Official records with the National Weather Service’s Caribou office indicated that their city has just about 4 inches of snow as of yesterday morning — not even half way to the 10 to 18 inches mark many consider necessary for optimal snowmobile trail conditions.
With the first day of spring just over two months away, snowmobilers (and the businesses that rely on those tourist dollars) are getting a bit antsy for more typical winter weather.
Forecasters at the weather service are calling for snow later this week from Houlton to Fort Kent, and a bit more of the white stuff will be more than welcome in all parts of the county.
“We don’t even have an inch of snow on the ground now,” said Debbie Flewelling, sales and parts manager of Tidds Sport Shop in Houlton. Flewelling says sledders need a good eight or 10 inches of snow on the trails for optimal conditions, and about a foot and a half on open fields.
While sleds have started scurrying about some of the passable trails in northern and central Aroostook, Flewelling says that riders are still relegated to four-wheelers and side-by-sides in the southern parts of the county.
Up in Fort Kent, Executive Director of their Chamber of Commerce Sheila Cannon has noticed an increase of snowmobile activity with their snow accumulation of an estimated five inches.
“Since we got snow last weekend and we’ll be getting more snow [forecasted for Thursday and Friday], it will be a good thing for the snowmobilers,” she said.
According to Kathy Mazzuchelli, superintendent of the Caribou Parks and Recreation Department, it’s going to take a solid 10 inches of snow to get trails and sledders up and going in earnest.
Many snowmobile club members up in the St. John Valley — Fort Kent, St. Francis, and Eagle Lake regions — have been out working their trails and Mazzuchelli says that they’re at a point now where sledders can get around.
“They can certainly go from Caribou or Washburn on the rail beds north into the St. John Valley,” she added.
Central and southern Aroostook are still struggling for snow, particularly southern, “but [the snow] is starting to come and hopefully at the end of the week these Aroostook County flurries will start adding up and give us something to work with.”
With warm weather waning, sledders and other outdoor winter enthusiasts are experiencing what Mazzuchelli jokingly referred to as “snow withdrawal,” but revving up the snowmobile before a solid snowfall has formed can mean an increase of risk factors.
Pressure ridges in the ice on lakes, for example, can be two to three inches high and span the entire body of water.
“They can cause severe injuries if they’re not seen,” Mazzuchelli cautioned. “People need to be careful.”
Sledders also need to be cognizant of patches of warm water around the banks of inlets, buoys frozen erect in the ice, and downed trees or debris on the trails.
Snowmobile clubs try to keep their route away from known-hazards in the ice when marking their trails across bodies of water, which is why Mazzuchelli urges sledders to stay on the trails (lest they injure themselves or take an icy swim).
Because of the record-breaking precipitation of 2011, sledders should also be wary of debris and trees while traversing the trails.
“We’ve lost a lot of trees all over Aroostook County because it’s been so wet; clubs do a good job in maintaining the trails, but they can’t be out there 24/7,” Mazzuchelli said. “There may be some trees and debris on the trails, and sledders should proceed with caution.”
Also a potential hazard in these minimal-snowfall days is the increased mobility of deer and moose (as there’s not a surplus of snow hindering their movement), so sledders need to be on the lookout for meandering ungulates as well.
“Though everyone’s anxious, we need to use a lot of caution and common sense when riding to ensure everybody’s safety,” Mazzuchelli encouraged.
For those who really can’t wait to immerse themselves in sledding culture, Mazzuchelli suggests they attend some of the fundraisers like pancake breakfasts and suppers put on by local snowmobile clubs.
While sledders and snowmobile club members alike are eager for Aroostook County’s trail network to return to its historically pristine state, breaking out the groomer too early in the season can mean bad things for trails and budgets, as repairs to these nearly $200,000 machines for snagging a stump can be quite expensive.
