8620-R1_MSA_February2024_Newsletter_Web

MSA Club News

at all by allowing public access, so when you see a landowner, thank them for their gener osity. And for the love of God, please don’t litter. I have never understood the mentality of people leaving their empties behind. This ties directly into my first point of landowner respect. One of the leading causes of trail clo sure is littering, so don’t be the guy who gets a trail closed because of sheer stupidity. Cheers, Doug Doherty, President

to the ground. This gave us the opportunity to knock the cobwebs off our equipment. We had the roller out and groomed our trails. At the time of writing this article, the trails look pretty good! Be safe on the trails! Jim LaPointe Greetings from the Wiscasset Sno-Goers, Finally; looking a little more like winter after a slow start. Although not quite enough “white gold” to get out and start grooming, the small cover and colder temps are allowing access to the trail system to get some debris and blow downs addressed. We are sure that clubs state wide will be in “clean up mode” for a while to come. Some quick updates: • Assessing some upgrades to the grooming fleet • Continuing to assess bridge and trail con ditions after a rough December • Actively taking snow dance suggestions from other clubs if they have found success Some quick reminders: The Sno-goers meet on the 2 nd Thursday of each month. Meetings are held at the Wiscas set FD training facility right next door to the clubhouse (AKA – Grooming and Trail Oper ations Central.... just made that up). Meetings begin at 6:00 PM with a potluck followed by business at 6:30 PM. All are welcome! And…. Let’s not forget “Sunday – Funday” …. Trail grooming and any other trail main tenance will continue on Sunday mornings meeting at the club house around 8:00 AM (ish). Lastly – Always a huge thank you to our members, business partners and most notably our landowners. Without our landowner par ticipation and support, we simply would not have the trail system that we all enjoy!! Jeff Robertson WINDHAM DRIFTERS Windham, ME Are you all doing the snow dance?!!! We need snow!!! What crazy weather we have had this winter. Can you imagine if all the rain we received was snow?!!! Our club members continued to work very hard to keep the trail system clear and open. The recent storms have caused bridges to move and trees and debris to litter our trails. The club is on track to surpass our previous year’s membership count!! A special thanks to all who have joined the drifters and to those who have made donations to the club. We are very fortunate for all the support! If you haven’t joined our club yet, please do so, you WISCASSET SNO-GOERS Wiscasset, ME

could win free Drifters merchandise!!! On February 10 th the Windham Drifters is hosting, “Winter Fun on the Farm”, a family event @ Chuck Hall’s Mineral Spring Farm on Lotts Drive. There will be a snowshoe trek, snowmobile rides and more!! Watch our Face book page and website for more details. The club recently sold our 16 foot equip ment trailer and we are looking to buy a 20’ trailer to allow us to haul the groomers and drags together. If you happen to have one for sale or know of one, we’d love to hear from you. There’s always work to be completed on our trail system. With almost 40 miles of trails, there’s always branches and young growth that can be trimmed. We welcome those who can lend a hand with this task. Please follow our Facebook page and fre quent our website for projects and events dates. If you didn’t receive a membership form in the mail, you can purchase one easily from our website. Lastly, a special Thanks to those dedicated officers and members who work year-round for our club. Follow us on Facebook and visit our web site windhamdrifters.com THINK SNOW!!! Keep Doing the snow

melted most of the snow.

WESTBROOK TRAIL BLAZES Westbrook, ME www.westbrooktrailblazes.com

Hello from snowless Westbrook. There’s not a whole lot to report on right now. Mother Nature played a cruel trick on us dumping 14 inches of fresh powder only to take it com pletely away 3 days later. The rainstorms of January left us with some clean-up work to do. Many down trees, branches, and debris from the wind, littered our trail system but we got things cleaned up pretty quickly. Our bridges faired pretty well in the high water. All in all, we made out ok. Now we wait for snow. Our bon-fire plans are on hold for now. If we somehow get a ton of snow and the riding is great, we’ll revisit that thought in February. Check our website for details. Our trail system has been closed. There’s always a couple of bozos that think 2 inches of snow is enough to ride on. It’s not. You not only ruin your sled but anger the landowners who don’t appreciate their property getting ripped up. Please check our website for trail conditions and notification of trail openings. Thank you. That’s it for now. Think *Snow * Snow * Snow * ! >> 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 Billy Bouffard – Information Officer – 207 712-4395 billybouf@yahoo.com Hello everyone, The non winter along the coast continues. Endless rain and high winds have made a mess of trails and bridges. We did have enough snow to gather at 1 mile camp for a picnic in the woods one eve ning. Our new sled made it around the trails before rain washed it all away. Our annual Christmas Party in December was well attended. Egg nog, Estelle’s gift hand out, club gifts, the circle game and lots of great food was enjoyed. Thanks to the Entertain ment Committee for another great time! Hope to be able to share snow stories next month but time will tell. Snow dance is needed! Club Reporter Joel Verney ALNA sc Alna, ME

SEBAGO BRANCH DUCKERS Sebago, ME Like us on Facebook or message us at sebagobranchduckers@gmail.com

Hello Everyone! It’s great to finally see some snow sticking to the ground. The past rain and wind storms have wreaked havoc on our local trails. The club has been out several times clearing limbs and removing fallen trees only to have to go back and do it again. The heavy rain created several washouts on sections of Back Nippen. That will take some effort to work through to ensure safety and comfortability. Only mother nature can help us there. On a good note, we’ve had a few snow storms that did stick

Windham Drifters

dance folks!!! Ride Right and Ride Safe! Till next time, Shane Spencer-Club Reporter

The Windham Drifters received enough snow in a January storm to open trails and begin rolling! Unfortunately, trails were only open for a few days before rain came and

The Maine Snowmobiler is an official publication of the Maine Snowmobile Association

Vol. 55, No.6, February 2024 • ISSN-0195-2870 The Maine Snowmobiler

r

207-622-6983 • fax. 207-622-7669 mainesnowmobileassociation.com

r

r

To purchase Advertising Space in The Maine Snowmobiler, contact our Office Manager, 207-622-6983, mainesnowmobileassociation. com The Maine Snowmobiler welcomes submissions from MSA members, including but not limited to, club news, calendar listings, photo graphs, letters to the editor, articles of general and technical interest. Submissions may be edited. Address to: Editor, Maine Snowmobiler, PO Box 80, Augusta, ME. 04332, mainesnowmobileassociation.com All opinions expressed by contributing writers in the Maine Snowmo biler are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this publication. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: The Maine Snowmobile Association, PO Box 80, Augusta, Maine 04332 The Maine Snowmobiler (USPS #859-920) is published 7 times a year by the Maine Snowmobile Association, Inc., 7 Noyes St Place, Augusta, Maine 04330. Periodical postage paid at Augusta, Maine and additional offices. Seasonal subscription provided to MSA members as a benefit of their annual dues. $3.00 of the $15 membership fee is applied to the cost of the publication. Subscriptions are available to non-members at a cost of $30/season. r r r r r

25

w m

n o

o b

2 0 2 4 l M a i n e S

i l e

r

F

u a r y

e b

r