CARIBOU, Maine — Aroostook County has more than 30 snowmobile clubs that maintain local trails, but that number is about to decrease by one, largely due to aging membership.
Nordic Lakers Snowmobile Club, founded in 1972, traditionally relied on volunteers and a limited supply of money to maintain its 16 miles of trails connecting New Sweden, Westmanland and Stockholm to Caribou’s 110-mile system. Soon the club will legally dissolve and several members will join Caribou Parks & Recreation’s slate of volunteer trail groomers.
Today, half of the Nordic Lakers’ volunteers are over age 50, and many are over 60 or 70 years old. Within the decade, the club has gone from having 100 local volunteers to only 25, shrinking its supply of workers who can more easily withstand physically demanding trail work, said Dennis Orthaus, the club’s secretary and treasurer.
The Lakers’ problem of aging members and not enough young people stepping up to replace them is all too familiar to Al Swett, president of the Maine Snowmobile Association.
“It’s our biggest problem right now,” Swett said, referring to clubs across Maine. “I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s getting harder to recruit young people.”
The County remains one of the state’s most popular destinations for snowmobilers. Thousands of tourists from across Maine and New England traverse the region’s 2,300 miles of trails every year for their snowy terrain and scenic views across fields and woods. But riders’ experiences depend on volunteers dedicated to packing down snowfall and making sure there are signs to point out the right routes.
To ensure that the Nordic Lakers’ trails are still maintained, Caribou Parks & Recreation will assume responsibility for trail grooming and related equipment and any funds the club has not spent. Orthaus expects the club’s disbandment to become legal within the next few weeks.
Nordic Lakers has at least $44,500 in its bank account, which will now go to Caribou Parks & Recreation, Orthaus said. Over the last 20 years the club’s trail groomer has suffered mechanical problems but the club was unable to obtain enough grants to supplement members’ donations to replace it.
“A new groomer would cost us $250,000 to $270,000. Even at half its life, a good used machine would cost $140,000 to $150,000,” Orthaus said.
Starting this winter, Caribou Parks & Recreation’s staff of 15 paid trail groomers and dozens of volunteers plan to maintain both ITS 105 and Trail 81, trails the Nordic Lakers previously groomed every winter. Though Caribou has a snowmobile club, those members primarily fundraise for new trail equipment and signage, said Gary Marquis, Parks & Recreation superintendent.
The 6-mile stretch of ITS 105 and 7-mile section of Trail 81 are crucial links between Caribou and surrounding towns, which bring riders to area businesses and hotels, said Marquis. Those two trails also offer fun and varied experiences for riders, he noted.
“The major trail [on 105] is faster and goes along a railbed. A lot of families use Trail 81 because it’s slower but still has good riding,” Marquis said.
Only a three-mile section of the Nordic Lakers’ trail east of Route 161 will no longer be maintained because part of the Caribou trail system already leads to the same access point near Northstar Variety in New Sweden, Marquis said.
Northstar Variety owner Sarah Anderson does not expect the reroute to have a drastic impact on her convenience store.
“It might slow things down for people who are used to cutting straight across to the store,” Anderson said. “But people will still come in if they need gas.”
In Stockholm, Phil Andrews, owner of Anderson’s Store, said that Caribou previously maintained much of the trail system near the store, so he does not anticipate a negative impact from Nordic Lakers’ disbanding.
Anderson’s Store is just across the street from ITS 83, which connects to ITS 105 going toward New Sweden, Andrews said.
“We get quite a bit of traffic once the snow comes,” Andrews said.
Caribou City Council recently approved the Nordic Lakers’ donations of a John Deere Gilbert trail groomer, drag, fuel tank and trail signs to Caribou Parks & Recreation. That department will also receive $9,800 that Nordic Lakers received every year from Maine’s Snowmobile Capital Equipment Reimbursement Grant.
This year, Caribou received $70,000 from that program, which sets aside $5 from each snowmobile registration fees towards a fund for equipment expenses.
The Nordic Lakers are grateful that Marquis and his staff are so enthusiastic about keeping trails open, Orthaus said. But for Orthaus and his wife Phyllis, both of whom are Nordic Lakers members, the club’s end is a sad reminder of what they’ve seen happen to small clubs across the state.
“We’re not the first to have these struggles. Most clubs have a limited number of young people and their members are older now,” Phyllis Orthaus said.
