8555-R2_MSA_November2023_Newsletter

Katahdin Area SnowmobileTrails - KAST Story and Photos by: Chris Smith

finalized our plans and date for the Kids Groomer Ride event and Les Hill agreed to take the lead on it. We talked more about trying to make some maps and if it was big enough, we could sell ads to pay for it so it would be at no cost to the clubs. We could produce a map for our local region and have all local club information and trails and businesses included. And with possible funds left over to build a few kiosks to display our new map. Chris Smith agreed to tackle this and give it a shot. Each club agreed on a color scheme for their post and signs, which are also going to represent them on the map as well with colored trails. So when riding from one section to another you can tell what club’s trails you are riding on, just by the color of the stakes and signs. This might give more awareness on how to join a club or help out with the trails. Matt Stedman had brought up a great point at one of the meetings. Each club only has a handful of volunteers but as a group, we could have 3-4 handfuls of volunteers, if we work together. It’s definitely getting harder to get younger people involved. At the next meeting, before the season started, we had nailed down an all new map for people to review. It was a lot of work, many hours on the phone with trail masters, club volunteers, and business owners to be sure that everyone’s portion of the map was accurate. But together, we made it happen. Huge shout out to all the businesses that supported us! John Monk even reached out about getting the MSA logo on our map, as they support what we are trying to do. These maps meant a lot, not only did they improve our expo sure of information to riders from away, the proceeds from it went directly back to the trails and the clubs to improve infor mation on the trails for snowmobilers. We got 10k maps printed, which were dis tributed to all local businesses and clubs. We also purchased materials to build 11 kiosks to put at ITS junctions. The Kids Groomer Ride day was a huge hit. We had a great turn out. The weather was on our side on such a beautiful day. Three clubs came with their groomers. Everyone seemed to have a blast, I know I did as an operator. Terry Hill did a great write up on this in last year’sThe Maine Snowmobiler in March 2023 issue (vol 54, No 7). Last year was a bit of a milestone, a

group of clubs came together for a com mon goal. This year we started off with a breakfast of the officers and trailmasters. This was held at Molunkus Valley Sno Drifters and included eggs, pancakes, bacon, beans, sausage, hash, and drinks. We had a new club, Ebeemee Snowmo bile Club, join in with us from the south side of our map. We now have 12 Clubs in all. These include Molunkus Valley Sno Drifters, Big Valley Sno Club, Rock abema Sno Rangers, Northern Timber Cruisers, Bowlin Matagamon Shin Pond Snowmobile Club, Smoki Haulers Snow mobile Club, Benedicta Snow Gang,Twin Pines Snowmobile Club, East Branch Sno Rovers, Mattawamkeag Road Runners, Ebeemee Snowmobile Club, and Jo Mary Riders. After breakfast, we sat down for discussion. We are planning another Kids Groomer Ride day in February of 2024, since it was such a great event.This event gets us some exposure as clubs and we definitely want to do it again. We also talked about getting better signage out there and more information for the riders. We talked about helping each other on the bigger trail projects. We did agree that we should put out an updated map this year for the 2024 season.The funds will enable us to get free maps for our clubs and local businesses and to improve trail signage for services and destinations. And pur chase materials to build 12 more kiosks. This will be enough to cover the whole region, making one at every ITS inter section. So keep an eye out for improve ments on our trail system. We talked about a possible regional poker run for charity with multiple clubs involved. This would be amazing if we could pull it off. Anyways, the season is approaching fast and I thought I would write a little update to let you know what our big group of little clubs are up to, here in the Katahdin Region. I’m hoping that this is just a start of what we can accom plish together. We hope you can come ride and enjoy our beautifully groomed scenic trail system. Be on the lookout for our 2024 KAST Map & Guide, and our events schedule. Don’t forget to follow Katahdin Area Snowmobile Trails KAST on Facebook for club news, trail updates, and grooming reports.Think Snow!

H ere’s a little story about some small clubs working together towards a common goal. In October of 2022, Les Hill of Bowlin Matagamon Shin Pond Snow mobile Club got a group of local clubs together to discuss an ongoing problem, a lack of volunteers. We talked about how to involve younger people and how to get them interested in clubs and what they offer for the sport. Alan Swett had attended this meeting and said that we have a beautiful area up here and a lot of people don’t know about it. He men tioned that Rangeley Lakes has a great map of their trail systems and that helps attract people from away. We discussed making maps, but it was too expensive for a club to do it alone. No one had made a detailed map of the Katahdin region in a long time. We did come up with the idea for a groomer ride day. Where kids could come to ride in different styles of groom ers, go sliding, drink hot cocoa and enjoy food and snacks. It was a great meeting for everyone to get to know the nearby club officers and trailmasters.

I have attended multiple clubs meet ings and the biggest concern in a lot of our area is signing, or lack thereof. Not the trail signs themselves per say but ser vices signs. Like lodging, food, repairs, and most important for us, gas. As where we are, one wrong turn could leave you stranded. Most riders are not from the area and don’t know the local spots or how far away they are. So, at our next meeting we

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