7448-R1_MSA_Feb2021_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News Jakins, Kelly Merrill, Kasey Fair and Trever and Josh Charters for their tire- less work and dedication to get this job done. In addition to trail clearing, they have been rebuilding bridges and working on trail re-routes. Sadly, many of the trail re-routes were nec- essary due to landowners closing off their land after some riders abusing the privilege. When you finally do see our groom- ers out on the trail, you might notice they are looking quite a bit spiffier as we recently had all new lettering done them (see pics below)! Thanks to Bourgoine Designs of Stetson for the great work!

on our Facebook page and Website for real time updates. You can also email us at information@orrington- trailriders.com or call 207-852-8000. We would like to thank all or our sup- porters for the ongoing success of our club including first and foremost the landowners. Meetings are now taking place the first Tuesday of each month at 7pm at our Clubhouse and on Zoom through April. We hope to see you there. Please take care and stay well. Laurie La Violette, President This has been a bad start of win- ter. The crew has cleaned trails 3 or 4 times because of the high winds. Thank you to Scott Wallace, Michael Merrill, Kenney Lyford, Rick Palmer, Daisy Harriman, Joshua Addle, Erin Lapierie. Sorry if I missed anybody. I’d like to thank all of the kitchen help and those who made specials and helped with cleanup. Think Snow! Happy Trails Maxine Bass CENTRAL REGION RIPLEY TRAIL RIDERS Ripley, ME I know that we tell you every year that we have some of the best land- owners around and that we appreci- ate them a lot. This fall we provided them with a great meal including PRIME RIB, FRESH SALMON, AND CHICKEN. We had a person purchase some land in a major part of our trail system and they plan to build a house very close to the trail, so we were forced to find a new access and we had other landowners make that happen for us, it did require a lot of work for the club members, however we got it done. In the spring we had another annual pot luck supper and auction and it proved to be successful for us again this year. We have another one planned on April 4, 2021 at the town office facility, come on in and join the fun. This year when the winter started, we found that we had a lot of trail work to get done due to all of the rain and wind and then the heavy wet snow. We had trees down everywhere on the trail system and as of this date we still have a few areas to get cleaned up and make the trail passi- ble. Help has been a issue due to some of our regular workers getting a little older and some illness, but we now have a lot of new and younger people stepping up to help us. WINTERPORT RIVERSIDE RIDERS Winterport, ME

(Continued from Page 23) work. We have done a lot again this year including running an excavator through a section of ITS-84 behind an emerging subdivision. We would like to thank Mike Hopkins for the use of the very nice machine and also Clifford Overlock for operating it for us. He has been a long time member of the club and has run an excavator through most, if not all, of the trails in Hermon! We all know the fall and early winter has been a turbulent one with several high damage storms. We are still working on cleaning up the trails but we are happy to say we have had some official trail work days this season and have been getting a decent group of 5 plus people together and boy does that make quick work! This year, so far, we have received more help on trail maintenance than we have in years and that is a happy change

blazer. We moved all the components that were on the drag originally and placed them out of the elements in the back of the blazer. Lastly, we would like to thank Josh Devlin who owns Devlins Performance in Carmel for providing his expertise and helping us get our Terra Tucker serviced before the season.

This year we have decided to upgrade one of our grooming machines, as we have been looking for about 3 years for one that would fit our needs and work for us. We got this done in January this year and the people that operate it are a little excited to make it do it’s job on the trails in Ripley. We now are waiting for mother nature to get her act together and pro- vide us with the snow and stop this rain and ice stuff so we can ride. Jay Hanson, President January is almost gone and yet we still have no measurable snow for rid- ing. Are we to think it will arrive soon and stay late, since summer did the same? Let’s hope that, so we can get some time on the trails in the saddle on a sled. Many folks have helped with cutting new trails and trimming the old ones. Our trails are in good shape….. just need snow! Thank you to all those volunteers working on the trails. We are pleased to welcome nine new members this year. Of those there were six new faces at our last meeting; looking forward to seeing more of these folks in the future and getting to know them. To that end we have been testing different time slots for our meetings to accommo- date the greatest number of members. The apparently pleasing choice for monthly meeting is the third Sunday of the month at 8:00 am. Please join us and invite a friend too. The club is now meeting at the Harmony Fire Station located at 33 Cambridge Road. Our former vice president and secretary that always hosted the meetings at their restau- rant, moved to a warmer part of the USA, so we moved to another venue in town. We do want to thank Charlie and Kim for their years of service and dedication to the club. We miss you and wish you well in your new home. We are working on a new map of our local trails and hope to have it ready for sale before the end of the season. The equipment has been serviced and is ready to roll when the snow falls sufficient for grooming. Until then, do your snow dance or say a prayer for snow! Be safe and ride safe! Reporting Secretary Marie Lougee HEART OF GOLD sc Harmony, ME

We are off to a great season so far and memberships are flowing in. Please remember to join your local club and maybe give them a hand with trail maintenance on a weekend, because without snowmobile clubs there would be no trails systems to ride! To the left you will find a picture of Mike Hopkins Excavator being oper- ated by Clifford Overlock cleaning a reroute of ITS 84 and a picture of one of our trail work days above. .Respectfully Andrew Jackson So far this season, lack of snow and warm temperatures have plagued the Valley. The railbed has seen lots of activity in spite of the lack of snow. The groomer was out packing it when enough snow had fallen and it was feasible, hoping that was the start of a good base. Since then, the weather has not been very cooperative at building much out there. This fall, a lot of work and a lot of gravel was brought in to fill holes, etc. on the railbed. Funds for the work were obtained by the Central Maine Trailblazers ATV club. Donations for their miles of trails were made by the Corundel Raiders S.C. of Corinna and S.V.S.C. We would like to welcome our new business member T. W. Clark of Newport who also donated $2,500 - $3,000 worth of forestry mats. To date we have 39 family members and 9 business members. A lack of snow does not mean a lack of work. A huge amount of time has been spent clearing trails. As I am sure others have seen, many of the recent storms caused incredi- ble and daunting damage with fallen trees that needed to be cleared. Many thanks to our crew – Scott and Tyler SEBASTICOOK VALLEY sc Newport, Etna, Stetson, ME

Lisa Sawyer SVSC Secretary

ORRINGTON TRAIL RIDERS Orrington, ME

Hello fellow snow enthusiasts. We hope you had a pleasant holiday sea- son. Our club membership has been continuing to meet on a monthly basis since the beginning of the season. We’ve had two significant storms that battered our trail system twice and are now recovering from the second. Lots of bridge work has been completed in addition to clearing downed trees and removing more rocks. We success- fully amended our bylaws to reflect the growing need for flexibility within our club. Plans are set to have our Vintage Snowmobile Ride In and Show on Saturday February 27th. This year not only does its happening depend on what snow depth we have but it also depends on what Covid-19 restrictions are in place at the time. Right now, at the time of writing, we are anticipating it as an all outdoors event. That means the inside of the Clubhouse will not be accessible to visitors. Of course, we will have outdoor facilities available as well as food and drinks. Please keep an eye

To finish this up we have made some moves as far as club equipment. We had a very nice 1998 Ski-doo Formula 500 donated to the club by Terry Cliff and we thank him very much as this will be the first time in years the club has had a “club” machine to go and do trail mainte- nance with. We would also like to thank Kevin Hartford the owner of Hartford Automotive in Brewer for getting our new blazer set up. Unfor- tunately, we finally after many years of use lost the end of the frame to rust. With Kevin’s expertise it will be up and grooming in no time. We would also like to thank James Chichetto for fabricating the new hydraulics for the

ANSON-NORTH ANSON sc Anson, ME

Hi Not much to report. No in person meetings yet. It’s the middle of Jan-

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