8988-R3_MSA_March2025_Newsletter

MSA Club News

snow so we can ride for a while longer. Ride safe, Roberta Kemp, President

ments from a lot of people about how good our trails are. Hope you all have had a chance to get out and ride. Trails are the best they’ve been in years. We achieved one of our main goals this sea son. We officially GPS’d our trails to accom pany our new maps. We also continued with our signs as we installed a new park n ride sign. We also want to extend a special thank you to our land owners. Most of our trails are on private properties. Without their generosity we would not have the trail system we have. Thank you to riders for staying on marked trails.

non-snowmobilers gathered there to enjoy hot chocolate, coffee, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, soups, and chowders, as well as home-made brownies, cookies, pies, and more. It was a fun and lively place, where long-time friends, and some new ones, gathered. At 1:00 PM the Poker Rally winners were announced, as well as those who won the 50/50/ raffle and the 80 prizes from the Chinese Auction. The event was a great success, thanks to the many people who volunteered to make it hap pen. The snowmobile route was planned, trails were groomed and marked with signs. Food was planned, shopped for, and prepared. Local businesses generously donated the 80 gifts for the auction. Raffles and the auction were planned, set up, and ready. A long list of vol unteers, including some who worked behind the scenes, pulled together to make this Club event one of the best. Many thanks to every one who worked on the Club’s Snowmobile Rally Day! Our next meeting of Bridgton’s Pleasant Mountain Snowmobile Club will be Saturday, March 8th with the Fabulous Pot Luck Sup per at 6:00 PM, at the Bridgton Community Center, with the business meeting following at 6:45PM. We hope to see you there. Please keep doing your Snow Dance until further notice. Bill Preis PMSC Club Correspondent Taking the lead from a Facebook post by @Pleasant Mountain Snowmobile Club Inc., I’ll try to explain how we maintain our trails and equipment to set your expectations of our trails. We have two tireless volunteers, Toby Walker, and Jim Bourque. They attend Club meetings, mow trails, clear blowdowns, and put up signs before the season begins. They put out a call for help for the larger projects like repairing a bridge, and sometimes one or two people volunteer. When all else fails, our Secretary and Treasurer is dragged into service. Once the snow falls, the army of two are our primary groomers. Toby grooms West Bethel to Evans Notch and the Stateline to the New Hampshire border with our ‘73 or ‘93 Tuck ers. Jim grooms the North Road with our ‘13 Polaris ATV or our ‘98 Bearcat. Due to the remoteness of our Evans Notch route and the fact that we have to winch icy hills, we like to have two people in the Tucker. Most times that is Jim. The Evans Notch run takes about six hours, more if the Stateline Trail is added. Jim has the Mrs. to help with the North Road grooming although a lot of her time is spent managing the administrative functions of the Club. Our park and ride is plowed by a volunteer, who also has a full-time job plowing. After a lengthy storm, we may have to wait a few days before he is available to plow. I’ll touch briefly on the weather. This year we have had mostly fluffy snowstorms, which does not set up well for a solid base. In the two prior years, nothing froze; and we had water everywhere. The winds take down trees and create large drifts that are difficult to cut down, especially with our smaller grooming machines. Due to these issues and the avail ability of our volunteers, we can’t groom immediately after every storm. Feel free to ride--it helps to pack down the snow before our equipment comes through. Toby works a full-time job. He also repairs all of our equipment, which is old and fre quently down. Jim is retired, but he is older and wants to enjoy some of his retirement. Our club members are mostly from away and not available to help midweek. What our club (and most clubs) need is younger, more local riders to step up--join the club, help out on vol unteer days, train to be groomer operators, or volunteer to plow or repair equipment. Guys WILD RIVER RIDERS Gilead, ME

WESTERN REGION FRYEBURG AREA SNOWMOBILE

ASSOCIATION Fryeburg, ME

THIRTY MILE RIVER sc Wayne, ME Big news from our small club.

Greetings everyone! February was a great month for snow but with the warm temps and rain predicted I’m afraid we might be nearing the end already. Even though we only had a few weeks this season at least they were good weeks. The guys worked diligently, grooming every chance they got and we are certainly grateful for them! Thank you! I’d like to take a few minutes to thank every one who made our record-breaking poker rally a huge success. Thank you to Louise for the access and use of the North Fryeburg Commu nity Chapel Hall. You have such a beautiful facility and it’s the perfect location for this event! Thank you to all the businesses and club members/friends for the donations to the Chi nese auction: Northeast Snowmobile Rentals, Curt’s Car Care, Saco Valley Sports Center, Top of the 9th/Fryeburg House of Pizza, Napa Redstone, Fryeburg Auto & Truck Supply, Richard Wentworth Towing, The Valley Orig inals, Jockey Cap Store, For Your Paws Only, Steph’s Barber Shop, Saco River Brewing, Fryeburg Kitchen & Market, Old Saco Inn, Western Maine Glass, Trumbull’s Hardware, Apexx Powersports, Smokin’ J’s BBQ, Nate & Kate’s Maple Syrup, Spice & Grain, Stow Corner Store, Osgood’s Power & Engine, John Hastings, Burnt Meadow SC, Dick Norcross, Debbie Thomas Tillburg, Tammy Thompson, Bobbi-Jo Gerry, and Key Bank Bridgton. Thank you to Larry, Cindy, Deb, Wayne, Bobbi-Jo and Trish for the sweet treats and food donations. And thank you to the volunteers who manned the checkpoints and helped at the hall to pull off this fantastic event: Brockie and Alan who rocked it in the kitchen, John who helped sell tickets, Bobbi-Jo who ran all over the place wherever we needed her, Tammy & Peggy who worked the counter in the kitchen, Sarah. Larry, Gabe, Nate, Scott, Wayne, Dale & Jen who manned the checkpoints. You guys made all this possible and we couldn’t ask for a better group of people. And last but not least, a HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to show their support! Your generosity is so very much appreciated and we hope to con tinue this tradition for years to come! Best wishes to everyone and be safe out there! Sincerely, norwaytrackerssnowmobileclub@gmail.com Just got back from a quick night ride. Man, the trails are flat and smooth. Our operators do such great job that some people must think they are roads. We had three cars stuck on our trails just this afternoon. Thank you to all our members for all your support throughout the season. We started get ting ready for this season back in October to finally get snow and open our trails in Febru ary. We have several dedicated crews working on trails, fixing machinery, and many operat ing behind the scenes. All of this results in our awesome trail system. We have received com Bridget Gorton Club Secretary NORWAY TRACKERS Norway, ME Find us on Facebook

After many years of attempting a club over night destination trip, we completed our trip to Shin Pond and stayed at Mt. Chase Lodge. We departed the lodge on Saturday morning at 9:30. Heading to the Ghost Trains at Cham berland Lake. We left the lodge with 11 sleds and 13 riders. Our club is a mixed group of riding levels. We had some delays along the way but a great trip was had by all. A trip like this really brings the club members together. Thank you to the owners of Mt.Chase lodge for their hospitality and great food.

We were excited to hold our open house on February 15 th after a two-year hiatus. Thank you to all those who visited us. It was a great success and we enjoyed meeting with every one. We saw a lot of traffic as everyone was eager to get out on the trails. Our last meeting of the season will be on April 1 st . We will be electing officers. Fol low us on Facebook and emails for meeting location. Thank you all for a wonderful season, have a great summer, see you again in the fall. Dan Trouant, club reporter The meeting of the Pleasant Mountain Snowmobile Club, on Saturday, February 8 th at the Bridgton Community Center, started off at 6PM with the Fabulous Pot Luck Supper. President Blaine Chapman started the busi ness meeting at 6:45 pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. He then asked for members to go around the room to introduce themselves, say where they were from, and if they had a posi tion with the club. Blaine said that we currently have 127 members and 21 business memberships. Most of the meeting dealt with preparations for the Poker Rally. Open House - Thank you to everyone who visited us at our open house PLEASANT MOUNTAIN sc Bridgton, ME

Our club has had a busy season this year, with a number of fund raisers mostly for giv ing to our local charities. Selling raffle tick ets at events, having a gun raffle and selling Christmas trees. Our club meetings are held the first Monday of the month in September and the last in Marach ending with our Land owners Appreciation Supper in April. Here’s hoping everyone gets another ride or two before this season ends. It was a long time coming. Enjoy and Stay Safe. Tom Fylstra The Ripley Trail Riders Snowmobile Club has had another successful season. We have 51 MSA and 7 associate members who support the effort to keep our 27 miles of trails open to the public. We are once again thankful to the real heroes of our sport, the 70 landowners who grant us permission to cross their prop erty with our trails. There can be no snowmo bile club without their generosity. To express our appreciation, we treated the landowners to a dinner at the town hall on October 20, 2024. Our annual fundraising auction in Septem ber was a great success and helped fund club improvements and support for our trail main tenance activities. We wish to thank every one who donated auction items and those who came to make purchases (and a special thank you to Al Swett for coming out to show-off the MSA auction offerings). We made a major improvement to our club’s garage this season. The attached lean-to was enclosed for the purpose of storing our two sleds and their drags. A concrete floor was poured, walls were enclosed with metal sid ing and two powered overhead doors were installed. Electrical wiring and lighting com pleted the transformation. Club members volunteered to do the bulk of the work. We now have all four of our trail maintenance machines under cover and secured. Club volunteers cleared and staked all of the trails. Other trail upgrades include culvert replacements, “Gorilla Gravel” placed over our entire driveway, clearing of brush from the trail off the Crawford Road, re-routing the trail near the Decker Road (made in con junction with other clubs through some state grants) and new Christmas lights for the Sevey Bridge in the town center. The key to the success of our club is its’ membership. Our meetings are well attended and our members volunteer to do whatever needs to be done. February has brought some great riding conditions and our trails are in ter rific shape. Mission accomplished! RIPLEY TRAIL RIDERS Ripley, ME

February 15 th , the day of the Rally, was sunny, with temperatures in the 20’s, and recent storms had produced plenty of white stuff for our 3 Tucker Groomers to create smooth trails for some excellent snowmobil ing. 133 snowmobilers turned out to ride the Rally Route, making this the Club’s biggest fund raiser of the year. We thank all the snow mobilers, and even non-snowmobilers, from Bridgton and surrounding towns for attending and supporting our Club. Some of the Rally Riders included families who brought along their children. One of our Tucker Groomers was parked in front of the Community Cen ter for children of all ages to see. (See photos above)

Respectfully submitted, Don Gower, Secretary

In addition to the chance to ride the pre-de termined Poker Rally route, there were Snowmobile Club events based in the Bridg ton Community Center. Snowmobilers and Park n Ride - Norway Trackers new park and ride sign

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