7854-R1_MSA_Jan2022_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News

enough. Lets hope by the time you are reading this we have had plenty of snow and are out enjoying the trails. Bring on the 2021-22 season and make it a safe one! Hope to see you on the trails William Allard Trail Master The season is in full swing. Trails should be great. All signed and groomed, ready for riding. We are planning on a safety check in January and a sliding party on February 27th. FMI call Gary at 207-462-5758. See you on the trails. Respectfully submitted, Brad Greetings Everyone, I would like to start this letter by thank- ing everyone who makes what we do possi- ble. The volunteers who do all the hard work getting our trails ready and safe and to those behind the scenes getting all the details for our maps and meeting with our landowners to make sure our relationships with them are good ones. Without them, we’d be lost. Thank you to Jon and Bruce at the Old Saco Inn for hosting our club Christmas party this year. It was a great time as usual and the food was delicious. LEEDS STUMP THUMPERS sc Leeds, ME FRYEBURG AREA SNOWMOBILE ASSOCIATION Fryeburg, ME

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Congrats to all the winners in the super raf- fle, we hope you enjoy your prizes! Happy Holidays to all,

Mount Tom sc Sumner, ME

Thank you to everyone who contributed for this worthy cause. Our new maps are printed and for sale at Smokin Daves, The Lake Store, and the Nor- way town hall. We welcome everyone to come to Norway to check out our trails. While you’re here, we encourage you to support our business members who support us. Morse Logging, EA. Smith Plumbing and Heating, MW and Son Excavation, MW Trucking and Logging, Lakeside Norway, Pleasant Hill Property Ser- vices, Walter Curtis Logging, Roberts Over- head Door, Western Hills Property Group, The Lake Store, Ari’s Pizza and Subs, Snow’s Marine Service and Storage, Norway Brewing Company, Hillside Cottages, Smokin’ Dave’s Backyard BBQ and Grill, and Norway Lake Marina. Thank you to all our business mem- bers for your support. Follow us on Facebook as we will be sched- uling club rides and a progressive dinner ride as well as meeting updates. We are hosting our open house and light parade on February 19 th . Enjoy the ride Dan Trouant, Club Reporter Hi there! Our December meeting was held last night at the Oxford Community Rec Hall. We are optimistic about being able to use or rework our regular trail system. (At least for this season) We made plans for hosting the January MSA Directors meeting. Meeting is scheduled for January 25, 2022. Dinner at 5, Meeting at 6 PM. Address: Corner King Street and Route 121 (Pleasant St.) Oxford. Community Rec- reation Hall. We also voted to have a fundraiser calendar in March to replenish our Local Scholarship Fund. We would like to have a cruise night for the antique snowmobiles...Snow permitting. More info will be available next month. EVERY- THING depends on the snowfall. Just so you know......We “think” we have the beaver dam under slight control. Some of our members have been down there...hooked on to the beaver dam and hauled it out. BY HAND!! However, those little critters are still fighting for their home ‘till the bitter end. No matter what...We at Rock O Dundee Riders want to wish all of you and your fami- lies a VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR! Terri Major, Secretary Hello Maine snowmobilers, Here at the NFSC we’ve been busy this fall with two major trails rerouted. One in Phillips on ITS 89 that included a new 24’ bridge and quite a bit of excavator work. (watch for new trail signage.) NFSC also had another reroute on ITS 84 in Freeman which was a new trail built from scratch through heavily wooded section due to new landowner shutting off their land (watch for new trail signage.) As I write this there is about 9 inches of snow on the ground and woke to -4 tem- perature. I have been out on the NFSC new 2022 skandic surveying the trails to see where brushing is needed at present time, water holes are just starting to freeze. Still need few good snowstorms to cover up hazards. Groomers will be in for service and Drags will be reattached. Fields have had stakes installed to try to help keep riders on marked trail. Hopefully we receive more snow sooner than later. Past few years it seems the sea- son starts later and later are seasons are short ROCK-O-DUNDEE RIDERS Oxford, ME NORTH FRANKLIN sc Phillips, ME

Bridget Gorton Club Secretary

NEW VINEYARD sc New Vineyard, ME

New Vineyard Snowmobile Club welcomes partnership with Strong/Narrow Gauge Club: The New Vineyard Snowmobile club has seen a decline in membership over the past few years with the loss of several active mem- bers who performed the necessary work to keep our trails in good condition. Recently, we have been blessed with assistance from Strong club members who have volunteered to work on our trails and to also provide groom- ing of trails wich connect their trails with ours, thus providing good access to ITS Trails that are connector--and that pass by Our Village Market in New Vineyard.

Hello everyone, winter is upon us. The club has been busy. We got several bridges ready for snow. With the couple of snow storms we’ve gotten recently we’ll be able to get the sleds out and really bring the trails up to par for riding. We recently had several new business memberships and have gotten sev- eral new family membership. A big thank you to all our members for there support. Happy winter. VP Ben Hadley, Mount Tom SC Greetings and Happy New Year from Car- rabassett Valley. Our Club House, snowmo- bile and groomer storage is just a few miles from the base of Sugarloaf Mountain. We have covered storage for approximately 120 snowmobiles which are owned by club mem- bers from Carrabassett Valley and other Maine and New England residents who spend time here. We have approximately 55 miles of trails between Kingfield and Eustis/Stratton. What you may not know about Carrabassett Val- ley is that many of those trails are located on land owned by the Penobscot Indian Nation. Carrabassett Valley land area is about 54,000 acres of which the Penobscot Indian Nation owns 24,000 acres. Our trails were built with landowner permission in the 1980s. Each year we submit a request for permission to main- tain and groom the trails for public access. Our request has not been granted for the 21/22 snowmobile season as of this writing. Please note that until further notice most of the snowmobile trails in Carrabassett Val- ley are closed and posted with no trespassing signs. The lots at Ayottes Market and behind our club house (near the Sugarbowl), have no trail access. We remain hopeful that access will be granted from the Penobscot Nation. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more information which is where we will post updates. Club directors are working locally on a temporary solution for access but snowmo- biles for now will have to be trailered from where most members store their sleds. We are also sorting out the logistics of grooming the Bigelow Trail from Lexington to Stratton and the Caribou Pond Trail from the power lines or Mountain Trail going to Stratton. Bigelow Lodge located in the Bige- low Preserve will be operated again this win- ter by our own president, trailmaster, (and groomer of the year last year), Travis Rodrick. The Lodge will be opened Saturdays and Sun- days between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM and during Maine’s February school vacation, the 19th to 27 th . Stop by for some sweet treats Club president Brent Hadley with grand- son Ethan Hadley, photo credit Ben Hadley. Small bridge over a nuisance waterhole in Sumner,ME on orchard trail. J.V. Wing sc Carrabassett Valley, ME Find us on Facebook

Recently, a group of members of both clubs replaced a damaged bridge which crosses a brook near the market. This in one of several bridges which require replacing/repairing in order to accommodate grooming equipment. Members of both clubs have been working to improve New Vineyard’s trails. Planned improvements of our trails will allow better grooming. Dick Hargreaves Reporter Greetings all, A small group of club members met on December 15 th for the annual Christmas pot luck. We would like to have had a bigger crowd but understand it is a busy time of year. We had enough food to feed a small army and was all very good. We ended the evening with a toast to a great winter of snowmobiling with a delicious homemade apple moonshine! A couple of trails in town are in the process of being rerouted due to new landowners with trails being shut down or just trying to avoid going on plowed driveways. It definitely keeps the guys busy. This seems to be an ongoing, challenging issue that causes more work every year. For several years now our small club has been strictly a working club- all work and no fun. There has been recent talk about planning some organized rides and maybe a summer cook out. A big thank you goes out to all members who contribute their time and their own money plowing, sanding, improving the groomers, fixing up the club house and garage, grooming trails with their personal snowmobiles, and many other contri- butions that go without recognition. We hope to see you on the trails soon. Respectfully, Leah Frechette, Club reporter STREAKED MOUNTAINEERS sc Buckfield, ME

Our wonderful volunteers completed a huge task by replacing one of our bridges the first weekend in December. It came out great and should last for many years to come. Thank you to everyone who donated their time and equipment to get the job done! You guys are awesome!

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