9299-R5_MSA_March2026_Newsletter

From The Executive Board

working, dedicated volunteers . The quality of riding that the Central Region has become known for doesn’t happen by accident—it’s the result of your late nights, cold hands, and unwavering commitment to our trails. Strengthening Our Clubs It has been a true pleasure visiting many of our local clubs recently. We’ve been diving into some critical areas to keep our sport thriving, including: • New Fundraising Ideas: Creative ways to keep the groomers fueled and moving. • Landowner Management: Tips for maintaining the vital relationships that keep our trails open. • Grant Writing & MSA Updates: Navigating the tools available to secure the future of our local networks. It’s amazing what can be accomplished when we put our heads together. I’m thrilled to report that many clubs have reached out to share the successful outcomes resulting from these collaborative efforts. Stay Safe & Stay Connected Remember to ride right, respect the landowners, and check local club reports before heading out. Let’s make the rest of this season one to remember! Think Snow! Ron Nunes Central Region Vice President Maine Snowmobile Association Note to Members: If your club hasn’t scheduled a visit yet or if you need specific resources, don’t hesitate to reach out to Ron directly!

and put faces on ones we have talked to or heard about, this has been a very rewarding experience. I feel I have been able to answer most questions about the MSA or been able to get answers from our executive volunteers. I am amazed that so many clubs have Tucker track problems, and they are not available to buy new ones. However, every club seems to have some very creative folks to keep these machines out on the snow. Although we have not had large amounts of snow, what we have has been groomable and the clubs have made the most of it. With their rally’s, poker runs, radar runs and open houses on the trail, for the most part the weather has been very favorable. So western Maine folks, let me know when your meetings are and where, as I would like to sit in on one. Until next time keep up the GREAT work! Get those nominations in for one of the many categories and join us for the annual meeting and silent auction. Oh by the way, help us get some items for the auction, please.

Western Region VP

Central Region VP

Ron Nunes, 401-527-5370 260 Last Round Up Rd, Lexington Twp, ME 04961 Thelastroundup2018@gmail.com H ello, Central Region Riders! As we hit the heart of the season, it’s great to see so many of you out on the trails. While Mother Nature hasn’t been overly generous with the “white gold” this year, those sustained cold temperatures have been our saving grace. They’ve kept the base solid and provided us with a surprisingly strong season of riding despite the limited totals. The best part? There is more snow in the forecast! We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the next system delivers the powder we’ve all been waiting for. A Heartfelt Thank You I want to personally thank all the hard-

Jerry Major, Cell: 207-838-0892 137 Morrill Rd, Norway ME 04268 mrfun101jem@gmail.com M y wife Terri and I have been to a lot of meetings in the last few weeks, 2 or 3 a week. We have met a lot of new people

GOD BLESS Jerry Major

Know Before You Go!

MSA CLUBS:

Always Check Local Ice Conditions

TO ORDER CLUB TRAIL SIGNAGE Contact Vanessa Haas DACF/Snowmobile Program Phone (207) 287-4957 Fax (207)287-8111 Vanessa.Haas@maine.gov

TO ORDER NEEDED ITS & JCT SIGNS Contact Mike Grass Sr. MSA Trails Committee 252 Condon Road, Plymouth, ME 04969 207-368-4914 home • 207-745-2745 cell Grasslands252@gmail.com

MSA Club News

It’s 112 miles from the Mapleton area to the lodge. It’s evident that our clubs put in many hours to provide groomed trails for riders all over the state. Marc Brown, our Vice President has also completed a project on our trail system. Each intersection or trail end has a map with all information available for riders and protected from the weather. Thanks Marc, for all of your hard work! Now all of the pertinent information is posted and protected. Kudos to our other officers: our Directors who meet weekly to iron out any problems or work on the groomer or talk about any changes they want to make; our treasurer takes care of the dollars, nickels and dimes and pays the bills to insure we have a smoothly operating club. Snowmobiling is not a cheap sport! Our Pres ident takes care of all of the grants (with a lit tle help from the secretary), watches the fund ing and grooms too. The secretary is the only person who does the writing, at least it seems that way to me! Hopefully we have another 1-2 weeks of sledding. In years past, we used to sled into April but I guess those days are gone. Last year we only got about 5-6 weeks. With what snow we have, the trails in the county are very good. If you have any questions about the trails, give us a call at 764-1236 or 227-6365. See you out on the trails! Sue Maynard Secretary Hi~ If you heard the rumble of 153 sleds and felt a whole lot of heart in the County recently, that was us. The Portage Lakers Snowmobile Club was proud to host the first FasPhil Poker Run in memory of Phil Michaud, and what a day it was! We welcomed 153 riders, along with many wonderful guests, all coming together to ride, laugh, and remember a great friend. Phil would have loved every minute of it — especially the part where all his friends rode PORTAGE LAKERS sc Portage Lake, ME

to Horse Mountain, cooked hot dogs over an open fire, and his daughter and nearest and dearest friends rode to the top of the mountain to blast some of his ashes from a cannon. A huge thank you to the Washburn Snowmobile Club and the Aroostook River Snowmobile Club for hosting stops along the way. Your hospitality helped keep riders warm, fed, smil ing, and ready for the next stretch of trail. Spe cial thanks as well to Shelly Esancy and Tony Clark for hosting a stop- we truly appreciate you opening your doors and your time to make the day such a success. After a full day of rid ing, Dean’s Motor Lodge treated us to a won derful meal that hit the spot perfectly-Thank You Dawn and Herb! Thank you to The Echo for keeping the music going. Most of all, a very special thank you to our sponsors. Your generosity made this event possible, and we are incredibly grateful for your continued sup port. And to our volunteers- the early arrivers, the late stayers, the sign-up crew, the organiz ers, the behind-the-scenes problem solvers, thank you for working tirelessly to make the day run as smoothly as our freshly groomed trails. Nothing tastes better than a hot meal after a long ride- except maybe pie… which brings us to our annual Pie Auction! Thank you to Beth Hummel for organizing the fun and Chris Car roll for having enough voice to auctioneer for over 2 hours (and the friendly bidding wars), and to all the talented bakers and generous donors who contributed those irresistible cre ations. The entertainment did not disappoint! Thank you to Guilty Pleasure for helping us dance the night away. Let’s just say — snow mobilers clean up pretty well… and some of us have moves we should probably save for the trails. Speaking of trails, they are in great shape! If you haven’t made it to Portage yet this season, what are you waiting for? Come ride with us while we still have great trails! Spring will be here before we know it. As always, we welcome new members. Join the Portage Lakers Snowmobile Club by reaching out to portagelakersmembership@ gmail.com, checking out portagelakers.org, or

following us on Facebook. Ride safe, Ride Right, and Be Courteous! Think Snow!

Deadlines for club news is the 25 th of the month prior to the publications. Please submit articles to editor@mesnow.com

Club Secretary, Tammy Kenney

MOLUNKUS VALLEY SNO-DRIFTERS Sherman, ME Greetings from MVSD! What a wild n crazy season this has been the temps as I sit and write this its 22 degrees with light winds. February was a busy month: trail inspections reroutes and, groomer repairs, poker run and more as I sit a moment to write this knock on wood.... we are all good in our world. Our poker run was another successful one. We are Blessed with Members, area business sponsors and help to keep events going for our community! Also grateful for our goffer Rick Allen who goes for this and goes for that we can’t thank him enough and to Rick Long who repairs most even when we can’t get parts. We appreciate all Our members! and volunteers! We are blessed with a great club! As they say it takes a village and we have the best thank you to all who held stops for our poker run, members who gave all day up to help and some that gave weeks to make this happen. We held a Molunkus millions raffle and Liz Lane was the winner. Congratulations Poker run winners were: 1st Dennis Brack ett who is a big supporter of the club! 2nd was Nicole Gogan and 3rd was Donald Heath who donated his prize back. Worst hand toilet seat winner was Waylin Gould. Congrats to all win ners. The meal of Ricks Chili n Debs Chop suey was a big hit! Watch for upcoming events and fundrais ers on our Facebook page until later Keep On Keeping ON! Deb Long (Snow Queen)

NORTHERN REGION

BENEDICTA SNOW GANG Benedicta, ME

We have 110 members as of now. The fish ing derby netted $1400, a lot of happy and smiling kids. Thank you to all the Sponsors who supported us! We also drew the winners of our cash raffle drawing: 1st Prize $3000 to Ken White Jr, 2nd Prize $2000 to Dave Hin ners, 3rd Prize $1500 to Mike MacEachern and 4th Prize $1000 to Dave Salanitro who donated it back to the Club, big thanks and congratulations to all the winners. We had a trail ride along with an open house at the new groomer barn. Thanks to those that showed up and didn’t go away hungry. Pat did what every operator has done. No harm to equipment! Dear Members: It has been a great season for riding, even with less snow than we usually have. All of the clubs have diligently groomed every snowflake we got. Our grooming crew has worked very hard, meeting weekly to iron out any problems and to service our groomer. This makes for a smooth grooming operation. I have recently made two sledding trips. Our trip to the St. Froid Lake/Eagle Lake area was mostly groomed very well. There had been a problem with the grooming in the Eagle Lake area, which resulted in a few bumps. But we enjoyed very nice trails most everywhere. We also traveled to Allagash Headwaters Lodge in western Maine. We had a scenic ride, all great trails, all the way to their beautiful lodge. CHAPMAN RIDGE RUNNERS sc Chapman, ME

MEDUXNEKEAG RAMBLERS SNOWSLED CLUB Meduxnekeag, ME

Well, the snow has stayed on the ground, trails are in excellent shape. Groomers are out

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