The weather is getting warm and the snow is melting some and I am looking forward to the ATV season this summer. Last year was a struggle with COVID 19 affecting all of us in one way or the other. We were able to have one meeting at the Community Center at the beginning of the season but was closed after that to the public. Jeff and Jen offered The Stratton Plaza for a place to have our club meeting as they are closed on Sundays. After checking to make sure we would be in compliance with the Maine CDC regulations we did have our remaining meetings for the year there. We are hoping to be able to have our meetings this year back at the Community Center. 

AFM again gave us a list of trails they wanted brought up to their standards which included the Sawyer Brook Trail, Carrabassett Trail, North & South of Brochu Bridge and a section of the Natanis Trail. Tea Pond helped out with the Sawyer Brook Trail and the Carrabassett Trail was redone by J. L. Brochu who also did some grading for us by the Brochu Bridge. With the rental of the Bobcat Excavator again this year we fixed the rest of the Brochu Bridge section. They will give us another year to redo the section of Natanis as right now we do not have a connection to that from this end of the trail system. Brochu did some ditching and work to get the running water off the section of trail from Quill Hill headed towards Rangeley. Dale, Fred and other volunteers worked on all of the trail system this past summer making major improvements especially on Tim Pass area and Butler Brook. Culverts and bridges have been fixed, built and replaced. It was a hard year for asking members to help very much as we did not want to put anyone at risk for exposure to COVID. This year we are hoping to do mostly maintenance on the trails and the our biggest projects will be working with AFM towards opening the trail to the Wind Towers and working with Natanis on upgrading their trail system as well. 

We did have 2 club rides, one to Tim Pond which was an outside luncheon and our fall ride to Kennebago Lookout with a picnic. We have purchased more club apparel which we will have at our first meeting. 

We applied for a municipal grant last year and were awarded $71,529.86 which meant with our 70/30 match we would get $50,070.90 from the state to use on the trails. It did not take long for that money to be spent on trail maintenance and repair. We also have a lot of time that our volunteers put in this past summer. The 15 volunteers put in the following hours: Labor – 1470.5 hours, ATV use – 184 hours, Chain Saw – 18.5 hours, brush saw – 12 hours, Backhoe work – 60.5 hours, Backhoe with dump trailer – 58 hours, Tractor – 35.5 hours, Excavator – 590 hours and mileage on the vehicles – 3732 miles. If it was not for all the help we get from everyone our trail system would not be able to be kept open. Thank you all for anything you do. Even when you are out riding – taking some clippers and trimming a small section really helps out.

We will be updating our website and Facebook page with meeting updates as they become available. Please ride safe and enjoy the summer!

Edie Dunlap, President