8872-R1_MSA_October2024_Newsletter

How The T-Bone

P eople ask all the time how did T-Bone trail start and what is T-Bone? Back in November 2020 an idea between three sled heads of building a new land trail to get us riders and groomers on the trail system a little sooner in the season otherwise we would have to utilize the pond and lake and sometimes that never froze or was not safe enough to cross. So one night we were talking with landowner when we were informed that there used to be a trail there that his son used years ago. The landowners son Robert T Libby Jr nicknamed T-Bone, was an avid snowmobiler, and unfortunately was taken too soon by the angels above, so with this information, we decided to was only right to dedicate this trail in memory of Robert T Libby Jr as the T-Bone Trail! On a Saturday morning, we went out flagged where we thought the trail should go the next day. We had a loader, a few chain saws, and within a few hours, we had completed a 1-mile trail from Precision Collision all the way to Quarry Road. Another volunteer went through with his excavator and moved big boul ders making the trail it flat. For a few weeks every day after work, my kids and I would go over and kick the small rocks and limbs out and leveled off the ruts to make it safe and rideable for the season. For the first time that season a groomer got out on the trails almost two weeks sooner because of T-Bone trail. Because of a very generous landowner and a few volunteers that made this

trail happen. What an awesome trail it was the popularity of this trail grew over night. The season of 2020-21 Matt Baron came up with the idea of building a hot dog stand on the side of T-Bone trail to bring the snowmobile community together to have a place to stop for a bite to eat and drink. This gained so much attraction during the snowmobile season there were people stopping in from all over the state just to check out T-Bone trail and stop in the new des tination along Limerick trails. In just one season the small hot dog stand out grew its self in popularity, so the hot dog stand was moved aside for a bigger and better outdoor kitchen. The hot dog stand still stands and was only used at a few small events before it was converted to a small camp and tucked up in the northern Maine woods. The 2021-22 season was just upon us and we came up with the idea of building the T-Bone trail extension that would allow rid ers to stay off the road. A group of volunteers cut another half mile or so through the woods to connect to another trail, which eliminated the need to cross the road. Although the extension never really gained much attraction due to being a high skilled rider trail as we call it. It just needed a few more hours of exca vation work, to get dialed in perfectly but it worked and is still a good trail to this day. At the same time I had just bought a bush hog for my ATV and we started making the T-Bone trail even better and wider for the upcoming season! The new kitchen was built just in time for the snowmobile season

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