7909-R2_MSA_Mar2022_MaineSnowmobiler

MSA Club News

to it. I just want to put it out there how much I personally appreciate all he does for Ebeemee Snowmobile Club. Thank you, Pete! Then we have our A Team of John Troyan and Melissa Brown. These two make the night runs that make those trails amazing when you wake up and finish your coffee to head out riding for the day! John has been Pete’s right hand man again this year. He does all those little special projects that no one knows about or sees out on the trail. He just finished up with the new snow dolly for the heavier drags the sleds use. It came out great and I see another one or two in our future. Thank you, John, and thank you Melissa! Next in line is Dan Sullivan! Dan rides up from Danvers, Mass every Friday night, rides all day Saturday and then jumps in the seat of Sagamore’s Dream for the late Sat- urday night groom out. That’s a long day by my measure! Thank you, Dan! We appreciate you and are so happy you are part of our Team! And last but not least, let’s not forget Scott Lee! He is our primary snowmobile groomer operator! He takes care of the Ebeemee Moun- tain Trail, the Ballfield Trail to Brownville and the old back trail to Wildwoods/Schoodic Lake. One of my favorite Sunday afternoon rides! Thank you for taking such good care of our back trails! So fellow riders, when you are riding along, alone in your helmet, think of these folks that give up their time to make your time riding our trails as good as they can be! Thank a Groomer!! As I write this, 2/18, we have just come off a full night of 50° weather with a quarter of an inch of rain. I woke up to 50° and watched it start dropping around 7:30 am. We are now down to 25° and overcast. The pond is a sheet of ice as is the driveway. This is the beginning of school vacation week and I’m sure lots of people are going to be happy when they wake up tomorrow morning and everything still feels like winter in Maine! I am hoping by the time this goes to print we will have received plenty more of that white stuff that our win- ter recreation depends on! Ol’ Mother Nature, she’s a tricky one for sure! In closing, I just want to remind people that there is just a handful of people that make the magic happen. Please consider reaching out and donating a little bit of your time to help with signing or who knows what! If you see a branch in the trail, stop and move it… every little bit helps! Thank you all so much for your support and remember… “It’s not about the mileage, it’s about the Smileage” ☺ Laurie NORTHERN TIMBER CRUISERS Millinocket, ME As I write this it is snowing like crazy, your snow dances have worked. YES! We got off to a very slow start but got those two storms within two weeks really kicked up the quality of trails. Without snow you really can’t groom as there is not enough snow to fill in the gaps/moguls in the trails. Thank a groomer for the time spent in keeping the trails as flat as possible for our riding pleasure. Long hours are spent on repairs and equipment as well. Join a club or two. Donate where you ride. Every bit helps. We hosted the MSA Directors meeting on February 12, 2022. Happy hour started us off followed by a completed turkey dinner prepared and served by Timber Cruiser vol- unteer/members. It was a great evening, with a delicious meal followed by an informative meeting. We are now serving breakfast and light lunch on weekends 7am to 2pm at our club- house/Millinocket on ITS 85/86 you go right by us. Stop in and warm up, see our antique snowmobile museum. Since I started writing this last week, we now have snow coverage on most trails. The Katahdin region is just gorgeous this time of year. It’s been offering some great riding. The time is now. You never know how long this great snow will last.

See our website or Facebook pages for dates and information. Patti Rioux Recording Secretary 2/14/22 EAST BRANCH SNO-ROVERS & ATV CLUB Medway & East Millinocket, ME ndesc@myfairpoint.net Gage Hale’s family and friends had their 3 rd Annual Poker Run and raised a substantial amount of money for their scholarship fund. We continue celebrating the club’s 50th anniversary. We’re getting some shirts and coffee mugs to sell. The Groomer Rodeo has been rescheduled for March 12. Kid’s Day is coming up on Feb- ruary 26. We had fun with the Bridgton Easy Riders at our Country Music Jam and Dinner. We continue to work on bridges, signs, fallen trees, branches, brush and, of course machine maintenance. Heat pumps have been ordered for the first floor of the clubhouse. At many of our previous meetings, during the Cross Country Ski Trail report, Maurice Daigle would give a short report: “We need snow.” Good job, Maurice!! We have snow!! Nancy C Deschene Snow has fallen and we are in full swing for trail grooming and maintenance. Our hard work in the offseason has really came out awe- some and we are seeing lots of improvement in trail quality in Parkman. Sadly, a portion of our Oak Hill trail is plowed due to logging so beware of that and do know that the result on top is well worth the short plowed part. Make your way to Parkman and see what we have been working hard to create! Happy trails! This has been a season of extremes. It has been the coldest, warmest, driest, rainiest and snowiest season ever, and some trails, espe- cially south of us are well into their bases. Our membership numbers are good and the cash calendars sold well with some creativity and some hard work from several members. Our trail conditions overall have been very good. Like all clubs we battle the weather, the machinery, and the operators’ schedules. Grooming can be a thankless job. Perfect trails are expected and then taken for granted. Anything less than perfect and the grumbling begins. Remember the fellow in the groomer wants to ride good trails also. So, when you meet a groomer give him a thumbs-up and go easy on his fresh trail... and drop some cash in the trail jar. We have had great reviews about our lake trails that are staked. They are the best ever. We will be adding even more flashing lights soon. Our annual Fishing Derby is March 5-12. There will be dinner, prizes and raffles at the Rockwood Community Center Saturday March 12 th at 5:00pm. It’s always a blast so whether you fish or not, come on over! We would like to welcome the new owners of Rockwood Cottages to the club! The lake access at Rockwood Cottages is a critical access point for Rockwood, and we appreciate the ongoing privilege of its use. Be safe! Wear a vest. President Mark Boyn- ton, who himself benefitted from a Tek Vest a couple of years ago, thought I should put in a plus for the use of a riding vest. On Sunday February 13th, only 20 miles from the conclusion of a wonderful 800- mile tour of the county with my wife, Gail, I crashed my sled. We were riding alone and only 2 miles out of Kokadjo, she had no cell service. It’s amaz- ing how things can come together. Some rid- ers came along, they met the groomer who had a satellite phone. The groomer called Marie at Kokadjo Trading Post and she dispatched PARKMAN TRAILBLAZERS Parkman, ME BLUE RIDGE RIDERS Rockwood, ME

a group of riders, who were there for lunch, to bring the rescue sled out while Fred called Greenville rescue. This group of guys, who insisted they had “no medical training”, did what was needed and got me into the rescue sled and headed to Kokadjo. Others bagged up the lawn sale that had been my sled and towed it all back to Kokadjo. Greenville rescue met us on the trail and gave me some much-needed oxygen to help with the hypoxia from a collapsed lung. They got me into the ambulance, assessed me and immediately started to prep me to meet Life Flight while on the way to Greenville hospital. Even while wearing a Tek Vest, I had mul- tiple rib and spinal fractures, a collapsed lung, multiple organ trauma and left sided body bruising like you read about. I have discussed with friends what the outcome would have been had I not been wearing a Tek Vest. I’m afraid my outcome would have been much dif- ferent. So, whether you are an aggressive boon docker (which I am not) or a Sunday club rider-- Conditions change. Trails can be hard and unforgiving. **it happens... Wear a vest! I want to thank all the folks who came together, in that amazing sequence, to help me and Gail through a difficult couple of hours. I was at Northern Light in Bangor for a week and am now home recuperating and lamenting the loss of the rest of the season. Enjoy and be safe! Mike Hoyt Hello Snowmobilers, What a difference a month makes! We have been blessed with 20 inches of snow over a solid base and are ready to groom and as I write this article, we are looking to receive another 6 inches on Friday. We have been out actively grooming with the Track Truck. We have an issue with the BR180 that we are currently trying to trouble shoot. Many thanks to our Trail Master Marcel Fortier for putting in so many hours on our trails. All trails have been groomed including the Trail to the Ban- gor System. All the pipelines are wide, flat and safe. The pipeline trail that parallels Route 202 into Bangor has 2 new bridges thanks to Seth Grey and his Eagle Scout Project. Our neigh- boring clubs of Winterport and Newburgh and Hermon have been out grooming their trail systems as well to make our local trail system as enjoyable as possible. I would like to give a shout out to the Winterport Club and con- gratulate them on their new piece of grooming equipment! Winterport continues to improve every year and is doing a great job with their club and trails. Please be careful on the I-95 Underpass to Hermon, that section of trail is on the pavement only at this time due to the new bridge replacement construction being done by Cianbro. If you have not had the chance to download the App EXPLORER for ArcGIS…. Do it!! Once you’ve downloaded this FREE app to your phone, search for Bangor Area Snow- mobile trails and you will immediately have access to 7 different Local club trails and the ITS trails. Each Club is color-coded. This app shows you EXACTLY where you are on the trail system, it is AWESOME! If you want your club included on this app, just send me the GPS tracks of your trail sys- tem and I will have it added to app. You can now join our club and pay for your membership by going to our Facebook Page and clicking on the link to join. If you would like to rent our club house with full kitchen, fireplace and 2 bathrooms the cost is $200 for Non Members and $150 for Members. Please contact Helen Giles at 207.944.5434. Sincerely, Rich Armstrong, President. GOODWILL RIDERS Hampden, ME

PAUL BUNYAN sc Bangor, ME

What a roller coaster ride we’ve been on with the weather this winter! From very lit- tle snow, to over 2 feet of snow, back to bare ground and mud again all within a month! As I type this news update, I’m looking at bare ground and grass out my window, but with cold temperatures the next few days and the prospect of more snow before the end of the week I’m hopeful we can hang onto the sea- son a little bit longer! Mid to upper 60-degree temperatures along with rain during the past week has brought us back to ground zero with our trail system, so we will have to see what the weather brings us in the coming days and weeks. If we can get a solid surface with enough snow on top of it, we will do what we can to make the best of it for everyone!! We still have a major issue on our trail sys- tem currently, which has disconnected one side of Bangor from the other, and discon- nected Bangor from Glenburn. At this point it is looking like we will have to do a major trail re-route to remedy this problem, as everything we have done to try and save our existing trail has failed. We sincerely apologize for the frus- tration this has caused many of our riders, and want you to know you’re not alone in this frus- tration. We WILL fix this issue, and we thank you for your patience as this season it has not worked out as we had originally hoped and planned! We always try to get out to do trail work, as needed, whenever weather and volunteer availability permits. Feel free to reach out to us on Facebook or drop us a line at paul- bunyanscbangor@hotmail.com for details on when and where we will be working, as we’d love to include anyone who is interested in helping out! Volunteers are ALWAYS wel- come and VERY MUCH appreciated, many hands make light work!! We have tried to make the best of what snow we have gotten, and, despite some mechanical hiccups and such, we have tried to get out and groom whenever volunteer availability and snow conditions permit. We hope you’ve been able to get out and enjoy our trails when we’ve had snow on the ground to do so! Our small fleet of Skandic grooming sleds works hard to make things as smooth as possible for you! We generally hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of each month during the season, and would love to have anyone who is interested join us! We usually post meeting information on our Facebook page ahead of time, but feel free to email or message us on Facebook with any questions! Sincerely, Paul Phillips - President We have been having a great winter up here! It has been nice to see snow cover statewide this year. Our fantastic grooming crew has been busy keeping our well used trails firm and flat for your riding pleasure. Speaking of our grooming crew, let’s do another run down. We have Pete Plourde – Trailmaster putting in hours upon hours making sure our equipment is ready to go when needed. I live with the guy; this is all he does in the winter months! My honeydew list is growing longer and I know it’s going to be a while before he gets EBEEMEE sc Brownville, ME Hello from Ebeemee Township!

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