7854-R1_MSA_Jan2022_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News

night we had an inch or two but this morning it is raining and warming up. At our monthly meeting this week we had six members in attendance. We still would like to have more members come and help with the club. The trails are ready and waiting for snow. The new shed we put up for the Ranger is working out great and we will also put the new bush hog in there for the winter. We are working on new sign boards for the trail that will have an area map showing our trail, points of interest and food and fuel locations. The xmas cards to the land owners produced a number of returning communications, all good. A QR code for our face book page is about ready. It will allow members and future members to “click and join”. I will again close this news letter with a request to look around at your friends and neighbors and talk to them about the club and ask them to join and enjoy the local trails. If they don’t ride invite them to join you and see how much enjoyment snowmobiling is. So, Ride Right, Stay in Control, and Think Snow and enjoy our trails. Hal Garnett, Club Secretary www.cobbosseeconteesnowmobileclub.com Trail crews continue with trailwork like most clubs, lots to do in a short amount of time to do it. We welcome the cold weather as it helps freeze the ground and wet areas. Grooming equipment, trailmaster and crew all on standby and ready to go for when the snow does arrive. Reminder to respect the trail you ride; a landowner has given permission for us to use it not abuse it. They can easily shut it down for misuse. Slow down as never know what is around the next corner, groomer, snowmobile, deer or people may be walking on trail. Our Christmas party was held December 17 th with great food, gifts and fantastic club members. Although no one from our club won or sold a winning MSA Super raffle ticket, appreciate all the support of those who purchased from us and special thanks to Four Corners Store and Fuller’s Market for supporting us in selling tickets at their businesses. Club meets 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m., 3 rd Tuesday potluck supper is held at 6:15 p.m. with meeting to follow. Did I mention we have some mighty fine cooks/ bakers? Any high school student in need of commu- nity service, contact Dave Cogley, Trailmas- ter for dates/times to help. Get out into the outdoors, help your local snowmobile club, dedicated volunteers and gain the community service you need. Charlene McFarland Club Secretary COBBOSSEECONTEE sc West Gardiner, ME Hi, Our last meeting was on December 8th, it was a potluck Christmas meeting. Mike reported that the work on Mill Stream is completed, repairs have been made to the bridge, swamp pads installed, dips filled in and rocks and trees cleared! He also said we have new landowners with our trails on their land. They gave permission to use them on a yearly basis, depending on how snowmobil- ers affect their land. So please remember to respect landowners and their property or we will lose the trails. “Its up to you.” We are planning on having our trailside cookout again during the February Maine School vacation. We don’t have any indoor events due to covid, but can safely have out- door events. We are also plan on holding an Ice Fishing Derby February 12 depending on the weather and ice conditions. Check our Face- book page for updates and other information. ANSON-NORTH ANSON sc Anson, ME

Trails are just about ready to open, signs are up, trails are marked, trees and brush cleared. Lots of work has been done, thank you to all that volunteered their time. Our next meeting will be January 12, 2021 at the Anson town hall 7:00 pm. Let’s hope for lots of snow, Wishing everyone a Happy Healthy new year. ANASC Happy New Years wishes from the Smith- field Moonshiners Snowmobile Club. We ended the year with some emergency repairs to our connector trail to ITS-87. We were noti- fied of a bridge failure on our Norridgewock trail which is our primary access to the ITS. Our trailmaster put the call out for help on Facebook and the response was impressive. Trailmaster and team assembled materials, labor and it was repaired/replaced in less than two weeks from its discovery. Many thanks to all who responded, helped with acquisi- tions and the landowner who allowed us to invade his driveway the Sunday morning after Christmas. We have a dedicated trail grooming team that stays on top of our trail situations through- out the season. We are eager to hit the trails with can-do attitudes, LET IT SNOW!! Hans Rasmussen hanseieio@gmail.com SMITHFIELD MOONSHINERS sc Smithfield, ME Happy holidays from The Forks Area Trails Club. I know you are looking forward to get- ting on the trails as much as we are! Here are some early season riding updates, trail changes and expectations. First things first, the trails are NOT open! The last storm we did receive a couple inches and looks like a couple more on the way this week. It’s a good start but please stay off the trails. We have a lot of water holes, soft spots and need colder weather to harden every- thing up. Looking at the 10 day plus forecast it doesn’t look like we will be able to get out there until after the new year. Trail changes Some good news! We are happy to announce we will have the Pleasant Pond Trail and all of the Bald Mountain Trail open this year! The bad news which may be moot at this point, is we won’t have access until AFTER the sec- ond week of January. The trails are marked on either side of this closure. Please respect the landowners request as there is active logging going on in this area. The rest of our trail sys- tem will remain unchanged. Our groomers have all been serviced and ready to go. As soon as the ground is frozen, and we have enough snow to pan and pack, we will be out there! Please like and follow us on Facebook for the latest trail updates and news. Looking ahead to next season, we need a new drag. These drags run in the $20k to $30k dollar range so we are asking to please join the club, donate to the club and participate in some of our fundraisers we will be doing this year. Every little bit helps. We will have trail donation bins at local businesses, and we will be doing a 50/50 raffle this year. Only 500 tickets will be sold at $10 dollars apiece. We will have multiple locations to purchase and more details to follow. A HUGE shoutout to all the volunteers that helped on our system this year. New bridges, MUCH more signage and a lot of excavat- ing trail work, widening, brushing, removing rocks and adding material. Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. Maybe Santa will bring us some snow! Ben Towle President and Trail Master THE FORKS AREA TRAILS CLUB The Forks, ME

the maps will be mailed. Some maps were specially printed on backers, to be placed outdoors, at trail intersections with “You Are Here” marked. Andy Merrill offered to make 5 Kiosks for those maps. Jackie Barber and Judy Pelletier volun- teered to collect raffle prizes for the Club Rally, to be held at The Bridgton Community Center on February 19, 2022. Duane Hendrix and Jimmy Barber volunteered to cook at the event. Thanks to all for your hard work, and for volunteering to make this Rally a success- ful and fun event. Blaine closed the meeting early so we could begin the very popular Yankee Gift Exchange. Each Club member brought a $20 gift marked “male” “female” or “either”. Each member then drew a number from a bag, that sets the sequence of the gift selections. When your number is called you select a gift and open it. You have a choice to keep the gift or “Go Shopping” to exchange your gift with one already selected. It is amazing how many times some of the more popular items can change hands in one night! This year the most popular exchanges were a bottle of wine, and a bag full of Lottery Tickets. A Great Time was had by all! Our next meeting will be January 14th, 2022 at the Bridgton Community Center, with the Fabulous Pot Luck Supper at 6PM followed by the business meeting at 6:45 . We will be discussing the Rally and the Club Trips to Millinocket and Caribou. Hope to see you there. It’s time to start your snow dance! PS. Santa made a brief appearance during the meeting and Mary Corthell thinks that Santa bears a small resemblance to her hus- band Bob. Bill Preis BER Club Correspondent See us on Facebook bridgtoneasyriders.com 207-647-2847 NORWAY TRACKERS Norway, ME Find us on Facebook norwaytrackerssnowmobileclub@gmail.com Happy New Year Sledders, We are excited to have some snow on the ground before Christmas and are looking for- ward to putting our groomers through their paces. Our 76 tucker is back from the paint shop and back together. Our new to us 93 tucker is out of the garage after undergoing multiple repairs and upgrades. A couple hun- dred man-hours were spent on this this fall getting it ready for this season along with a few thousand dollars’ worth of parts. All three tuckers received new strobe caution lights as well. Thank you to everyone who has worked on these to get them ready for the trails.

WESTERN REGION

PEJEPSCOT SNO-CHIEFS Lisbon Falls, ME Find us on Facebook

Happy New Year from Pejepscot Sno-Chiefs! We hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays! A fresh coat of snow was the icing on the cake, & makes us all dream snowmobiling! 12 of us had a blast at our December meet- ing/Christmas Party, Dec. 7th. Thank you Steve for the delicious treat of lobster stew, & those addictive cheddar biscuits Susan made! Lots of good natured ribbing during the Yankee Swap -- there’s always that one or two gifts in hot demand. We surprised Gordon with a 85th birthday cake, Gordon is a founding member and very active in all aspects of our club which we all appreciate very much. Happy birthday Gordon! Harvey told us the State has acquired 32 miles of abandoned railroad bed, starting point is Oakland, and will be a multi use trail. But it’s probably going to be a couple years before it’s finished! And the snowmobile show back on this year, & hopefully next year, too. Trail work was still on as of this meeting, but here’s hoping by the time you are reading this, the guys are grooming! The club did purchase a new chainsaw for ongoing trail work. Hey!! Don’t forget our World’s Greatest Sleigh Ride, Sunday, Feb 20 th , 10am-to approx. 2pm, outer Main St, Lisbon Falls. We typi- cally hold this fundraiser event with or without snow,& it’s a fun family winter activity. Ralph makes sure we have a classic sleigh ride trail through fields & woods, & you don’t want to miss out on the Curtis family’s famous hot, homemade donuts! Our next meeting is Tuesday, Jan 11th, 6pm, at the home of the Haggerty’s -- Cheryl has gra- ciously offered to serve us dinner in the comfort of their home! Hope to see you there! And, join us at our Feb 8th meeting, 6pm, at the clubhouse, when we finalize Sleigh Ride details. Hopefully we will get a club ride or two in as well by then! Until then, stay safe, think snow, join & get Hello MSAMembers, The December 10th Christmas Social at The Bridgton Community Center started off with Cheese and Crackers and Punch, hosted by Bob and Mary Corthell and Jim and Jackie Barber. It was followed by a generous Pot Luck Supper spread of Christmas Holiday food including ham, pizza, casseroles of var- ious kinds, and many deserts to choose from. Blaine Chapman, President, called the Hol- iday shortened meeting to order at 6:48PM with a Pledge of Allegiance. There were 33 members present. Blaine reported that the Club had sold 3,300 Super Raffle Tickets which far exceeded last years sales! Member- ship is strong and is about the same as last year at this time. 46 members have signed up the Club Trip to Millinocket in February, and over 35 for the cub trip to Caribou in March! There is a trail change near Gagnon Plumb- ing. New fencing was added to highlight the new trail. Most of the signage has been com- pleted as well as a few small trail changes. Thanks to the Trail Crew who tirelessly shows up each Sunday morning. More hands makes light work! Thanks to Richard Sens for arranging theAd for the BER February 19th Rally that appears on the Bridgton Drive In Theater Sign. Also, special thanks to Bill and Kathy Masterson for again brushing the trail from Highland lake to Rt 117. Bill Preis, Map Coordinator, showed the new 2022 Lakes Region Snowmobile Map to the Club, and maps were handed out to the members who were present. The rest of active in your local club! Respectfully submitted, Libby Nilsen, club reporter BRIDGTON EASY RIDERS Bridgton, ME

For our December meeting, we collected toys from our members to donate to our local Christmas for Kids. We filled a car with toys as well as a couple hundred dollars in cash. Norway Trackers club members collected toys and cash to donate to Christmas for Kids.

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