8924-R1_MSA_December2024_Newsletter

MSA Club News

Please join us every Sunday morning (check with us first on holiday weekends) at 8am at the Circle K Irving in Fairfield CENTER on the Norridgewock Road. If you can do some thing at other times to help out, please just contact us so we can coordinate. Do not go out clearing trails without prior club permission. As always, please help us in thanking the landowners who allow the use of their private property for riding. Thank you, Secretary - Doug Dickinson WESTERN REGION FRYEBURG AREA SNOWMOBILE Greetings everyone, Trail work is in full swing and there’s much to get done. We have a small group but they do great things so please shake their hand and give them a thank you if you ever have the opportunity to do so. The warming hut is just about ready to be set on the trail. We’ll post the location once we get rideable snow and we’re able to get it out there for you to enjoy. We’ll be scheduling our annual poker rally at the next club meeting and will post the event on our Facebook page. It’s always a great time with great people so come on out and join us if you can! You can ride the route (if the trails are open) or come to the event by car as well. We hope that everyone had a good Thanks giving holiday and we’re looking forward to Christmas! Sincerely, ASSOCIATION Fryeburg, ME NORWAY TRACKERS Norway, ME Find us on Facebook norwaytrackerssnowmobileclub@gmail.com Hi everyone, Trails are shaping up nicely with special thanks to our retiree crew who has spent many extra hours during the weeks this fall along with the Sunday regulars. We’ve had a trail reroute, built a new bridge, rebuilt at least one bridge, added culverts, excavation work, and the never-ending brushing. Thanks to all the crews who have worked to improve our trail system. We are excited to announce that we have developed a new trail map this year. They will be given to our members and available for sale. We also have a new sign for our park and ride at the Lake Pennesseewassee boat landing. We are planning our open house for Febru ary 1 st as well as club rides. Bridget Gorton Club Secretary

a portion of our trail system that the recent winds of Mother Nature dealt us. Once again, the numerous volunteers either showed up or regretfully let us know that they couldn’t do to other commitments. A huge shout out to the Diminico guys from Vermont. These guys were up here on a deer hunting vacation, saw our post and reached out to ask if they could volunteer. BONUS!! Both have groomed the beautiful trails in Vermont, in fact one was a Trail Master for 10+ years. They even visited our groomer garage and taught us a few tricks with drag adjustments. We are super excited to get this season started. Donations and memberships are com ing in daily, past members as well as many new members. Rumor has it that local rental cabins are starting to fill so don’t hesitate, come on up to the Allagash, book your vacations asap. Moosetown Riders Allagash trails are usually the first and the last to be able to ride the trails. With enough snow from Mother Nature we can assure you that our trails will be pristine, and you will not be disappointed. Check out our Facebook page for local rentals, upcoming fun filled events and trail reports. CENTRAL REGION ROME RUFF RIDERS Rome, ME It has been a quiet month for the club but not complaining because we are in good shape with our trail trimming and clearing. We will make one more pass before the season starts to clear any blowdowns from the high winds. We are hoping to get our new drag before snow flies to get it wired and mated to our Polaris Ranger side by side. The regional C4 map will be available from participating clubs and at the Rome Town Hall. The map is centered on the Readfield-Bel grade-Manchester area and covers 25 different clubs. Our meetings are the second Tuesday of the month September to April, 7:00PM at the Rome Town Hall. All are welcome. LEXINGTON HIGHLANDERS Lexington Twp, ME Hello fellow snowmobilers. Well, we are ready for snow! During the month of November and Decem ber, trail work and bridge work was completed. Thanksgiving dinner at the club house hosted 30 people, our annual Christmas party was a success, lots of great food and fun. Our clubhouse will be open every weekend as long as there is snow. We will be selling non ethanol gas for sale. A big shout out to all the groomers who maintain your trail so that you can have a great ride. Happy New Year Cathy Horne Greetings, The annual Christmas Party for the club will be held on Friday, 13 December. A meeting will start at 6pm and the festivities and food will be immediately following the quick meet ing. Please see the minutes for details or refer to our Facebook page. We are in desperate need of younger riders getting involved in the club meetings. A large portion of our current staff of officers have been holding this club together for DECADES and we NEED some help. We notice tons of people love to ride, but very few are avail able to help out. What we really need most is people willing to help run the club adminis tratively as officers. It is not rocket science, but takes a few hours here and there to keep it all afloat. If we don’t get some new folks involved the club will be forced to close - no local club means more than just no groomed trails locally. The club provides the landowner permissions that the law requires for motor ized vehicles to ride on private property which includes snowmobiles. If you want to see the local trails stay open, please consider giving a little of your time. This is a problem statewide. A REMINDER that we need help clearing the trails and this year we have three bridges that need to be repaired before we can groom. FAIRFIELD COUNTRY RIDERS sc Fairfield, ME

Hope Santa brings us some snow for Christmas. Merry Christmas Dan Trouant, club reporter

Pleasant Mountain Snowmobile Club on them (replacing our former sticker design). They can be affixed to sleds, gear, trail signs, etc. Thanks to Duane and Jimmy for the working on this. Blaine thanked Mary, Sandra, Steve, and Jackie for selling raffle tickets at Ace Hard ware. Heather Harding volunteered to work on updating our Club web site from Bridgton Easy Riders to Pleasant Mountain Snowmo bile Club. Bill Preis reported that the 2025 Regional Trail Map is at the printer and will be ready for the December meeting. Steve Emery reported 39 people signed up for the Millinocket trip and 32 for the Jack man trip. Trail work is proceeding. Work parties meet at the Bridgton Walgreens on Sunday morn ings at 8AM. Work is usually completed by noon. More hands make light work. There is continuing need for brushing overgrown trails and filling water holes. The next meeting of Bridgton Easy Rid ers is the annual Christmas Party scheduled for Friday, December 13 th , at The Bridgton Community Center on Depot Street, starting at 5:30PM for cheese and crackers, 6PM for the Fabulous Pot Luck Supper, followed by a brief business meeting. The annual Christ mas Party features the ever popular “Yankee Gift Exchange.” Each Club member should bring a gift, valued at up to $20, marked “male” “female” or “either”. Each member then draws a number from a bag, that sets the sequence of the gift selections. When your number is called you select a gift and open it. You then have a choice to keep the gift or “Go Shopping” to exchange your gift with one already selected. It is amazing how many times some of the more popular items can change hands in one night! Come learn about our upcoming Club events: including the Club Rally, and Club Trips. The first meeting of the new year will be on January 10th, 2025 at The Bridgton Commu nity Center on Depot Street. The Fabulous Pot Luck Supper begins at 6PM followed by the business meeting at 6:45. All are welcome! Hope to see you there, Bill Preis Greetings all, We had a great turnout for our November meeting with a few new members joining us. We always welcome new members as well as encourage current members to join us. As a reminder, the meetings are the third Wednes day of each month at 6 pm at the clubhouse on school bus drive (next to the bus garage). The guys have worked very hard on 89 N with a rented excavator and on a section of new trail on Streaked Mountain. 89 N had some major washout issues that were fixed and the new trail on the mountain is to avoid a section of road that will eventually be a plowed road as the house lot is up for sale. Thank you to the landowners for allowing us to keep these trails open and in good shape. Now, all we need is cold weather and some snow. By the time you read this, we will have had our December pot luck meeting. I can say in advance that we will have a good turnout and that the food will be exceptional. Years past there was a visit from Santa and some children in attendance. Maybe that can happen again one of these years. Wishing everyone a great and safe holiday season and hope to see you on the trails soon. Leah Frechette, Club reporter STREAKED MOUNTAIN sc Buckfield, ME

NORTH FRANKLIN sc Phillips, ME Find us on Facebook

Hello, Well I must say the club has been quite busy this past month. Our President went with another individual and traveled south and picked up a couple “I “ Beams and brought them back to Phillips to the Rusty Brook site on ITS 89 South. The following week George Berry and his crew set the cement abutments set the I beams in place and decked the bridge with deck mats. Then they brought in count less loads of tailings to stabilize the ground. Then Billy our Trailmaster brought in a crew and placed sacrificial planks down along with installing safety railings. We had the Trail Master from the local ATV club Charlie Gould working side by side with us so this was truly a joint team effort. The following week our crew went out and staked all the fields in the Phillips area on ITS 89 and 115 Connector trail. December 1st we will hold our Christmas gathering at Shadagee meeting room. We have other projects still to do and anyone is more than welcome to join us every Sunday @ 8am at George Berry’s garage at 132 Miles Square Road Phillips. Thats it for now. All we can do now is think SNOW!! David Greely Vice President On November 8 th , members of the Pleas ant Mountain Snowmobile Club (formerly Bridgton Easy Riders) gathered to enjoy the monthly meeting and Fabulous Pot Luck Sup per—and it was delicious as usual! President Blaine Chapman called the meeting to order at 6:45 with a Pledge of Allegiance. Blaine then introduced our guest speaker Mark Chinnock (President of MSA). Mark spoke about the newly passed state ballot mea sure, Question 4, which was passed recently by Maine voters by 3-to-1 majority. The money, a total of $7.5 million for each of the next 4 years, will provide funds for the design, development and maintenance of Maine’s outdoor recreational trails. The funds will be used to shore up critical trail infrastructure and support repairs due to storm damage in all parts of the State. The funds are to be used for motorized, non-motorized, and multi-use rec reational trails, including snowmobile trails. Thank you Mark for coming and answering questions. Since there were several new Club mem bers, Blaine asked that each person present give their name and home town. The Club now has 82 family members and 22 Business members. Blaine reported that Work Crews have been “working their tails off”. All trails have been “trail shaved” along the sides to cut back brush and allow passage of the groomers. Club work crews have installed 21 culverts on ITS 89 fix the worst water holes. They also fixed the 5 worst water holes on the west Bridgton trail. The Club hired a backhoe for a month, to work on CMP trails now that permission has been granted to work on the power line. Andy Merril volunteered to gas up and service the backhoe each morning by 6AM. Thanks to Andy! Blaine thanked all the people who have shown up to do trail work. All three Groomers have been serviced, oil changed and they are all ready to go. Blaine wants to thank the 3 great mechanics who work on the groomers: Ron, Mike and Ron. Thank you! The Club now has received the stickers with THE PLEASANT MOUNTAIN sc Bridgton, ME Bridgtoneasyriders.com See us on Facebook

DENMARK DRAGGERS Denmark, ME

Trail works continues. The crew meets Sun days at Jimbobs at 8:00 am. Depending on the turn out, they split into groups to cover more

Thank you to everyone who donated an item for our tree in the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce Festival of Trees.

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