When Snowmobile Trails Open and Why

Hello Snowmobile Enthusiasts,

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We are always in hopes of a white Christmas. Santa is a little early this year and we had a white Thanksgiving. If you are like most, or like me, I hadnt even gotten all the lawn furniture put away. Its done now though. Definitely caught us a little off guard.

With this early snow brings many challenges to the thousands of volunteers getting trails cleared, bridges built and signing done on the 14,000 miles of snowmobile trails we have in Maine. I would encourage all snowmobilers to go on-line and like as many face-book pages, of the approximately 300 clubs in this state, as you can. You will quickly see what it takes to build and maintain snowmobile trails. It truly is unbelievable the work and dedication it takes to make this all happen. The gracious landowners who allow trails and in many cases, help with trail work and relocations. A lot of them dont even own a snowmobile.

This brings me to why do we have December 15th as a starting point for grooming. In many instances the landowners have asked for this. There are other recreational uses, that these landowners allow, like hunting. And remember, there is muzzle loading two more weeks after regular fire arms season. We also have many permits / licenses on private land where the owners / managers have offered their property for trails and asked that the December 15th be the beginning of the snowmobile season. They allow the trail work before this date, but trails arent officially open until this December 15th date. Because some think signs are targets, clubs tend to not sign a lot until after hunting season. If you check these Facebook pages you will see that a lot of work is being done on Sundays. Totally out of respect for landowners, hunters and safety.

So, therefore trails tentatively open on December 15th. Help and volunteer a couple of hours in getting the trails ready to open and we all will have better groomed trails, better signed trails and be part of the solution to the lack of volunteers.

Happy Holidays,
Joe Higgins
Supervisor Off-Road Recreational Vehicle Program