President's Blog

December 2025

Welcome to December all winter lovers. Hard to believe it is that time of year already! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know it is a veery busy time of year for all of us as we gear up towards the Christmas season.

We were blessed with an early snowfall this year and unfortunately not enough to open the trails up for all to enjoy. The club is also gearing up for the season, and we are almost ready for more snow.

Devan, Chris, Doug and Brad have been working hard at getting out and checking our trail to make sure they are ready to go. Overall, our trails we not in as bad shape as they were last year with all the trees down. They were able to clear some debris and get rid of the “slappers” from the trails. Doug fixed the culvert on his side of the system between route 25 and 117 and opened a portion of trail that still had downed trees across the trail. We would love to see more people come out and help us, just a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday is all we need. Many hands make short work of what we need to do. We will need help with this last trail reroute for sure.

The crew also got out and completed the trail reroute and signage on route 11 heading towards Steep Falls. I need to thank Ross Bartlett and Sarah Engel for working with us on a solution to keep the trail open. I also want to thank Darryl Hubbard for the years of allowing us to use his land for the trail for many years.

You will no longer be able to get to the fields on Hanscomb School road as the landowners have asked us to shut the trail down. So, coming from Steep Falls you only have one trail to take to get to the rest of our trails. This will also limit the access to Horne Pond. Trail updates will be posted soon.

The club has purchased a new to the club grooming snowmobile, that brings our grooming fleet to a total of four snowmobiles to groom with. Now that we have four sleds and four groomers, we will be looking for people interested in helping us groom our trails. What does one need to do to become a groomer you ask? Well, it is easy, you can reach out to a club member, and we can guide you through the process. First you will need to take an online test to be certified to be able to groom and then you can get in touch with the club and let us know you have successfully completed the training. The goal is to find up to eight people to be able to groom our trail system, that way we can rotate grooming personnel as needed.

The club is offering a discount on tee shirts and sweatshirts, $15 for tee shirts and $30 for the sweatshirts. Both come in black or gray. These will make great Christmas gifts! If you want to join the club, you can for only $20 for a family and $40 for a business. New maps will be made as soon as we finish the last trail reroute.

So on behalf of the Limington Crankers we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Think snow!!

Mark Whitman

November 2025

Happy November to all. We are getting closer to that white gold to be falling and covering our ground. There are many predictions out there as to what the winter will bring this winter season, and we hope it will be a strong winter for all you snowmobile lovers to be able to ride our trails throughout the town and to adjoining towns.

I need to thank each of our 50- plus landowners who allow us to use pieces of their land for our snowmobile trail system. Without their commitment to us, snowmobiling in and through our town would not exist.

Some interesting information that I would like to share with you. I am not sure how many snowmobiles are registered in the town of Limington, but these numbers are eye opening. Last year we had 10 paid memberships to our club. Of those 10 members, 4 are board members and 3 are groomers for the club. Your membership offsets the cost for trail maintenance during and after the season.

According to the Department of Forestry Snowmobile Program, only 10% of registered snowmobile owners belong to a club. There were 88,000 sleds registered in Maine last year. The Director of the program told us that Maine clubs reported 142,000 hours of volunteer labor maintaining 13,000 miles of snowmobile trails. Local clubs work hard to provide enthusiasts with safe and fun trails, doing so with volunteer labor while holding bake sales to secure funding. Unless you’re riding on your own property or just using your sled to go ice fishing, chances are that you utilize those trails. Please join where you ride, toss in a few extra bucks and offer a little of your time to keep the pastime you love alive.

We have made it easier than ever to become a member of our club. We have a website with the info you need and now have Venmo to pay for memberships or make a small donation to the club. Memberships are $20 for a family and $40 for a business. Or you can email us at lcrankers@gmail.com and become a member. Also new this year if you become a member, you can get sweatshirts for $20 and tee shirts for $10. We offer small through 3 XL, and colors gray and black. That is 60% off tee shirts and 55% off the cost of a sweatshirt.

A reminder that we have lost three sections of trail this year. The first is off route 11 right after you come across the bridge and will now have to ride up the road a bit and then turn left across 11. The second is the trail that leads to the potato fields parallel to Hanscomb School Road. The final trail is the one that comes out across the Axelsen’s land and over route 11 and heads down to the sand pit. This trail will also be rerouted soon.

And finally, I need to thank all the board members who continue their dedication to this club and the countless hours they volunteer their time, I appreciate it.

Let’s do the snow dance!

Mark Whitman

September 2025

Well, the summer sure did seem to fly by. I hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather we had. It was a quiet summer for the club as well, but as the days get shorter and the fall season right around the corner, we shift our thoughts to snowmobile season.

Some of the highlights from last year were, club logo updated, club clothing made up, new and improved trail maps, purchased new groomer and made some fantastic trails to ride on. The final two highlights of last year were the awards we handed out. Our Stanley “Pubby” Blake scholarship was awarded to Bonny Eagle senior Xochitl Pope and our landowner of the year was James Burnham

Our meetings have started again, and we are working on ideas to improve our trails and gain more members. Our meeting dates are as follows, 10/8/2025, 11/5/25, 12/3/25, 1/7/26, 2/4/26, 3/4/26 and 4/1/26. Our meeting location is 14 Spring Pond Road in Limington. We meet at 6:30 for a potluck dinner and the meeting starts shortly after everyone has filled their plates!

This year we will be losing three of our connector trails, one is the trail that goes through the Axelsen’s yard, and the other is the trail on Hanscomb School Road that runs from the potato field to route 11, and then the small portion that runs behind the Hubbard house on route 11 along the river. We have explored alternate routes and will be planning a work weekend to get these trail ready for use. Once these are complete, we will GPS the new trails and get them on a new map.

We also will be working on opening the trail that leads to Naturally Jammin on 117 as Jedi would love to see some sled traffic and be open for all to enjoy.

With the new maps we will again be asking local businesses if they would like to advertise on the back of our map. This was a big hit with local businesses, and I hope that they were able to pick up some business from this.

We would love to see more people become members and get involved with the club. $20 for a family and $40 for a business to become a member. We did a ton of maintenance last year and could use a good member count to bounce back from a costly year.

This year we would like to offer anyone who purchases memberships a discount on our clothing line. Tee shirts and sweatshirts in black or gray. You can check them out on our website. Also, for those who would like to purchase the MSA Super Raffle tickets, you can go to the link on our Facebook page and purchase them, a portion of each ticket sold by our club comes back to support us. So join the club!

Thank you,

Mark Whitman

February 2025

Well, we asked for it and it finally came. The snow we had been waiting for finally arrived. This is the first time in 4 years we have had enough snow to open all our trails and just in time for people to be able to ride into the Horne Pond Ice Fishing Derby. It was so nice to see so many out enjoying the beautiful winter day.

I was able to get out and meet some sledders on the trail a few weeks ago and by all accounts the sledders were happy to be able to ride but also have good trails to ride on and that is due to all the hard work put in the last few years to make the trails safe and rideable. So, for that I need to thank my board members and club members that take time out of their lives to support the club.

I asked many of these riders if they would like to join the club and even attend a meeting and they were for the most part all for it. Unfortunately, we have not seen a drastic rise in memberships. It is easier than ever to join now. You can go online and fill out the form and the club now has a Venmo account set up, if you don’t use Venmo you can simply fill out the form, print it off and mail the payment to us. Membership is $20, $15 of that goes to the MSA and we get $5 out of it. There is no commitment to becoming a club member but would gladly use all the help we can get when it comes time.

The new groomer came in a week ago and by all reports it does an amazing job. Trailmaster Devan cannot stop smiling from ear to ear.

Trail maps are a big hit for sure. They can be purchased at Limington Variety and the town hall for $5. We still have plenty of clothing left for purchase. Keep an eye open for potential end of the season bargains for tee shirts and sweatshirts.

As the season winds down, I would like to thank the most important people in our town and those who are the landowners!! Without them we would not have trails to ride and enjoy our winter hobbies. I know I have had some push back on opening and closing the trails, please know I base my decision on many factors, but in the end my decisions are driven by the desire to keep the landowner happy and keeping that trust that the club really cares about preserving the land they so graciously allow us access to.

We have two meeting remaining this year, 3/5 and 4/2 and would love to see some new faces!

Thank you for your time.

Mark Whitman

January 2025

As the holiday season ends, so does another year. The winter started off encouraging, that is for sure, but as has been the case the last few years the warmth and rain came back and took away the promising start and now, we are back to square one. One positive note, the ground is frozen and should provide a great base. Cold temps and an active weather pattern look to be just what the winter enthusiast are hoping for.

As a club we hoped for rideable snow early so you all could get out and enjoy the trails that we spent numerous hours cleaning up this past fall. So, let’s all hope for a big January and February to allow us to get out and have some fun.

We are also anxious for snow for numerous reasons. One is to try out the new drag we purchased that will keep the trails in great shape, if we get plenty of snow. The other is to show off our new club maps. The maps should be available in mid-January for purchase. We hope to have them at Sleepers, Limington Variety and of course you could go online and order one from us. Also, for those who have GPS Trailmaster’s look for updates to their mapping.

Our clothing order has arrived and came out fantastic, contact us to place your order, we have tee shirts and sweatshirts from small to 2XL available to purchase. $25 for the tee shirts and $45 for the sweatshirts.

I would like to thank the 25 local businesses who donated to the club for advertising on the back of our new map. The map came out amazingly and was a much-needed upgrade from our old maps that we had. Finally, I need to thank Dan Yarumian for taking the GPS tracks and transferring them to a topographic map and creating the map so we could bring it to be printed into maps.

So, let’s all get out and do that snow dance!

Mark Whitman

December 2024

Hello to all who are taking time to read my first blog entry! I want to use this for those who want or may want to stay informed on what is happening within our club as I feel over the last two years, we have made some big efforts to get people informed and involved with our club.

Some of the things we have done over the last two years to get our club noticed include, getting in touch and meet with landowners to continue a strong relationship to be able to use their property for our trail system, because the landowner is the most important aspect of our winter sport.

Secondly, we brought back a scholarship fund for a BEHS graduating senior who lives in the town of Limington. We have renamed this award in honor of our long-time club member Stanley “Pubby” Blake. Pubby gave so much of his time to the town and the SAD6 community we felt it was only right to honor him this way. The winner of this award was Brandt Abbott.

We also brought back the landowner of the year award. The award for the 2023-2024 season went to Rick and Dyanne Brewster.

The club went out and built numerous bridges to make riding safe. Including in the bridge building, we were asked to rebuild the bridge across from Bracketts Orchard and re-open that trail and we gladly made that happen.

This year our goals are simple, maintain landowner relations, continue to improve our trail system, new trail maps, a fresh club logo and getting new business and family members to join.

So, if you’re reading this, I need to ask you a few questions. I know the snow has been missing the last few years and things are expensive, but we need to get some input.
1) Do you own a snowmobile?
2) Do you ride in our town?
3) Have you thought about joining our club?

Our membership for a family is $20 and if you own a business the membership is $40.

Thank you for your time! Think snow!!

Mark Whitman