Maine Tourism, snowmobile ITS trails and club house locations. Maine is Vacationland.
Not just for summer coastal vacations, fall hunting trips or spring river paddling outings. Maine winter tourism is all about snowmobile ITS trails, downhill and crossing country skiing, snowshoeing, pond hockey and ice fishing.
This Maine blog post concentrates on snowmobile ITS trails and clubhouse locations.
For one link to hook you up with snowmobile trails around Maine and far beyond, visit this link. It is one neat, interactive GPS to move you in and out of regions with groomed trails and active snowmobile clubhouses.
When I was a little shaver and tinkering on a 1966 Sno Jet, there were not trail system maps to study.
No groomed snowmobile trails and you made your own. The snow machines were heavy, lacking suspension systems. Narrow skis helped you get between a pair of woodlot trees and crossing rivers, you waited for many inches of frozen ice to create the natural bridge. My Uncle Carl Hagan sold Sno Jets, another Uncle Cedric was a Polaris dealer.
Blue Sno Jet With A German Made Hirth Motor, Around 13 Horsepower.
The Polaris Apollo snowmobile 440 power plant was a step up from the Sno-Jet’s 13 horse power motor.
The next machine as an adult was a 1989 Polaris 650 three cylinder water cooled snowmobile. Stuck with the Polaris line with a snow checked 1993 Storm 750 three cylinder power plant.
As new snow sleds were purchased for outdoor winter fun, trail system ITS maps showed up all over the place in Maine.
Try out the trail riding in the Shin Pond area. Buzzing around the North entrance of the Baxter state park.
Snowmobile up into Oxbow, Masardis and enjoy the two way trail system around the Madawaska and Fort Kent area of Aroostook County.
The people you meet and sights you see along the winter snowmobile trails in Maine are unforgettable. You may think you know Maine but what season do you spend the most time in the state? The change of season makes all the difference in the vacation experience or living here full time with re-visits to favorite haunts.
Seeing Maine On A Snow Sled, Snowmobile Means Getting Places You Can Not By Car.
If you are thinking of snowmobiling in Maine, it is always wise to call ahead first.
You can do a lot online and checking the weather for regions of Maine is not hard with the Internet. But Maine weather changes fast and snowmobile trails rely on temperatures, snow fall amount and careful round the clock grooming. Join a snow sled club in Maine, take part in the statewide and local raffles, fund raising events.
Maine tourism in the winter.
Money raised supports keeping the trail groomers online, repairing or replacement of bridges and new and old trail maintenance.
Maine Snowmobiles, Snow Sleds Way More Complicated. No Boogie Wheels, Better Suspensions, Four Cycle Less Gas Guzzling. Grew Up With Sno Jets.
Snowmobiling in Maine helps the local community economy during a traditionally slower time of the year.
Local sporting lodges can expand their market for vacationers by pairing up with local Maine snowmobile clubs.
Some Maine snow sled clubs even have free memberships. Offering on the house membership for next year if you put in 25 hours of public service work on the trails, bridges, signage or whatever is needed to improve the sledding experience.
The Maine winter snowfall is iffy and the state is large and expansive.
Anytime you depend on the weather for anything in Maine. the only thing to plan on is change. Watch a news report video on Maine winter snowmobiling.
If you have never snowmobiled, you have no idea of what you are missing. Parked on top of a Maine mountain top or hillside trail with one expansive view in your lap. Or listening to the sound of roaring river water on a waterfront side trail is peaceful, private and very special.
You can get to places on a snowmobile in Maine that you would never see otherwise riding a machine.
Get off the couch. Dress warm and head outdoors up in Maine. The wildlife you see while snow sledding in Maine is an unique experience too. You are in their home and stay on the trail. Ease into the corners and back off the throttle crossing wood’s roads. Active logging operations mean keep your eyes peeled for hazards ahead.
Hearty Lunch, All Fueled Snowmobilers And The Trail Riders. Exploring Northern Maine.
Local snowmobile clubhouses can tell your about the condition of trails because they run the groomers day and night to give the best ride.
Private land owners in Maine that share their property with snow sledders deserve thanks and respect.
Property owners are a major part of the partnership that makes for more miles of exciting snowmobile trail riding around the state of Maine. Again, join a club or two because each sledder member helps make the duties of a Maine snowmobile club lighter to carry.
Most Maine snowmobile clubs have a Facebook and some a website to help you feel connected when not enjoying the Maine snowmobile trails.
The Maine Snowmobile Association has five regions and becoming a MSA member means you get club reports and more.
Every licensed Maine snowmobiler gets a copy of the Maine Snowmobilier, a publication of the Maine Snowmobile Association.
I grew up in a time of 50 flavors of snow sleds. You worked on your bogie wheel suspension snow machine long into the night.
The expression “tinker for two hours to ride for one” was so true in the early days of snowmobiling in Maine before complex grids of ITS trails came into play.
Want To Rent A Snowmobile Up In Maine? NOEC Has Them For Hitting The Groomed Trails.
Consider renting if you don’t own a snowmobile and taking to the trails this winter up in Maine. Winters are not long and riding to a place to eat, to a club house breakfast or supper is a scenic diversion. We don’t stay cooped up inside living in Maine. We are outdoor everyday of the year and loving it!
Sometimes said short hand “upta camp in Maine”. When you live in Maine, trips to camp happen regularly. And some that like to hunt, fish, snowmobile use their camp to get below radar. To unplug and recharge and catch their breath.
Big steak feeds, corn boils with other happy campers stopping by from along the miles of trails surrounding your camp. They have their own small shanties used for the same purpose.
Some Winters More Snow Fall Than Others. All The Better For Snowmobiling, Skiing, To Create Snowy Trails To Explore Maine Up To Camp.
Low cost vacation up in Maine.
A change of scenery. Your best thinking happens outdoors with an endless supply of fresh air, up close up to wildlife, less distractions. A break from multi tasking and to do lists. Take a break to rest up before going back into the rat race round and round.
Water front settings are the most rewarding taking a break from wall to wall people.
Maine’s unspoiled wilderness is the ideal backdrop that guarantees your peaceful setting. You are where white tail deer, moose, black bear, fox, game and song birds call their forest home.
The trails to explore are endless when you make the time for outdoor adventure. The further you go up into Maine and away from the tourist traps along the coastal regions, the less unspoiled your natural surroundings become.
But back to the “up to camp in Maine” theme this blog post is supposed to stay aware of today. The structure for the retreat varies greatly.
Orono Bog Tree Size, Meg Helps Show How Big This Smasher Is Along The Forest Trail. Huge Trees In Maine’s Vast Timber Tracts.
Sometimes built from scratch and piece meal by you or your granddad. A group of guys you work with out of state had a hand in the camp creation. Or a Maine home that has seen better days and gone unused, unheated. But is the end of the road quiet location, a few amenities camps lack that attracts you.
The camp usually home made, a passed down family property on owned or leased Maine land.
Maybe a hand hewn log affair? Built long ago and kinda musty smelling with it’s old familiar shut up odor. Shared with mice, other critters because you are like an absentee landlord.
Sometimes the place a tad messed up inside because you left quickly the last outing. To bee line back to wherever home is to stay ahead of a weather front or something came up at home needing your immediate attention.
Snowshoes Open Up Maine Winter Woods And Lakeside Trails! Explore Maine A Slew Of Four Season Ways Up To Camp In Maine!
For out of state visitors heading up to Maine to spend some time at the woods camp, that trip back to reality can be six, eight or more hours away.
When you rise and shine on a Sunday, the nagging thought about needing to get on the road to start the travel home is strong. Unless you want to be dog tired from lack of sleep and all that white line driving fever.
The price you pay for playing hooky up at the simple Maine woods camp.
Where it’s not a second home to care for and keep ship shape. More of a relaxed, easy does it setting where the rules are different and everyone is relaxed, not too rushed.
Ice Fishing On A Maine Lake! Small But A Mini Waterfront Island On A Frozen Sheet Of Ice. It’s Out Front Your Simple Recreation Camp Up In Maine.
The usual simple backwoods camp up in Maine heated only by a wood stove.
Put another log on the fire. Can be heat using an antique cook stove on one end of the small camp. Or a parlor heater parked in the center of the usually one room sportsmen’s paradise. Some bunks tucked away in the corners, maybe a screened in front porch for overflow guests when weather allows for extra sleeping space.
Some camps around ski areas where more elevation snow happens are A-frame design.
With a loft overlooking half the living area that is cathedral ceilings. Often an addition added to the camp done by folks with a real job not using the business end of a hammer. Crafting, piecing together materials that are odds and ends, recycled from home project renovations.
Small Maine Downhill Ski Areas, Quoggy Jo Presque Isle Maine. Easily Accessed From Woods Camps, Inexpensive Recreation Cabins Up In Maine.
That camp front or side porch like an outdoor living room for talks, meals, reliving the day on the lake or out on the wood’s trails.
Planning for more of the same tomorrow when you are lucky enough to be up to camp in Maine. Or hang loose, stay sharp. The change of plans that is always tied to the weather forecast. Days inside at camp are slow and comfortable. But usually you are itching to get outside like a kid who wants to play outdoors.
It’s let’s go somewhere, do something outdoors is the standard operating procedure upta camp in Maine.
On foot, siting on a snow machine or ATV four wheeler. It is not uncommon for the owner or group of names on the real estate deed title have other Maine camps. One in TCR2 on the ITS snow sled trails, the one near Baxter for hiking. Even a fishing camp across the Canadian border into Quebec or New Brunswick for even more change of scenery recreation options.
What’s Happening Around You In Uncrowded Maine. That Kind Of News Is Home Grown, Spread More By Locals Than Media Outlets. Getting Away To Camp Is A Regular Healthy Habit.
Some “camps in Maine” are pretty ooh la la swanky.
Shock and awe. Nothing simple or one room about them when the home away from home becomes something way more substantial. Or a duplicate of the McMansion left behind. Make sure to take your shoes off, to use a coaster under that drink and all these bathrooms to clean with the tiny hard working bubbles .
What’s your definition of camping, a simple getaway up in Maine?
A gas light or solar powered Amish shed you slowly finish off the interior in knotty pine? Serviced with an outhouse privy behind it for nature calls? Yes, there is plenty of field and stream reading material. At this approach to camping, the HBO is out the front window or screened porch at a lake, river, stream or gazing at a mountain.
No 75″ flat screen TV to veg out on sprawled on a couch with one hand held high changing the hundreds of channels.
The Snug As a Bug In The Little Red Log Maine Lake Camp. Telecommuting From Maine. Not Suffering From FOMO. Happy Where We Live. Some Camps Have Strong Broadband Internet!
Up to camp in Maine where the running water is you with a bucket for a quick trip to the nearby spring.
Maybe if you are lucky, a hand pitcher pump that takes a couple up and down motions to start the siphon flow of water into the sink. Or are you thinking more along the lines of master suites with private baths and a compound fit for a President like Walker’s Point? Fully connected with waterworks, no secret service folks? Transmission lines with power, security cameras, back up generators, wall to wall Internet and 450 beamed in entertainment channels?
Maine has millions of acres to discover.
On the trails less traveled you carry a map. Often no cell phone signal because towers in township this, range that have no subscribers. A squirrel is not checking for friend requests or receiving lots of texts LOL. Camp is for cribbage and card games. I had an uncle who used a bus to be remote and able to change “wood’s camp” location.
Tying a weather balloon to anchor it on the bus’s front bumper to keep the hunting party together.
To avoid the call to the game warden because oh oh someone is lost. Don’t lose sight of that balloon over head fellas. Make your tramping circles small and always with that balloon visible to find your way back to camp.
Checking Out The Local Area, Using Your Simple Maine Camp Over And Over As A Home Base For Very Low Cost Vacations.
There is a journal to scribble in something about the weather, who got the biggest, largest point buck.
The note book outlining the latest project crossed off and completed from the list under a magnet on the side of the gas powered refrigerator. Who came in the party this particular trip to camp is duly recorded.
Up at camp, there is no microwave hurried food preparations.
The old black frying pan passed down from your grandfather is on the stove. Fired up, hot and ready, greased for a hunger satisfying breakfast of eggs, ham, sausage, bacon, pancakes, hash browns and bean hole baked beans if you are lucky.
What’s It Like Living In Maine? Owning A Simple Maine Camp Means Lots Of Vacations To Find Out As You Visit More Often Because You Don’t Need Expensive Motel Lodging.
Up at camp in Maine you are very careful with outdoor fires.
Protecting the forest fire risk, respecting the wildlife that needs the timber stand for their home. You give the animals the space they need when up to camp in Maine. Checking on the camp, a familiar excuse to pack up and head into the woods to make sure everything is fine and dandy. Vertical poles put up inside the Maine camp for additional roof support are not uncommon.
The guise of worried about your hideaway in the Great North woods is a clever excuse to head “upta camp”.
Because it’s secondary gain, after you see all is a-okay then it’s well, once we are up here let’s go check on other sporting buddy camps as a courtesy. Depending on snow loads, shoveling off the camp roof may be a good precaution to avoid a cave in collapse.
Float Planes To Access Some Remote Maine Camps. Not A Lot Of Trick Or Treaters. Most Unorganized Maine Locations, You Own Cabin, Lease The Paper Company, Old Family Holdings Land.
Camp owners keep an eye on the winter weather snow accumulations predicted in local forecasts. Roof updates with metal helped save and protect many a private woods camp up in Maine. Plenty of Maine log makers offer camps of all sizes, prices and layouts. All numbered and constructed cheaply and easily to create your cheap vacation destination up in Maine.
Back country hiking from your simple Maine camp.
Lot of easy and more challenging hills too if woods trails are not enough cup of tea for exercise. Wetting your fishing line in the many lakes, rivers, ponds of Maine another past time option up at camp. Whatever you do outside your camp in Maine, make sure not to leave a trace.
The north Maine woods are not a souvenir stop and for leave what you find.
Admire, snap a photo, but leave it be. Some camps are handy to villages where you buy a meal or two, stock up on snacks, beverages and get to know the locals. Or you meet them on the trails, heading into town for building supplies. Many bumped into here and there on the trails. Everyone stops to shoot the breeze and share their love for the Maine woods.
Easier To Access Ice Traps Using Snow Sleds These Days.
Is upta camp in Maine just for old duffers reliving their past hunting trips, their time in the service overseas?
Or to drink barely pop circled sitting around outdoor camp fires? No no, your simple woods camp or cabin is for all ages. Family members all take turns using the camp and attending the much anticipated larger gathering annual events. If your camp up in Maine is on a lake or pond, loons serenade you morning, noon and night.
Lots Of Outdoor Doors Used At Your Maine Camp.
Ducks paddle by panhandling for a piece of bread along the shore outside your camp.
Don’t forget your camera to capture what you experienced this time, other trips to your Maine camp create for eye candy. This trip just the two of you or the last one there were forty family members. Some sleeping in tents or travel campers pulled in and set up to head to for lights out shut eye. Because we’re getting up at dawn to tramp the words in search of game.
Camp in Maine is early morning coffee on the porch, out on the deck.
Feeling just like the World has stopped, like someone shut off a very loud engine. Tripped over the power cord to create heaven on Earth.
Your binoculars hanging by the dining room camp picture window.
just in case a lynx, coyote, bald eagle or some new species of wildlife shows up today. Capture a phone for the album of what wanders by that you have not spied before up at camp.Gazing out onto the lake at a pair of otters swimming together and who have a habit of showing off on the rock out front. The same one the grand children use before the float is taken out and anchored for use as a swimming platform.
There are sounds, but it’s the wind vibrating the pine needles or song birds happy to be alive just like you. Maybe the crack of swaying trees that have arthritis as they age. Even falling snow flakes and autumn leaves, the rain can be deafening when that’s all there is on the audio channel up your Maine real estate.
A wood pecker keeps perfect time with with an intensity like Bonzo beating the skins in Led Zeppelin.
There is where you do your best thinking reflection in the peace and quiet. At funerals, those who are brave enough to stand and offer a few words often mention how much the dearly departed loved being up at camp. The happy place, getting away from the day to day chasing the dollar to make ends meet as they grew old is often mentioned at Maine funerals.
All Ages Love Going Up To A Maine Camp. Pets Too!
Fishing poles up in the rafters stored for their next use.
For brook trout fly fishing using lures you hand tied yourself. Small mouth bass are calling your name out front the waterfront camp and time’s awastin’. Life jackets piled up in corner or draped over the corners of the home made bunk bed posts. A rifle over the mantel if there is a rocked attempt at a fireplace.
What the camp lacks for perfection it lays down all four acres face up for charm and memory making.
Many start small with just a couple of acres of Maine land to park the camper or RV on for one low cost vacation. To fashion an add lib camp involving the help of many.
Wildlife, Moose, Deer, Black Bear, Not People. What It’s Like Upta Camp In Maine.
A chain saw and gas can, 2 cycle oil and file in the tool shed at Maine camps.
Along with ice fishing traps, snow shovel and roof rake. A pair of snow shoes hanging on a wall spike. Cross country skis leaning into one corner and ready when you are to hit the white blanket of white power snow trails.
Lucky to have a shed at the camp. Maybe something big enough to house a four wheeler or snowmobile or two. An assortment of glass jars filled with odds and ends of nuts and bolts. An axe, hatchet, hammer and spade, farm wagon jack. Block and tackle, a chain or tow cope round out the wood’s camp DIY hardware store shed collection of survival tools.
A Camp Or Maine Cabin Near Baxter, Mt Katahdin. Priceless.
Cast offs from home, the table at camp is a metal 1950’s Happy Days variety.
Rock solid but way way outdated. Or someone used a big wooden electric cable spool as the make shift table. With a rag tag assortment of no two chairs match around it grouped for meals and card games. Photos, some of them black and whites with grinning family members that have long since gone on to the great beyond. Holding strings of fish, or standing around a hanging deer that became tonight’s dinner of venison.
Nothing to do up at camp?
Log Cabin, Cheap Maine Vacation. All You Need Is Your Own Place, A Camp.
No, there is a collection of books, you work on projects, the new addition. Staying busy but a different kind of industrious than a typical day off back home in the real World. Fire wood is always needs to be cut, split, stacked. Blow downs happen on the jeep trail coming in and out of your hidden camp upta Maine.
Getting year round use, the wardrobe not the same at your woods cabin hideaway.
I know folks that have taken a 500 dollar old B&A railroad car without the wheels and made it into a woods camp. You stumble onto those when snow sledding or plying the trails hiking, biking, skiing or just traveling in and out of camp.
The grill is a 55 gallon drum cleaned up, cut in half with a hinge, grill added to create amazing charcoal outdoor dining fare. The trails where you see a Mother black bear or deer, moose with their young that you ease by and don’t harass.
Maine wildlife. You’re on their turf remember?
And there is no HOA, maybe an occasionally a visit from a Inland Fisheries and Wildlife game warden. He or she is a major resource on what’s happening around the thousands of wooded acres since you were last here.
Providing helpful suggestions on you folks ought to try this trail or avoid that one where there is a wood timbering operation underway.
The camp location can be only accessible by float plane or canoe.
Or park here and take a couple mile trail up a walking trail to arrive at camp on foot. Not the best place to have a heart attack or suddenly need medical assistance. But if it is your time to expire, there is no better place to fade away then at your Happy Place.
Maine camp for rest and relaxation, for your mental health and to trap, shoot or catch what you put on your dinner table.
The Getaway, Woods Cabin In Maine. Warm, Friendly, Snug!
It’s a tradition and most in the family can’t wait for the next trip uptah camp.
Especially younger family members who get to come along on the next just the adults excursion.
Fun when it’s below zero or the red in the thermometer outside the kitchen window shows over 100 degrees.
The perfect back drop either extreme and in between. No electricity is fine or you fire up the Honda generator to charge up some deep cell marine batteries to run the water pump and a few lights.
Everyone Wants To See A Maine Moose. You Do, Often Off The Beaten Path Upta Camp In Maine Middle Of The Woods Location.
Sights, sounds, smells, all the senses get a work out upta camp in Maine.
The camps, cabins, cottages are not just used for weekend stints. My cousin Randy and Barbara Mooers head to their camp up at St Croix Lake in unorganized Township 8, Range 4, WELS all summer long. So do Joe and Marguerite Lawlor now that they are retired. Those St Croix Lake camps are the perfect jump off point to take a jeep ride over to see the Ghost Trains in the Allagash Wilderness Waterday. To stop for a lunch in Oxbow or Masardis before making the big circle back to St Croix Lake camp like home.
The Cabin, Camp, Up In Maine. Built Simple, DIY And Used Often By All Ages, Every Season. Maine Is Vacationland Remember?
Life is different, trapped in time, not the same each visit up to camp in Maine.
Am I preaching to the choir or do you think you need a little camp life? Too gamey for you? Grab the bar of Ivory soap and clean up, wash off in the lake or pond. Some of those Maine woods camps on leased land where you pay the personal property tax on the structure and a fee to use the spot.
That camp lease usually good for the next five years to stay the same lease amount.
Or consider buying a piece of land near that unorganized region of Maine. Like Mt Chase just outside Patten Maine that will get you so close to the north gate of Baxter State Park and the Monument and still own the land underneath your cabin “home sweet home”. Hope you enjoyed this Me in Maine blog post on life up to camp in Maine.
It takes many hardworking volunteers doing everything behind the scenes. Keeping the ITS trails groomed, twitching new ones is only part of it. Putting up signage, building bridges, feeding hungry trail riders. Raising funds to maintain or buy a new snowmobile trail groomer.
Cuffing Right Along Grooming, Smoothing, Carving Up ITS Snow Sled Trails.
Snowmobile clubs do their part to dovetail with local Maine winter community celebrations too.
They are welcome wagon ambassadors to the out of town or state sled trail riders. Sharing the natural beauty of Maine by suggesting memorable trail rides to not forget to experience.
The biggest issue for Maine snowmobile clubs can be Mother Nature and Jack Frost.
Like farming, depending on the weather is always a gamble. Feast or famine.
Maine ski areas put a lot of time into setting up the snow making nozzles on the slopes. Only to see above freezing, too warm temperatures mixed with rain, wind and fog arrive to wash it away. The same happens to well groomed snow trails when the red rises too high in the glass tube outside the kitchen window.
The price of gas was more of an issue when two cycle, mix the oil with the gas higher fuel consuming snowmobiles played on the ITS trails. The four cycle machines are more costly to buy, but easier on the wallet to feed the octane.
Not so much anxiety worried about topping off the tank as you prepare to head off into the “Great North Woods” where gas stations are missing.
By Yourself On The Newly Groomed ITS Snow Sled Trails. Nothing Like It.
This blog post looks at the dynamics of a small rural Maine snowmobile club. How they start, what needs to happen for them to survive.
Maine land owners to allow snow sledders access to their property is key. That is the first step to setting up a Maine snowmobile club.
Back in the early 1960’s when there were 50 flavors of snowmobile makers, you made your own trails. You broke down a lot.
You tinkered for two hours to ride for one because snow sleds were not so dependable for long distance trail riding.
And if you are cold, you are not dressed right today or then. The getting stuck and digging out, tugging up front on skis and tramping down around the snow machine work out keeps you warm as toast. You learn to stay on the trail. It saves getting a hernia digging out and also pleases your land owner that lets you use their land. IF you stay on the marked sled trail.
In the early days of snow sledding, it was stay pretty close to home and on hard pack surfaces when you headed out snowmobiling.
I remember those early Johnson Skeehorse days when you thought twice about heading out across a deep, bottomless snowy farm field.
I heard stories about old hardcore Maine snowmobilers taking annual sled trips up into Quebec, Labrador.
Hearing the stories about breakdowns, incredible scenery and how they planned for the out of the country snowmobile trip. What they plan to do next year the same or differently. Like many things, ideas start with seeing how they do it in other areas of the country. Lots of ideas learned from other Canadian snowmobile club trips. Those visits lead to let’s try to apply what we saw on the trail to our Maine snow sled club and backyard trail system.
When you snowmobile up in Maine’s St John River Valley, you enjoy twin lanes like the Interstate is divided.
Safer, more work for the groomer but just a different approach to laying out the trail system that goes in wide circles around the clubhouse.
So besides a network of Maine landowners willing to share their property with snowmobilers, a clubhouse for a home is needed.
A local Ward log home maker donated a building the Meduxnekeag Ramblers in Littleton Maine use for their clubhouse. Many of the local snow sled clubhouses are made of logs because Maine is 91 percent wooded.
Maine has lots of log home and cabin makers willing to lend a helping hand to local snowmobile clubs.
Once the log home kit is secured, other local vendors will step up and help out with manpower and materials.
Here’s a video showing a typical Maine snowmobile club breakfast.
The snowmobile clubhouse also is used for weddings, parties, executive retreats.
The rental income helps keep the snowmobile club out of the red and keeps membership engaged beyond just the winter trail riding sled season.Reimbursement from the state of Maine for trail grooming expenses is key. It is a partnership of state and local snowmobile club to document expenses for reimbursement. Money from snowmobile registrations, local fund raising keep the trail system healthy. The local businesses that directly benefit from winter snow sledders step up and give back heavily too. The Maine Snowmobile Association helps guide the local sled clubs too.
Local motels, sporting camps have groomed sled trails right up to their doorstep.
These local snowmobile clubs deliver the sledding tourist right to their business operations. Gas stations, local snow sled retailers benefit from the network of trails Maine snowmobile clubs keep polished. These are new dollars plowed back into the local economy that turn over six to seven times which benefits Maine taxpayers. Celebrations like Moosestompers help the locals shake cabin fever around the first of every February up in Aroostook County Maine.
The Maine snowmobile trail maps are sponsored by businesses too.
You can quickly cover a lot of trails on say ITS 83 that uses old railroad beds. These winter snow sledding highways come complete with bridges to span waterways. They complement nicely the local landowner side trails and large wooded tracts opened up by loggers who are also “sled heads”.
I have had Maine real estate buyers surprised I would allow a snowmobile trail across my family farm.
Have A Snow Sled Groomed Trail Across My Maine Farm Property.
It is explained that landowners that add their acreage to the local snowmobile trail map are a valuable partner. Snowmobilers are reminded to respect the Maine landowner. That use of their private property is a privilege not a right.
Local snow sledders who love the winter sport are the glue that hold together the Maine snowmobile clubs.
Making Sled Trails, Carving New Snow Into Winter Highways.
Lucky to have had two uncles that were Maine snowmobile dealers.
Uncle Carl Hagan sold Sno-Jets and my uncle Cedric Benn peddled Polaris sleds and parts. As a kid, I learned a lot working on a 1966 Sno-Jet and before that an even older Johnson Skeehorse snow machine. Then Polaris machines after that with a couple Yamaha’s thrown in to the snow sled mix.
Ice Fishing Easier Thanks To Snowmobiles.
Growing up, I was also lucky to have neighborhood snowmobile enthusiasts who kept the area kid’s sled running like a top.
A local mechanic for the B & A railroad, Ronnie Brewer helped the neighborhood kids keep the machines running. He was like a shop teacher helping us figure out what’s wrong and
how to fix it. Friday night with all the kids lucky enough to have an early snow sled to use had it made. When the Sno-Jet metal gas tank rusted up, I decided to add a red side gas tank bungeed into place. The portable gas tank idea from Arctic Cat. It interfered with sitting down but no kid I knew in those early days ever sledded that way.
Early snow sledding was not sitting down and steering was narrow skis stance anyway.
To stay on the trail that you mostly made yourself, it was easy does it squeezing between tight spacing through the woods. You were on one knee. Or leaning, standing up and throwing the sled where you wanted it to go heading into curves. Before carbide ski runners and wider spacing up front, the snow sled steering involved way way more than just pushing and pulling your handlebar movements.
Bridges To Keep The Snow Sled Trail Connected. Clubs Work Hard To Build Them And To Mark The Trails, Put Up Signage.
Just like hockey games, you can not sit down and fully experience them.
It is on your feet every period and into overtime to experience it all. Early snow sledding was like that too. On your feet or on your knees ladies and gentlemen. You did not sit down on the job of maneuvering the snowmobile to negotiate turns, to avoid hitting trees. No one wanted bent straight up snow skis or a dent in their cowling. You did not have wide and handsome trails and it took more work leaning into corners. If you had a passenger on back, you told them to follow your move and lean too. Otherwise, the both of you would be out in the pucker brush and holding up the rest of the sled head trail gang.
Set Up, Getting Ready For A Snow Sled Club Breakfast. Trail Riding Builds Large Hunger Out In All That Fresh Maine Air.
We went to grass snow sled racers, over to Canada to watch the snowmobile circuit competitions at New Brunswick province community parks.
My Aunt Ruth’s partner was a big kid himself. Freeman Taylor kept our snowmobiles going and let us use a souped up 1964 Ski Doo and his 1973 Skiroule.
The former snowmobile was a bored out 10 horsepower cranking out 22 ponies with poor brakes and missing safety guards.
The old Ski Doo with a noisy straight pipe, a sprinkle of that red fluid labeled “fuel activator” sprinkled in the gas tank. Too narrow and loose as a goose to handle at higher trail speeds than the sled was original designed to be going. The Skiroule was modern and ran very well with its 25 horsepower engine. I think their RTX model was way ahead of its time like the Kawasaki snow machines and other notable snowmobile models.
New Snow Means Improved Sled Trails And $$$ In The Main Small Town Local Winter Economy.
Freeman also had an 80 horsepower Skiroule with three carbs, a rope wind up hand crank and ear splitting tuned exhaust pipes.
It was fun watching Freeman race on grass or the circuit parks. But he had a heck of time keeping drive belts from fraying and failing before the end of the race.
Often many laps ahead of the field and often coming in a lower place pushing the dead sled over the finish line.
Too much power from the 793 cc Hirth power plant delivered to the clutching and drive track channel the problem.
Easier To Access Ice Traps Using Snow Sleds These Days.
When there is a snow drought, clubs still have the Christmas parties, mark the trails, keep the social element going.
“I Think We Take This Connector. How’s Your Sled For Gas Bob? Better Top Off.”
Maine is like that, feast or famine and we all adjust making the most of what we have. We are always grateful for what we have that is always enough. Take what you need, pass along the rest to someone that has less. Is it like that where you live now?
The sights you can see on a snowmobile out in nature in the middle of a Maine winter back drop are pretty moving.
Wildlife, snow covered mountains and trees surround you. Waterfalls, rivers, frozen lakes. Signs that someone was on the trail before you to break the way and make it easier sledding.
Bring your camera to capture those Kodak moments on and off the snowmobile ITS trail.
Through the woods, out over an open farm field, crossing a lake if conditions are safe. Tread lightly. Carry in and out. Stay on the marked snow sled trail. The experience is one of a kind and you can get places easily that are not accessible by car.
Maine is not just summer vacations and that’s all she wrote.
Get the whole nine yards, spend time in Maine all four seasons to experience Vacationland to the fullest. We local natives do and feel so fortunate to live in Maine full time, all year round.
l hope you get to see Maine from atop a snowmobile seat this winter.
During COVID, the ability to venture up into Maine has been tougher on some states than others. I always remind anyone planning to cross the big green southern bridge to check with www.me.gov . To know for sure who’s on the naughty or nice list and gets a travel pass depending on your state’s high or low coronavirus numbers .
When you live in Maine, vacations closer to where you live in the state happen a lot.
Hearty Lunch, All Fueled Snowmobilers Ready To Hit The Trails! Riding And Exploring Hidden Communities In Maine.
You are already here. Being socially distant and practicing safety pandemic protocols is not so hard due to our small Maine population. No traffic or grid lock slowing travel down in Maine. Outdoors any season is the reason we hang our hat in Maine over any other location.
This past Martin Luther King weekend, a quick trip mini instate vacation to Millinocket Lake happened.
The New England Outdoor Center is a hidden facility ideal for couples, families, small groups to tap into some Maine recreation.
My first experience with NEOC was white water rafting the Penobscot River.
The flow of water out of hydro electric dam controls the speed of the watery ride through Exterminator and other creatively named river locations.
Paddling hard, digging into the rushing cold river water for right, left or lift directions hollered out by the guy or gal sitting on the back of your bright yellow colored raft. Sometimes it’s “HOLD!” shouted out which means one arm raised high holding your paddle. While other reaches for the short rope secured to the raft floor as a wall of water enters your boat and hits whoever sat up front the hardest of river ride companions.
My youngest son Elliot was a river guide on the Penobscot River for Northern Outdoors during college summers.
Working in the River’s Edge Restaurant nights, helping tourists with wet suits and water vests work up an appetite and to stay in the boat days.
River Driver’s Restaurant To Fill Your Stomach After Spending A Winter Day Outside.Heading To Eat After Tramping Outside On A Maine Winter Day. The River Driver’s NEOC Lodge.
This weekend no climbing into a raft or holding a paddle. It’s winter which means snowmobiling, cross country skiing. To hike up and down twisting groomed woods trails wearing a pair of snow shoes. Everyone well distanced on the trail. Being a ways up I-95 into the belly of real Maine means less campers, more Maine all to yourself.
Sections of Millinocket Lake cleared of snow and flooded with water from a couple ice fishing size holes to make it smooth and polished.
Ice Fishing, Snowmobiling, Pond Hockey, Snowshoeing And Cross Country Skiing. The Frozen Lakes Get The Winter Traffic.
No Zamboni used to erase the cracks from the outdoor ice surface between spirited pond hockey periods. But I could hear the “he shoots, he scores” from across the lake as my party snow shoed out across it.
The crunch of snow mixed with the sound of a light wind as fresh clean air fills your lungs. While admiring the Maine’s highest mountain and the supporting cast of foot hills around Mt Katahdin. That rise up and populate Baxter State Park’s forever wild legacy created by one smart, unselfish Maine governor.
Any Season, Any Angle, Mount Katahdin Captivates A Person Any Age.
It was Percival Baxter who knew best the perfect gift to leave behind for the many generations to come to enjoy.
Outdoor enthusiasts who would make the yearly pilgrimage to the Baxter State Park area via the quickest route available. And for as many times possible to sneak up into Vacationland to unplug and recharge in Maine.
New England Outdoor Center has other Maine sporting locations too.
Have stayed in The Forks to paddle down the Dead and Kennebec Rivers. Those trips white water rafting are a change of scenery. But those boat rides don’t begin to compare with the thrill of the maneuvering around rocks and water pockets. Hang on for a fast ride excitement no matter how many times you float fast down the Penobscot River. Check out the New England Outdoor Center (NEOC) website for lodging, meal plans, vacation packages.
Hang On, Get Sprayed, Rushing Through Maine’s Penobscot River Rapids.
Here’s a quick video of New England Outdoor Center lodging, the setting in Millinocket Maine run and gun collected to share from last weekend’s visit.
Needing a mini vacation in Maine and way over due?
Are you getting a little stir crazy and developing cabin fever from the weight and length of the pandemic?
Moose And Loon Lodge At The New England Outdoor Center, Millinocket ME. One Option To Run Away To Vacationland For A Maine Mini Vacation.
Need to fill your lungs with fresh clean Maine air?
Your eyes and ears and nose with the sights and sounds and smells of outdoor all natural Maine?
There are plenty of options to rent a cabin or stay in a lodge trail side for whatever your favorite outdoor recreation up here in Maine. Maine sure is the way life should be. Pick an area and see the options in your Internet search.
Space Inside, Outside For Your Mini Vacation In Maine. Moose Lodge, Millinocket Lake At New England Outdoor Center.
Mini vacations in Maine.
The sheer size of Maine makes the statement sound like an oxymoron. Because travel tiime to get to and from Maine can eat up a big chunk of your small window of time that you wished you could spend in Vacationland.
Just Shy Of A Mile High, Mt Katahdin In Winter Fly Over.
It’s like a flight to the moon or a distance planet and so much of the resources of fuel and time are eaten up in the Maine vacation travel mode element.
I see it when say a real estate buyer from Rhode Island is eight hours away. When they are up to their small camp on forty acres up in Maine and it’s Sunday morning. They are well aware if we don’t get on the road to start the trek back to their home state, it’s going to be a hard week ahead. You can hear the clock ticking as soon as you wake up and have to think about breaking camp up in Maine.
Where To Stay On Your Maine Vacation? Google It, Lots Of Choices Like The New England Outdoor Center in Millinocket Or The West Forks In Maine.
The older you get the more difficult it becomes to make long road trips.
Mini vacations in Maine don’t allow enough time and involve a lot of prep work. Gearing up, staying awake, getting all packed up and leaving before the crack of dawn. To race up to Maine arriving very late on a Friday night and trying to jam in as much fun as possible while road weary. Then tearing home, arriving dog tired and exhausted. Trying to rise and shine to get up Monday morning to begin another work week where you lost the weekend to properly prepare for the nine to five. To function on all cylinders in following days back in the dog and pony grind. Trying to get stretched back into their routine. The one all shook up by how long it takes to get up in, around and down hill back out of Maine.
Bring Your Snowsleds, Rent A Snowmobile Up In Maine. Hit The Groomed Trails Either Way!
Living in Maine full time still means travel to access all her goodness.
But when you can shave off four, five or more hours of travel time it means an extra refreshing mini vacation. Out of the car and not pinned behind the wheel plying the trails. Seeing the sights, sampling the local food and traditions. Tickling all the senses. The folks that appreciate Maine most often have something very different to compare it to where crime is high. Just like the cost of living. The price you pay in populated centers where folks are not the friendliest and just too many in number on all four sides.
Winter Fun On The Groomed Wood Trails. Do You Own A Pair Of Snowshoes?
What’s your favorite spot in Maine to return to through out your life?
What do you hope to do in Maine that is on your bucket list to cross off that you dream about doing? I long for the Canadian US border to open up for free traffic to resume. As a Maine border town on the boundary line, the locals miss how easy it is to leave the country for a day. Winter is a season like all the rest, we are outdoors and not stuck inside. Ever taken a mini vacation in Maine over the winter months?
Just Hanging Around At Home? Needing A Mini Vacation In Maine?
Maine, our lower population and big supply of open space awaits to create safe pandemic sensitive vacation options.
Itching to head north to switch into mini vacation in Maine mode? Quick trips up into Maine. The further you go, the more space and lower the Maine vacation costs you enjoy. Not everyone gets to all four corners of Maine to discover the special places that don’t get the ink. The Maine coastal tourist traps get most of the press and winter recreational fun is lost on snowbirds that beeline out of state to warm climate locations. But for those of us who hang around, that are nestled in the cozy corners of Maine small town living have a blast. You have the trails pretty much to yourself.
Even The Puppy Comes Along On The Cross Country Ski Trails. Winter Fun Outdoors On A Maine Mini Vacation.
Mini vacations in Maine, is that part of your New Year’s 2021 resolution in the months ahead?
This past weekend saw lots of folks with the same idea to hole up up in Maine at a sporting retreat. Mini vacations in Maine to cure the suffering of cabin fever. Don’t waste a Maine winter and take advantage of the lodging and meal deals. Exercise outdoors on your mini vacation up in Maine. Lots of options, does not have to cost an arm, leg or duplicate organ. Maine, the way life should be.
Snowmobiling, snow sledding in Maine, where you get lots of varied riding on plenty of well marked groomed trails.
Hearty Lunch, All Fueled Snowmobiles And The Trail Riders.
The trail maps change as new routes to explore open up the winter adventure. Maine is five times bigger than the other New England states. Parked on the Canadian border with the New Brunswick and Quebec provinces so so handy. That location factor does not hurt either for the two nation snow sledding vacation option.
(You have to join a Canadian snowmobiling club. Or get a special Provincial pass to squeeze the throttle. To go over hill and dale on Canadian snow sledding trails eh?)
Snowmobiling in Maine.
The further north, east and well up into Maine, the more friendly and less crowded the snow sled trails. Scenery increases, the cost for your winter wonderland trip on your own snow machine or the one you rent goes way down too. Snowmobiling in Maine is a big industry. This blog post on snow sledding, snowmobiling in Maine serves as a guide to plan your winter trip into Maine wearing mittens or gloves and those felt lined toasty snow puffy boots.
Find Your Way Across Maine ITS Snowmobiling Trails. The New Map.
Maine can boast what not many places can… snow flakes starting as early as October and lasting well into April.
Over 280 snow sledding clubs and right around 14,000 miles of trails for your snowmobile get you places to forget it with a car. There is nothing like being on a bluff scenic turnout to stare and detach from your daily grind. Gawking, silently taking in the snow capped scenery of Mt Katahdin, a frozen lake like Moosehead or East Grand.
Sometimes you have it made but can lose track of just the why part when you live in Maine.
It is easy to take for granted what we have so much of when it is not this way many other places on Earth. What makes you tick and whatever you need is found in the nature of Maine. Places in the outdoor spaces. Maine is unspoiled, under populated and 100 percent fresh and natural. We go into nature in Maine for outdoor recreation, to preserve traditions, for food and wood to burn, for answers. For beauty not found many places just too over developed.
Everything Changes In A Blink Of The Eye. Like The Seasons. Small Maine Towns Pull Together To Get Through The Good, Sad Times. Life Happens Outdoors In The Fresh Air To Clear Your Head, Calm Your Heart.
Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy. Isaac Newton
Nature is cheaper than therapy. Unknown
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. Lao Tzu
Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The mountains are calling and I must go. And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul. John Muir
I love places that make you realize how tiny you and your problems are. Unknown
Go where you feel most alive. Unknown
But ask some Mainers about bragging up what we have to offer and they can clam up.
Where’s My Mom? Baby Loon Wonders To Himself.
Thinking because there is not one giant tourist attraction like the place where the two mice wearing the white gloves and all their friends hang out, then somehow we are lacking. Living in Maine is plenty exciting but not in a man made way.
The best parts of Maine are the people, the experiences, the fresh air and clean water settings. Maybe the not realizing how lucky we are with all this outdoors is because a teacher or parent taught the child that there is nothing here that they felt is important. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Gratitude is riches, criticism is poverty.
When you walk outside during a winter starry night you get zapped with a sense of peace and space. The World does stop spinning and your focus improves. The trillions of stars overhead force you to realize how lucky you are, how not to take yourself too personally.
Kayaking a Maine lake or stream does the same unplug and recharge inside blow you away sensation.
Have you ever looked out with a thousand yard stare after a climb to the top of Mt Katahdin or standing on a pair of boards on a mountain top in Maine? Sea kayaking paddling out to an off shore lighthouse or reaching down to sample fresh blueberries along a craggy trail?
Come And Get It. Fish For Free Are Fresh In A Maine Lake. Adult Loons Are Excellent Anglers To Feed Their Young!
You suddenly realize this is where you find all you need, everything that is important in life to you and your family.
You and I, wildlife need wide open space.
Not a few acres set aside for millions of people like a Central Park. Not in a roomy museum hideaway in a city setting. To get the long lasting feeling of peace in nature, you need to be deep into what Maine does so well. And one week’s vacation is not a high enough RX dosage for what ails you. Or to stay centered and balanced. At peace and contented even keeled.
But being parked away from the hustle bustle can make someone who lives in Maine feel they could be missing something pretty exciting in the bright lights, big city. So take a trip, sample the city treasures and then retreat back to Maine.
Fish For Young Lake Loon. Mom Knows How To Angle For Them Best. Until Junior Learns The Ropes For Catching His Fish Dinner!
For many that trek “uptah camp in Maine” is the safety net, how they keep going and stay sane. Jammed in a space like a submarine for too long in a city setting can drive a person crazy. And easily slip into the notion that this condition is the norm for everyone in the land.
In Maine you have sixteen counties and most of them are split into three, four or more regions.
No two areas are quite the same carbon copy and every small Maine community, the handful of cities too are unique.
It’s a new year and what are your plans that involve a Maine backdrop setting for you ahead? Maine, commune with nature, go deep in
Heading North, Hitting The ITS Trails In Maine.
the woods, take in the waterfront options and enjoy our farm to table home grown experience as often as you can. Adopt your own small Maine town for reasons only you can explain and keep returning to these venues to stay current, to feel healthy and worthwhile. It is all about quality of life. I think the secret is being outdoors in Maine. Any chance you can slip outside back to nature in Maine.
Here to offer my two cents living in Maine full time.
To provide insider local tips to make your trip to Maine experience more memorable. Ask any local and feel the friendly suggestions flowing your way on the lay of the land in Maine. Maybe you have forgotten since you were a kid how much fun getting outdoors to play really is. Come visit the areas carved out of the woods by lumberjacks, by farmers creating agricultural homesteads, by rock bound coastal fishermen. Sample a local brew, some of the local cuisine and listen to the music, hear about the small Maine town history.
Snow Is Not An Evil Four Letter Word. Not In Maine.
By hooking on the fresh Maine air oxygen mask.
We’ll fix that amnesia problem of what a kid knows how to do and that adults can forget being way way too serious when life loses its fun and games approach. Don’t let the imagination go stale or completely dark from lack of use.
Like a horse stuck inside for the winter and not turned out. Slow down on the rich clover and fresh grass. Easy does it as you turn on the natural gas. No hurry. Breathe long and deep with a long hit of Maine fresh air.
Take your time, you’re not on the clock and there is no test afterwards. No two exact same methods to get that peaceful easy feeling in Maine’s outdoors no matter what one of the four seasons the calendar displays.
