7448-R1_MSA_Feb2021_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News

tion McNeil insisted that his company pay for the total custom warp. Marcus wanted to show their appreciation to Brian and the club for their contin- ued support of their community and Tucker Sno-Cat family. Needless to say, Brian and everyone at Red Arrow Snowmobile Club were in awe of the patriotic custom wrap. It was obvious they feel like we do that our veterans should be honored! We want to thank them for doing this and for all the help on this 2 year project in ordering our new groomer. If you have any questions you can reach me at 543-1953, Patty Well, here we are in the middle of January with only a few inches of snow on the ground and not much in the forecast. We had a pretty good base and then we had warm weather and rain. Everyone is anxious for that BIG storm that will give us enough for the groomers to get out. We all need to do our “snow dance”! We had our January meeting last night and among the things discussed was our annual auction. This is our biggest fund raiser of the year. Last year we raised an unprecedented amount of $14,000.00. With the Covid-19 and all of the regulations surrounding it, we are unable to have a live auction. This is a huge amount of money to lose. To help compensate for this loss, we are instead doing a “GHOST AUCTION”. We are reach- ing out to all of our past donors and to anyone else who would like to con- tribute, to make a monetary donation to the club. Our auction would have been held on March 13th, so we are asking for all donations to be in before then. If you want to donate, you may do so by sending a check to the Ash- land Snowmobile Club, PO Box 273, Ashland, ME 04732. We’ll be grateful for any donation that you can make. We had our January drawing for our “SNOW 300” tickets. The winners are as follows: $500.00 Woody Simp- son, $200.00 Sandy Gagnon, $100.00 Matt McHatten, and (4)$50.00 The Stedman family, Kevin Robinson, Monica Chipman and Big Boom. We’d like to thank these December winners for donating all or a portion of their winnings back to the club. Reid McLaughlin $300.00, Judy Swanton $100.00 and Tadashi Spencer $50.00. Their generosity is much appreciated. In closing, pray for snow and have that “snow dance”. Until next month, Mary Ellen Chasse reporting for the Ashland Snowmobile Club. ASHLAND sc Ashland, ME

Canty’s out to Owlsboro Road. We had a good crew and accomplished a lot but not all of it. There is additional cutting to be done on Point of Pines (ITS81) off Ackley Pond Road to get ITS81 completed. A blessing in disguise that we have had little snow cover but there is still running water that hasn’t frozen either. Let’s hope we can get things cleared and we will be off to a good riding season once the snow starts accumu- lating. Groomers are ready to go! Until next Month, Stay safe. Charlene Fraser Club Secretary/Reporter ST FRANCIS SNO-ANGELS St. Francis, ME As I compose this letter tonight, we are the proud owners, for now, of 6 inches of brand new heavy white snow. We, way up north, are nor- mally blessed with this white gold early in December but this year has been a little different to say the least. The groomer is out tonight doing the run to the Carter Brook Clubhouse. Tomorrow they will do the section to adjoin with the Allagash trails and possibly the Heritage trail to Fort Kent the day after. Our lodge remains closed for now due to our concerns with the coro- navirus but our trails are open and welcoming to all of you outdoor winter sports enthusiasts. Our lakes are beginning to freeze up and some portions of the river are beginning to freeze up as well. For those of you who have been here, the memories of our area remain as there is no more beautiful area, wide open trails, and unparalleled beauty. For those of you who have never been the rumors are all true. We have been forced to cancel our annual Race Your Neighbor event as the COVID numbers are continuing to escalate and for now the risk is just too high to our volunteers but that gives us a year to plan our next great event. Stay tuned, and if the vaccine starts to make inroads, we may still be able to open our lodge. If you are in the area and if you notice we are open, stop in and say hi. We would love to meet you all and wel- come you to our area. Here’s wishing and hoping.

on. Be careful, going out too early can really cause some damage. Two dealers have told us that they make a lot of money when riders go out to early. But we are so anxious for this season!! The crews are already; we just need snow. The trails have been cleared of blowdowns at least 3 times, and then more trees fell. What a windy year 2020 was, even over the summer. Now, 2021 is shaping up to be the same. Be careful out there. They can fall even overnight. The crew has been busy replacing hoses and fittings on the groomer, just due to wear and tear, but this is important. We’ve also implemented a cleaning procedure for the cab as we get into grooming. The groomers have been meeting and all maintenance has been done: oil changes, greasing, hydraulics checked, fluids filled, win- dows cleaned, paint touched up. Our machine is older, but ready to go and in good shape. The drag has also been tweaked and checked over. Our crew deserves a big “Thank you!” As I said in the fall, we are not holding get-togethers, but the direc- tors and groomers have been meeting and addressing any problems. Please know that you can check in with any of the officers if you have a question. If you call the President (Mickey) at 764-1236, he will direct you to some- one if he cannot answer your ques- tion. Practice your snow dance and I hope to see you on the trails soon! Sue Maynard Secretary PORTAGE LAKERS sc Portage Lake, ME Contact Us! portagelakersmembership@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/portage.lakers The Portage Lakers are already off to a great start for this snowmobile season! Make sure all your sledding friends have joined a club and if they haven’t, send them our way. Email us at portagelakersmembership@gmail. com or visit www.portagelakers.org ($15 Associate Club Family Member- ship; $30 Family Membership; $50 Business Membership). PLSC mem- ber meetings are held on the first Fri- day of the month, 6:30 PM at Dean’s Motor Lodge. Whether you are travel- ing by car or by sled, plan to join us at one of our coming meetings; February 5, March 5 and April 2. Please check our Facebook page for any changes to our regular monthly meetings. (Continued on Page 22) Or visit us on the web: www.portagelakers.org Find us on Facebook!

BENEDICTA SNOWGANG Benedicta, ME

NORTHERN REGION RED ARROW sc St. Agatha, ME Deadlines for club news is the 25 th of the month prior to the publications. Please submit articles to editor@mesnow.com

Hi Gang, Well, I am typing on the 19th of Jan. and I have NOTHING to report. We may have maybe 6” of snow, some lawns are even bare at this point. The groomers are both still at the barn, and we have no major snow coming for 7-14 days. Mother Nature has not been kind by any means. I sincerely hope we can salvage Feb. & March to help pay some of the bills. We need some serious snow-dancing RIGHT NOW. Our annual Snowgang Fishing Derby scheduled for Feb. 27th may not be held due to COVID guidelines being tightened up. Notification will be posted on Facebook one way or the other. Guess that’s it for now guys, you all stay safe out there!!! ~ Jim Splan Reporter @ Large P.S -- COVID SUCKS! P.SS -- Hope 2021 is better! P.SSS -- Snow Queen broke her leg! P.SSSS -- Did get a pic. of a snowsnake!! Rockabema Snow Rangers Patten, ME FB: Patten - Rockabema Snow Rangers Email: rockabemasnowrangers@gmail. com The January Zoom meeting started at 6pm with a welcome from our Pres- ident, Bob Howes, hoping 2021 will be better than 2020. During the previous month it was brought up to have a Trail Work Cal- endar for the fall. A suggestion was made to have people plan to do the work days on the same day as meet- ings. This would allow people to plan ahead and make it easier for those that travel. A suggestion to Create an Event like we do meetings for Trail Work Days might be helpful. The Secretary will work on creating those events. Trail work is still continuing from the clean up after the December storms. Our trails have been opened on 112 E/W and ITS 81 from Sta- cyville Railroad Bed to Club 64. This was from the help of volunteers with saws as well as excavator work by a couple of our local contractors, Greg Bivighouse (25 hours) and Greg Smallwood Inc. (5 hours). We are thankful for everyone’s help. Until you are here to see the damage you would never believe it. Pictures are posted on our FB page of some of the work groups. We are currently working on a new trail for ITS81 from Libby’s Lodge &

The Red Arrow Snowmobile Club’s much anticipated groomer arrived in December with a very special surprise. In honor of our very own Veteran Trail Boss Brian Beaulieu, Paul Tetreault, Sales Manager with Track Inc. a major distributor for Tucker Sno-Cats wanted to do something special for this 1000 Sno-Cat sold through Track

Inc. After working with Brian for 2 years trying demos he had gotten to know Brian, a disable vet who served in Iraq from 2000 to 2004 and wanted to do something special in honor of his time served along with all of our Red Arrow members who are veter- ans. He approached Marcus McNeil, president of Tucker Inc. with his idea and Marcus was all for it but when it came time to pay for the customiza-

Till next month, Kim M Ouellette

CHAPMAN RIDGE RUNNERS SNOWMOBILE AND ATV CLUB Mapleton, ME

At this writing, we still do not have enough snow to groom or ride

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