Snowmobile clubs working to get trails ready

By Julie Harris, Bangor Daily News Staff

The major snowmobile trail that connects Jay, Wilton and Farmington likely will not be fixed for this season of sledding, according to the head of the Maine Snowmobile Association.

There are two large gaps that are each 40 feet deep by about 100 feet long left over from flooding and erosion from the rainy spring and summer, said Al Swett, director of Maine Snowmobile Association.

The International Trail System is supposed to open soon, but clubs are still scrambling to get the trails ready.

The clubs still have time. There is snow in parts of western Maine, as well as in the western highlands and Allagash.

It looks like the two huge gaps may not get fixed before the season gets underway, which means that part of the trail system will either have to be rerouted or will dead-end on either end of the hole, Swett said.

There is no budget this year to fix them, and the federal money the Maine Department of Conservation received for disaster relief from the rains is spent already, Swett said.

It sounds kind of gloomy but really volunteers from snowmobile clubs statewide have been working hard to repair trails and bridges in preparation for the new season. Several trail bridges have new planking and there are another 15 that need upgrades, Swett said.

Approximately 33 bridges across streams in multiple Maine towns, including Unity and Palmyra, were washed out.

Some of the association’s 280-plus snowmobile clubs are receiving donated timber mats, which are basically wooden “pads” used for temporary access roads or patches, to quickly fix certain trails.

The Moosehead Riders Club in Greenville got about 20 timber mats to reroute a trail quickly at the request of a landowner so that trail could be ready. ITS 89, heavily used to travel to and from Rangeley, has a rebuilt bridge.

There were approximately 90,000 snowmobiles registered in Maine for the 2022-23 season, and Swett is a little concerned that a number of people from other states will not come to Maine because of the disrupted trails.

“It’s really too early to know what will happen. A lot of people wait for rideable snow before they register their sleds in Maine,” Swett said.

This year, landowners may post signs the state provides banning people from riding off-trail. Wardens will put cameras in trouble spots to pursue offenders, who can be fined up to $500 after more than one infraction. It’s $100 for the first one.

With 95 percent of the trails on private land, the Maine Snowmobile Association is on the landowner’s side in the access issue.

In 2024, the association is asking the Legislature to make a law that would require kids ages 16 and younger to take a snowmobile safety course before being allowed to operate a sled. 

The one-day course is not necessary if kids are riding on the property where they live. It is similar to the all-terrain vehicle safety law, Swett said.