November Membership Dinner is November 13^th at the Undercroft in Rangeley.

We will provide our annual Turkey Dinner. Potluck desserts will be appreciated.  There will be four Easy Bucks drawings, covering the months of October and November.  We will give out Ski Doo certificates for you to fill out.  Last year Ski-Doo awarded our Club $600 for the large number of certificates we filled out.

To all our club members and visitors, welcome back to another winter season.  It is October 31st and our first general snowfall (1-2”) is just ending for now. After a wonderful summer here, we have had way too much rain in September and October.  This weather has set us back on our trail maintenance and we have a lot that needs to be done. I will get back to that shortly.  Thanks to every one who has renewed their memberships so far and to those who have generously donated extra to our Club. Thanks also to those of you who responded to our Questionnaire.  There have been many excellent suggestions and comments.  Here are those we saw most frequently.

Web Site- it appears that the web site is very important to you.  We attempt to keep it current and we look for ways to keep it fresh without incurring major time commitments or costs.  Linc Avery, our Web Master is a “total volunteer”. He donates his time and the equipment that supports the site.  Your Club Officers work with him to keep the site current. There are some days when Linc is busy with his career work or when we Club Officers are away (hopefully on a long snowmobile ride) so there can be some short gaps in updating.  We will work harder to keep trail and snow condition reports current.  We will be adding more web cams to the system. We were surprised by how important these are to our site visitors. We are currently seeking sponsors for these cams in an effort to offset the purchase and installation costs.  Sponsors would get their ad shown at the bottom of the cam picture view.  The winter season is hectic for us Club Officers so we can not ride every trail every day or review the web site frequently enough. So, if you experience a trail condition that needs our attention or a problem with the web site, send us an e-mail. It really helps.

Club Meetings- Most of you told us that you either live too far away or that when you are here, you ride so that meeting attendance is difficult.  We will continue to have meetings but maybe a couple less than in earlier years. We are dropping the Christmas Party Meeting and are looking into a Welcome Event during the Christmas –New Years Vacation. We are gathering ideas for daytime Family Oriented event on one of these days-December 29, 30 or 31.

SNODEO- we had good suggestions for adding to SNODEO. Some included bringing back the auctions and for live entertainment Friday and Saturday night.  The ClubHouse Restaurant, which has been our Headquarters for several years, has been sold.  Thankfully, its new owner has committed to hosting Snodeo this year.  There are plans for major additions and renovations to the building so we await these changes before we commit to new events for Snodeo.

Trails- you were all very complimentary of our trail conditions last year.  Thank you.  We have implemented new grooming approaches and added the machinery we needed.  The results are good and we hope to continue to be as good or better each year.  Several of you have asked for grooming schedules to be posted on the web site or the Snow Phone.  This is a lot of work and it is difficult to keep it accurate because of weather, rider volume and mechanical issues. The best we can do is to state that in general every trail is groomed over a two day period and some are groomed daily. We will post this information.

Club Rides and Guided Rides: An unexpected number of you asked about these.  We have tried Club Rides with little success. People were not interested and did not sign up for them.  Guided rides for individuals, families and small groups are very possible.  We have several members who are Registered Maine Guides and who offer guided rides for a fee.  There are several of us Club Members who just go out for the day and who would be willing to take you along if you needed a partner for riding.  We will list these Guides on our web site and define their services. Some will do Back Country, some will take you wherever you would like to go, and some specialize in families with children.  We do offer a Family Ride over Snodeo and our annual Take A Friend Snowmobile Guided Ride over School Vacation.  You can contact me with your interests and I can get you connected to the right person. 

Thanks for the comments and please e-mail us with any other thoughts.

Trails: Each year I think the hard work is over and each year I am wrong.  This year we have several trail changes and closures.  We are making progress on these but at the expense of general brushing and signing.  If you have a few hours to give before winter really sets in, we need your help.  We will add the trail changes to our Trail Condition Report and begin posting this on the web site.

We are happy to hear that the ownership change at Oquossoc Marine is moving along and should be announced soon.  Early word is that they will definitely be a Polaris dealer and are working to also get a Ski Doo dealership.  We will post the web site, as more information is available.

We are sad to report that Steve “Cappy” Campbell passed away November 2^nd.  Cappy was the President of the Arnold Trails SC in Eustis/Stratton and the Executive Vice President of the Maine Snowmobile Association.  Previously, he was the MSA Western Region Vice President. The Arnold Club and the RLSC have had a friendly rivalry for years, as we both worked hard to be the largest snowmobile club in Maine.  Those of us who knew him will miss him greatly.

Please don’t hesitate to call Steve at  207-864-5919 for volunteer trail work.  Your help is always appreciated. 

Thank you,

Steve Dudley, president

P S:  Any Club Jacket or Vest orders can be made by contacting Sandi Dumont at ccsandi@myfairpoint.net or phone  207-864-2775.  Now’s the best time to do it while the items are still on sale until Nov 26^th.

Jackets come in a variety of colors and sizes:  On Sale  for $33 were $37,  Vests On Sale for $24 were $28, plus shipping and handling $4.95 each.

Please visit our Sponsors page to check out businesses who have donated or pledged to donate to our grooming and trail maintenance program for this season. Be sure to patronize these businesses when in the area. It is due to their donations that we have the great riding conditions we all enjoy!