8595-R1_MSA_January2024_Newsletter

MSA Club News

of the clubs, rivers and brooks rose drastically taking or moving bridges and causing wash outs everywhere. Once the water receded, accessing the damage and making necessary repairs came next. A lot of the work has been done but there is still work to be done. If this wasn’t bad enough much of the town was without power for days. There isn’t much snow in the extended forecast which means snow dancing can start anytime. Our raffle of the mini snowmobile was a success. All the tickets were sold and the drawing was held on Dec 23rd, making a great Christmas present. Rebecca Khiel was the lucky winner. If you haven’t joined a club yet please con sider doing so. Also, if you’ve got some time we can always use help in bringing the trails back to rideable condition. Nancy Moody, Sec Denmark Draggers SC EASTERN REGION This morning as I sit quietly in the living room looking out the window past the Christ mas Tree, waiting for the rest of the household to awaken to enjoy what “Santa” has delivered overnight, there is no snow on the ground, lit tle patches of ice on the wide expanse of green lawn out front. Our Ski-Doos wait patiently on the newly acquired Nitro Hybrid trailer that we brought home from the MSA Snowmobile Show in Augusta two months ago. It looks like that it may get a lot more miles than we will on the sleds this season. We will try to stay opti mistic and continue with the “Snow Dances”. Oay, back to the business at hand Greg L. has been busy with the KSRSC trail crew doing trail each Sunday (meet at the fire sta tion @ 9: 00 A.M.) Many thanks go out to the small, but eager crew that gets up out of nice warm beds to get rigged up and tackle the arduous task of cutting, brushing, signing, staking, and bridge repairing, in anticipation of another snowmobile season. This has been extremely frustrating, due to the fact we had most the trails all set ready to go. We had 6 inches of snowfall on Monday, December 4th that stayed on the ground and in the trees) for about a week until Monday, December 11th when we got about 2 inches of rain and warm temperatures, and took all of the snow with it, back to the starting point. Really if that wasn’t enough to make any Trailmaster go berserk on Monday, December 18th (are you seeing a weather pattern here?) Mother Nature gave us round three with anywhere from 2-7 inches of more rain and wind gusts up to almost as fast as Gail’s sled will go. Again, it not only took away snow that was left, the ice that was form ing and knocked down hundreds of trees, took out numerous bridges, flooded everything and left thousands of households without power for days. The only possible positive side to this is that the temperature was into the 50 – 60 degree range and prevented a lot of freez ing situations. I’ll close this topic on a phrase that I didn’t invent but really like and might put a positive spin on our situation, “ONLY IN THE DICTIONARY DOES REWARD COME BEFORE WORK”. We at KSRSC have had a little fun this sea son as we had a well attended a Christmas party at Dystarts/Broadway last week. The meal was great and we all enjoyed our bev erages of choice. We would also like to wel come new members Kyle A. and Marshall R. they both are eager to get it done out there -THANK-YOU. As we say good-bye to 2023 and look for ward to getting 2024 up and running (this is a LEAP YEAR) so we will have an extra day in February to ride the trails. Again, a very sincere THANK-YOU goes out to Dale and JoAnn C. as they open there home to hold our club meetings. The 1st meet ing will be Thursday, January 11, 2024 @ 7:00 P.M. -hope to see you all there. KENDUSKEAG STREAM RIDERS sc Kenduskeag, ME Greetings Fellow Snowmobilers,

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, The rainstorm, this week has brought more washouts and a lot of big and multiple trees down on the trails that we had already cleared this fall. The ‘Medicare trail crew cleared five miles of big hemlocks and spruce that either broke off or uprooted across ITS105. Only a few minor washouts and of course the beaver dam in trail was not affected. Where the trail goes through large growth forest seems to be affected, Last year’s Christmas storm was ice and heavy snow dragging down the smaller spindly trees in cut over land. Different areas but still our trails and the trail work need to be done before grooming starts. Haven’t got out to check the conditions of our big bridges after the storm, now that the trail is freezing up can get around and check them out. The Quadcounty clubhouse had some trim blown off in the wind and message sign out front by Rt6 got totally destroyed. The power was off about 24 hours, which isn’t bad com pared to some of the unfortunate ones that are still waiting for power, four days after. Our breakfasts have been doing very well, even if we are missing our snowbirds, this time of year. The snowbirds will miss our Lobster Stew/Beef Stew supper on January 13, You need to write down that date for great meal! Our annual Calendar raffle starts in Febru ary and runs through April with 90 chances to win cash. Only 400 tickets sold and we only have about 20 left and it’s only December! Your slow typing reporter Kevin Last Sunday we had our Club Christmas party- complete with Pats Pizza, dessert, and a gift exchange! This weekend is Christmas! Next is New Year’s Eve! We wish you all very happy holidays!! This time of year lots of people are talking about New Year’s resolutions... And we have some ideas... Looking to get more exercise? Like long walks in the woods? Want to volunteer some time? Do you like winter? Join a Snowmobile club!!! We welcome all at EMSC... No snowmo bile needed! Upcoming Events Jan 21 st Board of directors meeting 5:00 p.m. Club dinner (potluck). 6:00 p.m. Membership meeting. 7:00 p.m. Feb 11 th Board of directors meeting 5:00 p.m. Club dinner 6:00 p.m. Membership meeting 7:00 p.m. Trails Just like pretty much every other club in the State right now we need volunteers help badly. The December storm that wreaked havoc across the State for homeowners also did a number on our trail system. It appears that water damage and downed trees pretty much has put us right back to square one. The trails team meets every Sunday morning at the club house at 7:30 a.m... the coffee will be on and ready when you get there and there’s usually homemade baked goods. No special skill or tools needed we just need people!! Snow is coming, cold weather will freeze the ground and the water and we’ll be good to go! Club House Our building is available for daily and week ends rentals. Check the website for details. We offer a full kitchen, a stone fireplace and Want to get more fresh air? Want to meet new people? EASTERN MAINE SNOWMOBILERS Holden, ME EasternMaineSnowmobilers.com Find us on Facebook

on-site parking. We anxiously await snowfall and the beauty of fresh groomed trails! So do your snow dance! See you at the Club (or on the trail!) Troy G Trail Grunt

Glenburn, ME Welcome to the MSA MAINE SNOWMO BILER MAGAZINE -1st edition of 2024. As I am writing this short piece, it is CHRIST MAS DAY -the grass is uncovered, tempera tures are unseasonably warm, and we have just experienced a really odd sequence of weather in December. The 1st official day of winter was 3 days ago. In the last 4 weeks we have had 6 inches of snow, and almost twice that much rain and wind gusts that topped 70 miles per hour, toppled hundreds of trees across roads, highways, trails, front yards, backyards and everywhere in between. Thousands of people were or still are without electricity as I write this. Rivers, streams, brooks, and lakes have reached their limit, over flowed, and caused chaos across the state. The governor has declared a state of emergency and asked for federal relief. Snowmobile clubs have put out a “ALL HANDS ON DECK “ to their trail crews to get out there and remove downed trees, put bridges back in place or even replace them and get the trail system back to be even passable/ usable for the SNOW and COLD that WINTER is going to throw on our doorsteps very soon. A huge THANK-YOU goes out to those volunteers that have been out countless hours for the enjoy ment of all that benefit from riding snowmobiles across the trails. We would like to welcome new GLRSC mem bers; Scott W. and Bradley A.- this gets our mem bership up to about last year’s numbers (still need more members to share the duties that our club has to fill). Speaking of getting involved and pitching in new member Bradley A. has been dil igently on the scene for numerous hours doing trail work with Eddie P., Gene B., Tommy, Jon K. and Barry R. THANK-YOU TEAM! Even our “new members family” that moved here from California, yes California a little less than a year ago, has joined in on a piece of trail that we had just cleared less than 2 weeks ago, where there were numerous trees, including two that were hung up over and into the trail. Seems like we spent hours on that little episode but we got ‘em down. THANK-YOU Sasha E., Violetta E., Jesse E. and Brian, we probably would still be there without your support. On a more positive, social aspect (yes, we even get a chance to get together to enjoy “PIZZA NIGHT / CHRISTMAS PARTY / YANKEE SWAP”.) The food and fellowship were greatly needed and enjoyed, especially as Dale and Jo-Ann C. along with Greg L. from KSRSC and Alan and Bonnie C. from Bradford S.C. took time from their busy holiday schedules to enjoy some time off to celebrate with us. Looks like it’s time to wrap this up for this edi tion, get some rest tonight and get a jump on the task at hand (more trail work) in the A.M. Good luck, be safe to ALL the crews out there in the coming weeks ahead. The next meeting will be January 17th at the GLRSC @ 7:00 P.M. Hope to see you ALL there . P.S. -HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR... Happy New Year from Paul Bunyan Snow mobile Club! All of us at the club hope that you had a fantastic Christmas with loved ones and that your new year is off to a great start! As I write this, we have just gotten through the bad storm right before Christmas and we, much like all the other clubs in the state, have the task of re-inspecting our trails for damage from the high winds and rain. We had almost all our pre-snow trail work completed before this storm, and hope that we won’t have suf fered too much damage on our trail system, but almost everyone in the state is dealing with lots of trees down, bridges damaged or displaced due to flooding, etc. Hopefully the weather will have turned around some by the time you read this and we will have some frost in the ground and maybe even some white gold on top of that. Fingers crossed and snow dances ongoing!! 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 Barry E. Ryan Vice President G.L.R.S.C. PAUL BUNYAN sc Bangor, ME

GRAND LAKE sc Grand Lake Stream, ME

Above is our hard-working Treasurer/Sec retary Caitlyn. She does many other jobs for Trail Master Les and the club. You may have seen her cooking breakfast if you have visited the store early on busy weekends. She also registers everything for the town and state. She fishes, deer & bird hunts (Has anyone seen Ralph, my favorite brown chicken?), and loves photographing and posting her Big Lake sunsets. Les will train members on our well equipped, professional groomer, the Snow Rabbit. That way a 2-person groomer team with food and supplies could be sent out for as long as they want. You know who to talk too. Les had a scheduled state Groomer Test after our club meeting. We now have 8 more members that Les would love to teach how to operate the Snow Rabbit and/or run a club sled and drag when a club group goes out to groom trails.

Above are four of the Young Guns. On the left is Dave. He was in town every summer while growing up and is now our newest full time resident and hopefully here for years. Next is Weston, who spends most of his snow mobile time riding down trails up at a 45° angle. Then we have Braden, a real good high school baseball and soccer player who is now attending a local two-year college and hopes to become an electrician. Lastly is Braden’s younger but taller brother Jake, who is still in high school but claims to have driven every piece of heavy equipment, known to man. Les planned clubhouse and garage work at the last meeting. On that following Sunday 12 to 15 members showed up at the clubhouse. Rough planning for adding of the garage door was an important issue. We have to frame in the wall and door with wood., because the wall is all aluminum. It’s part of the aluminum Quonset Hut. We might have to dynamite. The clubhouse furnace was moved and the roof patched. A wood stove was removed from both the clubhouse and garage. The names of the members and the work that they did is too numerous to list. Les was very happy. WORK/SIGNAGE (See Les): Les has received signs and is looking for a few mem bers to put them up. Some old signs need replacing. Some signs can’t be seen and need the branches around them trimmed. You and friends can make fun, work, and lunch rides out of something like this. By the time you read this we all hopefully will have had our first few rides. Stay safe and have fun. Thank you everyone for taking the time to read about our snowmobile club and our special little town. Please take the time to cut out the below lines of information and pack (Continued on Page 24)

Barry E. Ryan Club Reporter K.S.R.S.C.

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