8555-R2_MSA_November2023_Newsletter

MSA Club News

day. We serve a complete Thanksgiving meal to eat in or takeout to about 175 people each year, so don’t be scared of a bunch of cars in club yard, we try to streamline our serving process to serve everyone as quick as possible, hope to see you there. Our November meeting is the 14th, at 5:30 with a potluck supper. Our meetings are the second Monday of each month at 6pm and every other month is potluck at 5:30, please come, your help and Input is important to keep the club improving and moving ahead. Your slow typing reporter, Kevin There has been a lot of work done in Rock wood in the last few weeks. Lots of trail work with trimming trails, planning work for the near (and distant) future and many dozens of signs replaced and added. There have been groomer repairs and new trails opened up. A dozen people showed up at a work session on October 21st and made a lot of progress. Sev eral members walked 10 miles of trails to GPS wet spots that will be addressed when the trails start to firm up. There are meetings with land owners to repair the Blue Ridge trail that was damaged by some logging and more corduroy will be placed on some intown swampy areas, We are also working on a credit card solution to make it easier to sign up new members and to accept donations. We have had more attendance at meetings and also more new and old members showing up. We will be doing our annual cash calendar and they will be on sale soon. In short, things in Rockwood are energized and moving forward. All we need is cold weather, ice and snow! Remember our meetings are on the 3rd Saturday of the month (Except December) at Brad Scott’s house. Drinks and potluck at 6pm and meeting at 7:00 pm. See you there! Mike By the time this hits mailboxes we will have set the clocks back an hour, hunters’ break fasts will be happening and Winter will be knocking on the door. We just had our October Landowner appreciation dinner meeting; this is a special day when we show our thanks to the most important people to our club. A free meal doesn’t begin to cover what these people deserve for letting us use their land. Without them there would be no trails! Upcoming Events Sunday November 19 th Board of directors 5:00 p.m. BLUE RIDGE RIDERS Rockwood, ME EASTERN MAINE SNOWMOBILERS Holden, ME EasternMaineSnowmobilers.com Find us on Facebook The club would like to thank member Michael Lessard for agreeing to step up and fill in for our vacant treasurer position. Thank you, sir! We are also searching for a person to step up and take over for rentals chairperson. This would involve taking calls and showing the clubhouse for rentals along with collect ing deposits and dropping off keys etc. This position is currently filled but will be vacated this winter. On the trails portion at the club, we are still meeting every Sunday morning at 7:30 coffee will be on and some homemade goodies will be available. We have many more miles of trail to go through, brushing, trimming taking care of blowdowns, fixing bridges and washouts etc. Being with the weather theme, it would be wise to bring waterproof boots. Thank you to any and all that can come and share some time to help us. Super raffle tickets are available and $1 from every ticket sold stays local at our club and the other dollar goes straight to the MSA. Our 300 Club first drawing is at the November meeting. We only print and sell 300 tickets and we draw Club dinner 6:00 p.m. Club meeting 7:00 p.m. Sunday December 17 th Board of directors 5:00 p.m. Club dinner 6:00 p.m. Club meeting 7:00 p.m. Christmas party with gift exchange following meeting

from those numbers for six consecutive months, and yes, your number stays in for the entire sea son whether you win once or every time! For membership we have finally jumped into the current century and we have QR codes which take you directly to membership form and we also have Venmo available. Winter is coming fast and I’ve read reports that this might be the white gold year we’ve been looking for with snowfall! Think Snow! See you at the Club, Troy G, Trail Grunt I have sad news; the Hayes Brook Bridge refurbishing work has been done! I’m sad because I lost an important subject that I have been writing about. The frame was basically good as Danny and Les thought. All else needed replacing by our work crew of Brian, Danny, Alvin, Freddie, Weston, Braden, Jake, David, Jeremy, John and Trail Master Les. I’m sorry if I forgot anyone. Les and Jake made a fire and hot dogs were roasted. Fun was had by all and only 3 workers fell in. We decided to have one big raffle prize this year and “pull it” at our special January 10th Pizza Meeting. That prize will be an Eskimo Pop-Up 4/5 Man Ice Fishing Shelter, a Jet Sled, and an ice drill auger. Tickets are $10 each and can be bought at The Pine Tree Store. For those that want to groom and need to be tested, see Les. Les will also train members on the Snow Rab bit, our professional groomer. That way 2-per son groomer teams can be sent out for the day. Thanks to Les, Danny, Brad and I’m sure others, there is a rescue helicopter landing pad, close to completion, at the 2nd Elsmore Land ing sign. We’ll GPS it and let everyone know. Les needs the following help at our club house and garage: remove garage wood stove and wood; add a garage door so we can drive sleds and drags in one way and out the other; fix clubhouse roof and check if clubhouse fur nace has water damage. This could be day or night work. Les also received signs that he had ordered and is looking for a few members to put them up. Some old signs need replacing. Some signs can’t be seen and need the branches around them trimmed. Les knows what signs need our attention. Plans are being made for grooming east of the dam. A member has a drag there and we may strategically park another nearby. That way members can just drive up with a club sled, hook up to our drag and start grooming. Thank you everyone for taking the time to read about our snowmobile club and our spe cial little town. NEXT MEETING: Every 2nd Wednesday @ 6:00, at the fire station. PINE TREE STORE: Hours 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, 796-5027. NON-Ethanol Gas. Always remember, for food, drink, supplies and fun, “You can’t go wrong at The Pine Tree Store”. HELP NEEDED: Call 796-5027, Les, Brinda, or store worker. TRAIL PROBLEM: Call 796-5027, Les. He will solve or assign the problem. LODGING: Call 796-5027, Les, Brinda, or store worker. Please ride our trails and make our friendly little town a stop on your snowmobile adven tures. I guarantee you will be back. mikeremi llard@mgemaine.com ORRINGTON TRAIL RIDERS Orrington, ME Hello Snowmobilers! Winter is on its way & we can’t wait to get out & ride! This summer OTR raised money for a new groomer. On July 15 th we participated in the Orrington Old Home Week - Endless Yard Sale. It was a great day meeting yard-salers from all over Maine looking for a great deal. We had a successful sale & will participate again next summer. Our Trail Master & Trail Crew spent the summer researching 3 reroutes and planning bridge and culvert repairs. We built another pipe drag to better cover Kings Mountain and ITS 107 to Bucksport. Trail work and sign ing will start on November 1 st . We are always looking for volunteers to join our Trail Crew! We have started plans for our Vintage GRAND LAKE sc Grand Lake Stream, ME

(Continued from Page 25)

son: the NOVEMBER meetings are on the 1 st and the 15 th (WEDNESDAY night @7:00 P.M. / CLUBHOUSE-corner of OHIO STREET and PHILLIPS ROAD). Trail work will continue on SUNDAY mornings @8:00P.M. -meet at VILLAGE VARIETY -we have chainsaws, brush cutters, and other tools to get the work accomplished -just need some volunteers to show up and participate) ... That’s about it for this time, just keep doing the “ SNOW and COLD “ dances -get the sleds tuned -up and registered-check over your gear and if you really want to feel like you can make a difference “JOIN YOUR LOCAL CLUB AND GET INVOLVED “. THANK-YOU... Barry E. Ryan, Vice President PAUL BUNYAN sc Bangor, ME By the time you read this update we SHOULD have the majority of our trail prep work done for the upcoming season, if all con tinues to go well. At the time of writing this, we have already accomplished quite a bit, despite all the wet weather and water-logged trails! Our Trail Master and volunteers are doing a fantastic job of getting trails bush hogged, brush trimmed back, blow downs cleared, and bridges checked/repaired as needed! We’ve been working on making sure all our equipment is ready to go once the white stuff starts flying, and we are optimistic that this season will be a good one! We’d love to see a long enough season that we could hold some events again, as we have in years past, with group rides and such, but we will see how the weather treats us!! Keep an eye on our Facebook page for any updates, and feel free to drop us an email at paulbunyanscbangor@hotmail.com with any questions! Volunteers are ALWAYS welcome and VERY MUCH appreciated, many hands make light work!! We generally hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of each month during the season, starting in September, 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! www.facebook.com/ PaulBunyanSnowmobileClub Sincerely, Paul Phillips - President QUADCOUNTY sc Springfield, ME Hi to all, Quadcounty SC is getting everything ready for the 2023-2024 season. Maintenance and repairs to both groomers are being done. Sign backers have been painted, waiting on trail signs to arrive. Bridge planks are arriving this week, we have three bridges to repair, so we will be posting when we will be repairing and when to meet at clubhouse. Quadcounty SC has a lot of trees to clean up on trails, we will meet at clubhouse on Sundays at 8 am. In November. This week, we have McLaugh lin Earthmovers excavator repairing a couple of trails, we keep trying to improve our trail system to make and keep it smooth longer through the season. Quadcounty SC, like all clubs, are apprecia tive of their generous landowners allowing the club to use their property. Litter is a big con cern of landowners, we walk the trails trying to pick up litter from the snowmobile season, we will be putting trash barrels on trails in var ious spots, please use them for your litter and any litter you may find on trail. Quadcounty SC is serving Hunters break fast, the first three Saturdays in November from 6-10. The first Saturday’s breakfast, we donate the proceeds to the church next door to help them with their heating bill. The two other Breakfasts are a way to earn money for the club to pay grooming fuel bills. Donations in jar go to clubhouse and barn improvements. Quadcounty SC is serving our annual free Thanksgiving Dinner, again this year. Yes, it is free, donations are accepted, if you don’t have a place to go for holiday or you don’t want to cook for the whole family, you can come to the Clubhouse from 1-4 pm, Thanksgiving

Snowmobile Ride-In and Show on February 10, 2024. Mark your calendars, it’s going to be a great time. The next OTR meeting will be Novem ber 7th at 6:30pm at 262 Long Hill Road, Orrington. We meet the first Tuesday of each month, all are welcome! Remember…. * Join a club * Join more than 1 club * Help a club, if you can * Help with, attend, or donate at fundraisers * Snowmobiling is a Team effort! Think Snow! Kim Joyce, President OTR COASTAL REGION Hi There, Here is our submission for the November Issue of the Maine Snowmobiler: Greetings from Southern Maine! Hope everyone is as excited as we are for another Maine winter! We have three new directors for the club and always welcome new mem bers. Trail work is in full swing until the snow flies. We meet every Sunday at the Fish and Game building in Sanford except in inclement weather. Meetings are the second Thursday of the month. It’s looking like we are going to have a great winter so make sure to get those snow machines tuned up and ready to go because it’s looking like they are going to be getting some miles on them. Remember your tow vehicle and trailer need maintenance so don’t let an unplanned breakdown ruin your trip. Let someone know where you are headed off to go riding and your planned route and don’t forget to ride under control. Wishing everyone a great start to the season and lots of smiles! Steve Givens Southern Maine SnoGoers Hi Folks, Well, not really a whole lot to report on right now. We’ve been very fortunate to have two or three solid crews head out every Sunday morn ing to tackle the trail work and bridge repairs. We appear to be ahead of past years, mostly due to running two brush-hogs full time. Those machines do a great job cutting back all the swale and raspberry bushes, and make quick work of heavier brush too. And to think we used to do it all by hand with weed whackers. The club recently held a landowner appre ciation dinner. We didn’t get the response we were looking for, but we had a nice spa ghetti dinner with those that showed up. We explained how their generosity helps keep the clubs alive and that the trails not only benefit snowmobilers, but hikers, bikers, snowshoers, x-country skiers, etc. as well. We have club meetings on the first and third Wednesdays of the month starting at 7:00pm. The first meeting of the month is also a pot luck dinner starting at 6:00pm. By the time, the November MSA newslet- SACO PATHFINDERS sc Saco, ME Find us on Facebook SOUTHERN MAINE SNOGOERS Sanford, ME

26

b e r 2

e m

0 2 3 l M a i n e S n o w m

o v

N

er

i l

o b