8257-R1_MSA_February2023_Singles

MSA Club News

66(when open). Twin Pines will be grooming ITS 86 to Smithtown Road. Greenville will then meet up with Twin Pines at the Smithtown Road The Roach Riders planned to continue to maintain NFG, #4 Mountain, Lost Skid der and the Bill Casey trail, but...we had no equipment! Change is hard. Starting from scratch can be scary. How do you get through it? You come together with like-minded people and figure out how to get the job done!!! The Kok adjo Roach Riders would like to officially announce we are now the proud owners of a “new to us” groomer and drag! Just in time, with the first good snowfall, ownership of the groomer was officially changed from 5 Lakes to the Roach Riders and was delivered by our President Paul and Members Mike and Tom. A big shout out to those 3. They took the initia tive to get the ball rolling for the club and we are so very thankful! During the second big snowstorm, Trail-master Josh made his way to Jackman to the Border Riders and purchased a drag. The drag needs a little work, but the Border Riders gave us a great deal on it. The mainte nance costs should be well within the club’s budget. In the meantime, our Greenville neighbors, The Moosehead Riders have gra ciously loaned the Roach Riders a drag, which has made it possible for us to thankfully start grooming!!! We would like to thank the above men tioned clubs, our amazing club members, the MSA and the Department of Conservation for their help and support during the club’s tran sition period. Respectfully submitted, Madonna Devlin, Secretary Kokadjo Roach Riders It has been a rough start to winter in the Sebasticook Valley! Warm temps, rain, lack of snow and the big Christmas storm have certainly given our trail crew some big chal lenges, as I’m sure many of you have also experienced. Trail work had been progressing along well and about complete when the big storm hit. It pretty much took us back to square one with a ton more work than we even started with. As an example, one 1.2 mile section of trail had 51 downed trees. But our tireless and dedicated trail crew have it cleared up and ready to go when we get some snow. They are in love with their new Merrill Limb Masher and say it has made their work so much easier. It was an invest ment well worth the money. We would also like to make our mem bers aware of the MSA Scholarship. MSA awards 2 $1,000 scholarships this year and the application deadline is April 1, 2023. It is open to members of the Maine Snowmobile Association and their immediate family mem bers-Family, Single or Business membership with a two (2) year MSA membership prior to January 1st of 2023. You can find more information and an application on the MSA website or contact co-chair Barry Ryan (207) 631-9153. We voted in our last meeting to donate $100 to this scholarship fund and are challenging other clubs, businesses and individuals to donate as well and grow this fund for the future! In other news, our attendance is on pace for last year and growing. We welcomed new member Shanna Towle at our January 11, meeting. We have several new members that are regularly attending meetings and involved with all the work that needs to be done so this is very encouraging! We will continue to do our snow dances, it has worked for us in the past! Submitted by: Lisa Sawyer SVSC Secretary SEBASTICOOK VALLEY sc Newport, Etna, Stetson, ME

funding. This is being supported by Millinocket Regional Hospital as well. The clubhouse served breakfast as well as light lunches. We had a great turn out at the SNOW BALL RUN, this 10 th annual far exceeded prior Year donation maximum of $2800.00 total donation are expected to reach $7500.00 WHOOOOOO HOOOO!!!!!! Thanks to Ian Shearer our highest contrib utor raising $3325, Ian was recipient of the River Drivers gift card as highest donor. Ian bumped second place donor Dana Bradbury with $835. We would like to thank anyone who was involved in making this run a suc cess. These donation go directly to Millinocket Regional Hospital Cancer Care & Infusion Center. They will be able to purchase a fluid Warmer as well as a vein locator which were two items on their wish list. Let’s keep doing our snow dances and get the snow coming. Join a club our two, donate your time to make great trails! Watch our web page & FB for upcoming information/events. Meeting 1st Wednesday of each month@7pm Ride Right, Ride Safe Patti Rioux Recording Secretary NTC EAST BRANCH SNO-ROVERS AND ATV CLUB Medway & East Millinocket, ME

COASTAL REGION

WESTBROOK TRAIL BLAZES Westbrook, ME www.westbrooktrailblazes.com

Winter is here, at last! As I write this, we are getting our third dumping in the past week. It was a long time coming but our trail system is now OPEN! Trail maintenance was done by the end of November, so we thought. Two major rain/ wind events brought some timber to the ground. The crews were quick to respond and get things cleared up. We were ready for snow, but it would be more than 6 weeks before we saw any signs of that. We had our annual Christmas party at The Frog & Turtle again this year. The band Stiles rocked a full house till late in the evening. Tables sold out fast and by all accounts it was a fantastic evening. Thank you, James, for hosting us again. We hope you have us back next season!! The holidays were quiet and most of Janu ary was a sleeper, but we are back in action! Trails are freshly groomed as I look out my window onto the trail system. We are really looking forward to our first weekend of local riding. Hopefully some of you got out and enjoyed the hard work the club put in. >> Please join your local club!! Your dues go directly back << >> into maintaining the trails you ride!!! << *** Ride Safe, Ride Sober, Ride Right!!! *** Check our calendar at www.westbrooktrail blazes.com for up to date Club info and trail conditions. Visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/ Westbrook Trail Blazes Bill Bouffard – Information Officer 207-712-4395 billybouf@yahoo.com Hello Everyone, The sno-crawlers continue to be busy repair ing the trails and setting them up for the season while we wait for snow. At the time you read this it will be February and we hope to have some snow here on the mid-coast. We had a major windstorm come through and it left quite a mess in it’s wake. There were many trails that were simply impassable. The sno crawler crews were out in force, and at times had three chainsaws working and by the time the trails were cleared the chainsaws were out of gas. They managed to make the trails pass able again, but we continue to wait for Mother Nature to send the snow. It goes without saying that if you enjoy walking, skiing, horse riding, biking, or finally snowmobiling please be sure to support your local club where these trails exist. It truly is a labor of love for most of the clubs, and our club is one of the oldest clubs in Maine. With many of the core members generational, and lovingly determined to keep this tradition alive for the next generations to enjoy. Your membership and participation help ensure this legacy remains. We can’t thank you enough for your continued support. Please be sure to look at our Facebook page for events, club meetings, and work parties. Respectfully, Stephanie Bravoco Club Reporter Hello from snowless southern Maine. I hope you had a great holiday. Please submit the fol lowing for the MSA Club News. Thank you. “Three against a thousand, the toughest three we ever fought!” That’s what comes to mind when we look back at the December 2022 storms. First storm plummeted us in heavy-snow that looked like it was going to make for a great snowmobile base while it left three-hundred thousand Mainers in the dark WALDOBORO SNO-CRAWLERS Waldoboro, ME SACOPEE VALLEY SNOW DRIFTERS Porter, ME

without power for days and days. The limbs, branches and trees were down everywhere. Then within a weeks’ time came storm num ber #2, it brought three-plus inches of wind driven rain and melted most of all the snow from the first storm flooding all the brooks, streams and rivers, washing out or flooding most of the snowmobile trails we had worked so hard to prepare and finally storm #3 is the above normal temperatures that most if not all of us have never seen before. Think of it as Mother Nature, Old-Man-Winter & Hep haestus (God of Fire) the toughest three we’ve fought this 2022/2023 season. Just as SVSD was getting ready to start grooming, we find ourselves (about twelve active members) hav ing to start trail maintenance all over again. Let’s all hope that by the time you read this in the February issue of “The Maine Snowmobiler” that we are enjoying snow-covered trails. Join us on Facebook: Sacopee Valley Snow Drifters and become an active member and support your sport of snowmobiling… SVSD P.O. Box 210, Porter, ME. 04068 John Lambert, Club Reporter. Hello from sunny Saco Maine. Well, I was way wrong in the January club update. Our trails were a real mess after the huge wind storm in December. Several of our members were out every day for nearly a week cutting back all the trees that had fallen during the storm. Coupled with the recent heavy rains, our trails are a mess for mid-January. We are hoping the predicted storms and cold weather will help deliver some sort of riding season for us down in this part of the state. On a good note, our new SxS has arrived and our trail master (Pete Fournier) has been busy getting it prepped for grooming. Pete has also taken on the task of building a new drag for the SxS. He is using one of our older drags as a template and fabricating a custom drag which will be used on the SxS. Now we just need some cold weather and snow to make it all come together. As I have said before, we are really fortu nate to have a group of members who go out every Sunday to get the trails ready. Some times, there are as many as 15 members who show up ready to work. I think we are more fortunate than most clubs in that regard. One of our members, Thad Norkus, has become our brush-hog guru. That has spent hours dragging one of our brush-hogs on almost every mile of our trails in his personal SxS. It’s amazing how quickly the trails get overgrown with raspberry bushes, swale grass, weeds, and alders. Every swipe of the brush-hog opens nearly four feet of trail width. Many of our club members spent five days at Katahdin Lodge in Moro Plantation in late January. We try to make this trip every year and it’s one of our favorite places to go. It allows us easy access to all the riding through the lower regions of northern Maine includ ing Shin Pond, Libby’s Camps, the Trains, Oxbow, Umcolcus, Oakfield, etc. Chuck and his crew at Katahdin Lodge serve up a great breakfast and awesome dinners. And, on Fri day or Saturday night, Chuck will get behind the piano and put on a wonderful show. For those of you reading this and looking for a reasonable place to stay with great food and SACO PATHFINDERS sc Saco, ME Find us on Facebook

We look forward to the Groomer Rodeo on January 28, the Gage Hale ride on February 11 and Kids Day on February 25 from 10:30 to 3.

The clean up work days saw a lot of work getting done including the groomer garage upstairs and down, the quanset hut and the upstairs and attic of the clubhouse. Thank you to the dedicated volunteers who worked very hard to accomplish a great deal. Trail work is ongoing as usual. Bush has been cut and we hope for more snow for the trails. We’re happy with the new groomer and trail paver. Meetings are the second Thursday of the month. Pot luck at 5:30 and club meeting at 6. We’re still offering tee shirts and coffee mugs for sale. The Tuesday night Country Music Jam and Dinner are a popular event. Nancy Deschene ndesc@myfairpoint.net 2023 marks the 30 th birthday of the Kokadjo Roach Riders Snowmobile Club and some changes... The Candeloro’s have officially announced that they are stepping away from grooming and club life. We would like to thank them for establishing this club all those years ago and for helping to make the Moosehead region a snowmobile destination. In preparation for the Candeloro’s grooming exit, the State of Maine’s Department of Con servation has reached out to surrounding clubs to pick up additional mileage and groom the ITS trails that converge in Kokadjo: Chesuncook will be taking over Route KOKADJO ROACH RIDERS Kokadjo, ME

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