been!! We can only stay positive and hope 2021 is better for all. Snowmobile season is fast approaching!! Club members in Windham have been planning for the coming season and a few mem- bers have been busy mowing our trail system, making new stakes and working on club equipment. There is much work remaining to prepare the trail system for the 2020-21 sled- WINDHAM DRIFTERS Windham, ME

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

A Trailmaster is... A balding white haired guy, a bit overweight with many body parts that don’t work as well as they did forty years ago. He is the person who knows where to get the part today and is a close friend with the welder. As trail work begins in September long before the landowner permis- sion letters go out, he has already contacted those where work needs to be done, this personal contact makes all the difference in getting it done. Through these contacts he learns property has been sold to someone from away, but can’t remember the name or state. Off to the town office with the tax map page and lot number, it has not as yet been recorded but the deed is in the pile to do, the search is on. As trail system is in jeopardy a letter is sent and the wait for the response seems forever. By now you have the idea of how again this year it all comes together for another season with so little effort, or so it appears at the meetings. With snow on the ground the ‘vacation’ starts; all he has left to do is ride around on the groomer for (with luck) three months, hopefully with an understanding family. With the night off a suggestion or a night out dinner and a movie is looking good until the phone rings. “You got the groomer stuck where? I’ll call a couple of the guys and get to you ASAP. Goodnight dear, I should be back for breakfast. It has been fourteen years for me on the job and with no new young blood coming into the club I worry how long us old guys can keep it going. Our club has been going for thirty-six years.

It was a family sport but is fast becoming a money losing amateur business. State grants cover part of the expenses each year so it is yard, bake sales

RT 11 STREAKERS sc Newfield/Limerick, ME streakers@yahoo.com Find us on Facebook

and loans frommembers that keep us going. Why do we keep doing each year? Because we enjoy the sport. Contributed by a tired old trailmaster.

Welcome back everyone! What a long, strange trip it’s been. First and foremost I’d like to put out there that I hope the entire Maine snowmobil- ing family, as well as everyone that supports snowmobiling in the state of

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