TheMainer

I looked and it seems the first grooming run I had last year was the 19th of January and I did a few hundred miles in Millinocket area that MLK weekend, so we're not as far behind last year as I thought. Hopefully things change before our winter carnival February 20th as that is one of the busiest days in town with winter activities (all outside and socially distant of course)

Haha, yeah Sebec is not a lake to venture on to early... We have about 10 inches on the lake in town that's 3 miles long, likely will stake it on Monday.

Temp creeping closer to freezing but holding onto all wet snow for now, hopefully mid levels don't torch, closest webcam to Monson.

Gotcha, thank you, so close to the 6-10 line I remember back in college waiting for your posts on HCS for each storm before I really understood anything about the weather or found this place which is now my drug when any storm threat pops up, haha. Can’t remember the last time I logged on HCS now.

I wonder how far north the heavy rain/snow line goes. Hoping a hard stop at the southern Piscataquis County border and that the storm is bringing in more cold air than CAR first thought. I know we'll warm as rates calm down but maybe by then we can pick up close to 6 inches at 850'

Let's see who wins on the snowfall track as GYX is looking at a colder solution and CAR is seeing a warmer solution where their service areas intersect GYX VS CAR

I'd honestly give $500 for that to verify at this point, should I go out and just burn a stack of cash in my yard to make it happen?

Yeah that helps for sure we tend to do well compared to even three towns south of here. Nice thing being where we're at is we're on the edge of GYX and CAR. CAR has 1-3 then rain, GYX two townships west has 3-5 with almost no rain, problem is the worst case is always the one that seems to win.

I'm hoping that turns out, in town elevation is 850', our lowest point on the trail system is 600', the highest I believe is around 1,100. If we could breakeven with this shit storm id do a backflip out of happiness cause that'd be a solid base.

This is starting to get worse than 2016 for me, at least that year we were able to ride in Quebec and I got 1500 miles of a 2500 mile total up there... Last year sucked but north of Greenville stayed good and we did over 1,800 miles after March 15th as we kept doing big loops in the Maine north woods off trail until April 18th. This year I have 60 miles on just cutting out blowdowns with my little tundra from that stupid paste job and I got 10 miles on the lake last Saturday with the 850. I'm just hoping we don't lose the entire pack as CAR is predicting a 2 inch front end thump before rain. If we can hang onto a crusty 5 inches we might be able to groom with the next 10 inch storm. If we lose it all again we're gonna be in tough shape... At least next week looks good for the ice.

That basically mean it's gonna head due north and give Maine all rain and snow in Vermont?

Nice! I bought my 2020 850 X last season, not a huge step up from my 16 except for the mid range pull is aggressive, could take or leave the gen4 chassis. I'm worried it's gonna be a madhouse on the trails when it finally does snow, not sure I have enough groomer operators to keep up this season, haha.

Luckily the lake in Monson finally has 6 inches of ice as it didn't open up at Christmas, going to have a socially distant ice fishing party out there Saturday and finally try out the new Rip 2 studded track on the 850, better than nothing but if the border was open I'd be in Quebec riding...

Old man sent me this from his back deck, 7 inches 15 miles south of Greenville, hopefully another inch or two to go, maybe more, looks like a big dryslot coming on the radar.

I remember an event when I was in late middle/ early high school (2002 to 2005 timeframe) that retrograded in the GOM and gave Bangor and Millinocket 18 inches and I think we got nearly whiffed in Greenville area. If that run verifies in your post I'd be pretty happy for prospects of being able to groom by next weekend.

If it's having running issues it might be too late for ethanol free gas to fix it, may be worth a quick trip to your local small engine guy for a carb clean so it doesn't quit when you need it. X2, I only use blue marine stabil and have for over a decade, never had to clean one carb. The station up in Monson sells non ethanol 90 and that's the only thing I run in the saw, mower, snowblower, etc.

The greens at Augusta CC were covered when I drove by this morning, the fairway grass was too tall to be covered...

As someone who solely cares about snow north of the 45th parallel in Maine, LFG! 

That would almost get us back in business up north, the lake has about 4 to 5 inches of ice in town which ideally we'll be grooming by the weekend after MLK day if things come around ok. No real cold is a bit concerning coming up.

We have been working on that since I took over as trail master in 2014. Rebuilt (or new installed) 12 bridges, widened every section but that one in the picture for the most part, we were lucky in a few bad areas they came in and logged so we just needed to run an excavator through. Monson has boulders laying all over the ground everywhere as it is very poor soil, in one section we run down the Appalachian trail corridor for 3 miles which is one of our busiest trails and all ground work has to be done by hand... We usually get $5500 from the state for trail maintenance each year including all grooming, bridge building, excavator work, etc. I've heard in Vermont due to the high TMA price the clubs get quite a bit more money to work with?

Yeah we're hoping that some of the birches and alders bounce back that aren't touching the ground with the few days of sun this week. If not this will be worse than the December 2011 smaller ice/snow storm we had up here, we worked our asses off for a few weeks then it barely snowed the rest of the winter....

NWS CAR and GYX is saying mostly snow for north of the 45th parallel, is that showing still on modeling?

Took yesterday off to clear snowmobile trails in Monson, Maine (just south of Moosehead Lake). What a mess out there. 13 inches of paste did a real number on alders and birches. In 6.5 hours we made it 5 miles and through 3 tanks of chainsaw gas each and that wasn't even cutting everything... Getting a big crew together Saturday to try to make a big push hopefully, 8 to 10 people on sleds with saws should be better than the two of us yesterday. 20 trees blown down in 200 yards After We fit our 8.5 foot wide groomer through here, always a tight section but hoping they log it in the next few years to open it up. Hoping the guidance is right for this weekend, we got a great base started, another 12 inches and we'll be grooming.

Observation from a friend in Guilford , ME that they're over a foot now and that "snowmobile trail work this fall was probably a waste of time" haha. Gonna burn through 3 gallons in the chainsaw tomorrow....

As of about 8pm about 6 inches in Monson (20 miles south of Moosehead Lake, Maine), dad's lady friend posted this picture. Hoping we still clear 10 inches up that way to start getting the sleds out to pack and cut blowdowns