7422-R2_MSA_Jan2021_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News Luckily, we had enough space to host a small gathering of members. The storm was in full force, but we did not lose power until the event had ended. We have also been busy clearing the trees at the clubhouse. We hope to have an expanded parking lot for vehicles and sleds soon. As we wait for the snow and that first ride, we want to say thanks to everyone out there who maintains the trails and we hope you all have a great, safe and fun holiday. KOKADJO ROACH RIDERS Kokadjo, Frenchtown Twp, ME Hello from Kokadjo! October 24th we held our annual fall meeting and trail work weekend. As always, everyone showed up ready to work! In case you didn’t know.... only 2 members actually live here. Our club members travel a minimum of 2 hours 1 way! These Ride or Die members show up year after year to put time and effort in to our amazing trails! Please help me extend a special thank you to each and every one of them!!! The guys have spent a lot of time in the excavator this summer and fall mulching our trails. They are beau- tiful and wide! We can’t wait to see them groomed! Submitted by: Ray Simpson

ond Tuesday of the month, and we are actively seeking for more and more members for our small club. We will put effort in to making sure we have open, flat, nice trails. In the mean- time, think snow and we will see you on the trails! Steve Marden Hi To All, This fall was going good with miles of bush hogging being done on trails, staking, signing and brushing. We had re-planked three bridges and every- thing was falling into place. Then hold on, Quadcounty trail system got 3 or 4 inches of rain, water everywhere! A section of ITS110 was flooded when the Mattawamkeag River overflowed its banks with 15 inches of water for about 1/4 mile of trail. The water has gone down now before it froze and leaving ice chunks in the trail as in previous years. We had washouts that had to be filled, thanks to T Worster Logging for hauling gravel. I am sure we will find more when we can get to sections that are inaccessible now with not frozen soft ground. Last weekend, we received rain, freezing rain, ice and snow pulling down trees across the 120+ miles of Quadcounty trail system, just like every other clubs trail in the state! This weekend more rain, freezing rain and a little snow, it didn’t do anymore damage, but it didn’t release the bent over trees, especially with over a week with no sunshine! This week is supposed to go to 0-single digits, it should start freez- ing up waterholes in the woods and chilling up the ground. We will be out cutting brush this week and probably many more to come. Quadcounty SC cooked Thanksgiv- ing dinner and served take-out only meals for 125 people, eight turkeys, 50 pounds of potatoes,4 gallons of gravy,10 dozen rolls, vegetables, 14 pies, cheese cake and 50 whoopie pies. It was hectic to say the least, but we heard good reports from peo- ple after it was over. We have served sit-down Thanksgiving dinners for the past 6 years before but with the covid we changed to take-out this year. It was still free as in previous years and donations were accepted. It is a planned event for the local community whom are missing the Bi-monthly Quadcounty Breakfasts and we can’t wait till we can do them again. Your slow typing reporter, Kevin QUAD COUNTY sc Springfield, ME

The groomers are all serviced and the drags are hooked up! We are ready for snow! Remember, follow us on Facebook for grooming and trail updates! Ride safe! Madonna Devlin, Secretary Kokadjo Roach Riders EAST BRANCH SNO-ROVERS & ATV CLUB Medway & East Millinocket, ME We had our December meeting and discussed many things, including the COVID restrictions, which means we are still unable to rent the building for functions...however our rental coordi- nator informed us he has a request to use our facilities on January 20, 2022! We cautiously hope we can accom- modate this event. We are working with our local Chamber of Commerce regarding snowmobile trail maps. We will note that trails may change due to logging operations. We invited members of Gage Hale’s family and friends to attend a tribute to Gage. An important topic of conversation was the damage this last storm did on our trail system. Trees had bent over the trail and many had fallen, mak- ing the trails impassable. Volunteers worked for 2 days to clear 4 miles of trail. Work is ongoing and another storm is predicted for this weekend. The Trailmaster noted that the trail was so bad the deer would not even go through it, they detoured around it! Work is also being done to clear the cross-country ski trail. A comment was made that all our equipment is in very good condition and is ready to go, but now the trails need hours and hours of work. Dedi- cated workers are not giving up, they are putting in the time and effort to Git ‘er Done one day at a time. Nancy C. Deschene Secretary ndesc@myfairpoint.net PARKMAN TRAILBLAZERS Parkman, ME It’s December, and didn’t we get a storm. With the wet, thawed ground this snow made nothing short of a mess. We are working hard to clear out our trails, and hoping for a freeze on our ground to get a good base. Watching our months of hard work on our trails turn into destruction after one storm, it is extremely disheart- ening. We continue to work strongly with our small crews to get trails open, and will continue to until we are fully open. Our meetings are held every sec-

Christmas and a Happy New Year. Now that the holidays are out of the way, it is time to get down to serious business, Snowmobiling. Trail work had been progressing nicely, down to the last couple areas on the trails, but the last wind storm decided to change all that. At last report the message was, we need to start all over again. Rest assured Carmel Snowmobile Club will have our trails opened up and ready to ride. Trail signs and snow fencing have been coming along, appearing at road crossings and around people’s businesses. Hopefully people will be respectful while riding this year. We are happy to report we finally finished our last bridge project for the year. It has been three years in the making. Many members have a lot of time, energy and equipment hours invested in it. We cannot say thank you enough. A special thank you to landowner Gary Verrill for allowing us to use his prop- erty and place the bridge. Club members Kris Nicola and David Cyr put together an excellent article on the Carmel Snowmobile Club. Kris did the write up, which included how the club came to exist and follows a timeline of where we are currently. David put together an awesome video showing how the club has progressed over the years. To see the video and read the article visit our Facebook page. We will have trail conditions and updates on our Face- book page as well. Check it out before hitting the trails. Ride right, ride safe and enjoy the trails. With any luck we will be seeing you riding in Carmel soon. Sincerely, Elijah Brazier Hello all, We just had our first meeting of the season this December and boy does it feel good to be back. It was a pretty busy meeting we elected our officers for this year, collected dues, discussed trail maintenance projects, and wel- comed new faces. Due to COVID, this year the GLS Fire Department has graciously let us meet in the Fire- house to be able to maintain proper social distance. We meet the 2nd Wednesday of every month. Happy holidays and I look forward to seeing you out on the trails! GRAND LAKE STREAM sc Grand Lake Stream, ME

It has certainly been a very unusual time. Our December club activities are now cancelled as I write this news. Since this is the January Newsletter, I haven’t learned yet whether our events will be cancelled again. If they are cancelled, Glenn Taylor will post it on our Facebook page. Just check that page. Hopefully, we won’t have to cancel any longer, but with this COVID pandemic, it wouldn’t sur- prise me if we have to cancel. I don’t have anything to report except that the trails are all checked, tweaked, and hopefully will be groomed when we have good snow. As I write this today, we have received just a smattering of snow, but the ground is white and it glistens in the sunshine. It is really pretty. I hope everyone had a nice Christ- mas and NewYears’. So many people are saying that they were restricting their activities as I am writing this newsletter for January. So, we’ll see. Sadly, we lost one of our original club members a few months back in August, Spike Moffatt passed away. He helped on trails and was very sup- portive of the Club. We send our con- dolences to his wife Sharon. Just a note, if you haven’t renewed your memberships as yet, please try to do so. The Club will lose a lot of revenue because of being closed. We can really use the support. Thank you to all the men who worked on trails this fall. Happy Trails, Kathy Carson, club reporter Well, COVID-19 continues to make this a very challenging year. We have been on the trails and have done a lot of bridge work. The bridge behind the clubhouse has been upgraded and we have the materials to upgrade the one at Mohawk Stream. The weather is not cooperating, and this may need to be put off until the summer. We still need to check for blowdowns from the last storms, but the ground is too soft right now. Sadly, some trail areas by Lower Cross Rd in Hudson have been closed by landowners. 4 wheelers have been running on the road causing damage, so they closed the area to everyone. This is just a reminder that we have trail access only with the landowner’s permission and if we lose that, we lose the trails. We are still hoping that we can work something out. The Christmas party was moved to the clubhouse due to the social distance requirements at restaurants. PUSHAW LAKE sc Hudson, ME Find us on Facebook

We have two re-routes this year due to logging operations. There’s a small change on the way to Northeast Carry as well as one on the B-Pond trail. Please follow us on Facebook, where we will be posting some details on these changes as well as updates throughout the coming season. Do you love riding the Kokadjo trail system like we do? You don’t have time to help do trail work? No worries! Please consider joining our club anyways. Your club dues will help in so many ways to help keep our trail system working smoothly! You can find the membership form on our website. www.KRRSC.org The before and after the widening of the B Pond trail. Photo: Paul Napolitano

Cheers, Kendall

PINE TREE sc Milford, ME Hello Fellow Members,

(Continued on Page 24)

23

m o

o w

2 0 2 1 l M a i n e S n

b i l

e r

J

u a r y

a n