To the editor:
First I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the men and women that give up so much time and work so hard on The County’s snowmobile trails. Our sled trails are second to none. Sledders from all over New England say the same. The dedication of the club members creates business in the area for gas stations, eateries and hotels. For every penny paid to our local snowmobile clubs, businesses benefit. Good job to club membership!
This winter I felt compelled to call the Nordic Lake Snowmobile Club out of Stockholm to inquire if they had plans to groom the ITS 83 running from St. Peter’s Store on Rt. 161 to the railroad bed at Axel Siding, about a 14-mile stretch each way. The clubs on both ends of this trail had been working for about three weeks by then, but this stretch had not been touched. I contacted the trail boss from Nordic Lakers and all he gave me was excuses for them not being groomed. I had contacted him last year with the same concerns with the same results from him.
Because I was not satisfied with his reasoning, I contacted the Maine Snowmobile Association in Augusta. I spoke to Executive Director Bob Myers with my concerns about the safety and upkeep of ITS 83. For the past five or six years that I’ve been riding the Maine system, ITS 83 is, by far, the worst maintained. It’s common knowledge to sledders, but no one is willing to approach the problem.
Because I expressed my opinion to MSA, I was asked by them to become a snowmobile trail inspector for the area. My duties were to ride trails and report on: groomed surfaces, brush or debris on trails, and current, up-to-date signage for directions and safety. This is what each club gets paid for when they take on a trail.
Each club contends with easier trails to groom, such as the railroad bed or woods road, to the more difficult ones, open fields or the one like in Fort Fairfield where the bridge goes over the Aroostook River. Some towns actually navigate through back streets to groom as in Easton and Presque Isle. I congratulate them for their efforts and the quality shows. And then, there are clubs that only do the minimum — getting the same pay!
I have since resigned as a MSA Trail Inspector so as not to be involved in a “conflict of interest.” My concern is that the Nordic Lakers should commit to a quality job or give up the trail to a club that will give maximum results. What can be done to get ITS 83 as safe and well-groomed as the other county trails? What more can I do?
If you feel it’s time for the Nordic Lakers to be accountable for the high standards of the quality of the Maine Snowmobile Trails, please contact the MSA. It’s not too late to fix.
Jeff Harvey
Cross Lake
