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hammerhead71, on 06 February 2012 - 05:38 AM, said:

Not to steal the thread...but its small world, being parked next to you yesterday morning while we were both loading up at Town & Country. Always nice to put another face to a name and always a pleasure to meet another bubblehead!

Sorry about your trailer...two years ago we were coming home from riding our Club's trails. We had stopped for a bit at the Canoe King and then were heading home, making a quick pit stop at a local grocery store in Ossipee. No signs of any problems but when we pulled back out onto the road the single axle on my clam shell snapped off at both mounting points!

Luckily the crew at Canoe King was close by to rescue me and we were able to have a friend get the trailer back up to Club HQ, where I was able to put in a new axle a couple of weeks later.

Fortunately it snapped on a side road where I was only going 20-25, instead of out on 16 or the Spaulding Turnpike at highway speeds! Needless to say I check my trailer a lot closer now...

OldViperRider, on 05 February 2012 - 03:18 PM, said:

Mark, it was a true pleasure spending some time with you and Helga this weekend at the Ride-In. You two are class acts, and helped give me a few calming moments in some especially hectic situations, and I truly appreciated your words of wisdom at breakfast this morning!

Thanks again for making the trip and making a positive contribution. After all, it is truly for the Easter Seals kids and their families. If anyone could have seen the smiles of joy from those three kids as they got to lead the Snowmobile Parade last night from the cab of the Prinoth (thank you Prinoth & Brian & Al) then you would truly understand why dozens of clubs and thousands of snowmobilers have contributed and grown this event for the past 40 years.

I'll just make a couple of quick points that have already been brought up here:

The work & donations are striclty voluntary. Clubs are free to participate if they can, or concentrate their resources elsewhere. It is a judgment call for each club & its membership.

All monies go to Camp Sno-Mo for familes to attend that great facility.

The event brings extreme positive publicity to the snowmobiling community each year, and and virtually every opening and closing ceremony you can find a powerful politician that is attending and that supports our sport 100%. Without that support in Concord there has been many occassions over the year's where our funding and our trails could have been negatively impacted by those that don't appreciate or understand what we do. As pointed out above, its Politics 101.

The event brings in thousands of dollars to the local economy where it is held, and a number of communities actively lobby to have us hold the event in their Community. This year along with the local businesses the Town of Gorham literally rolled out the red carpet and built and helped maintain a "snow" road through the entire downtown fro mthe Town & Country to the Airport.

And finally, it is a "Ride In" where on most years hundreds and hundreds of snowmobilers ride their sleds to and from all or part of the event. This year was no excepetion as contrary to many rumors out there, hundreds of miles of finely groomed trailswere available due to the hard work and generosity of BOT and the surrounding Clubs!

In a tough economy and horrible winter conditons across much of the State nearly $74,000 was raised this year with approximately $12,000 raised during the Ride-In itself.

Thank you to all you generous sledders out there that will now insure that many kids that are not as fortunate as many of us will get to spend some quality time at Camp SnoMo this year. This weekend made me extremely proud to be a part of the NHSA!

ljgomes, on 01 February 2012 - 10:35 AM, said:

Thanks for the timely updates Larry...will be up that way tomorrow for what promises to be an outstanding event!

Just to clear up some misinformation being posted here:

As has been correctly pointed out by Dave M. and several others, no moneys from sled registrations is currenty or has in the past been rolled into the general fund.

Additionally, the Bureau of Trails is indeed a State Agency, along with Fish & Game.

AndState Department of Transportation personel are not engaged in some sort of effort to "steal" snowmobilers registration or Federal gas tax money.

Finally the Governor has not proposed any Legislation to change the current system. Several groups of Legislators have, however, proposed a number of Bills that could change how registration money is disbursed.

The Federal Government has changed the RTP through Federal legislation. It was not changed by anyone at the State level.

That said, there is a strong group that is looking out fo the best interests of the sledding community. It is the NHSA, again as Dave and others have indicated.

The NHSA, through our lobbying firm, has been aware of all Bills at the State level and the Federal legislation that changed the RTP program. Your County Directors have been kept abreast of the situatuion and have authorized the NHSA to write and speak to our Congressional Delegation about RTP and we have had representatives attending and speaking in our behalf at various State committee hearings over suggested changes to the registration program.

Additionally Chris Gamache and his people at BOT, along with Captain Wimsatt and his people at Fish & Game, have been working hard in our behalf on these Bills. And along with your hard working County (and Assistant) Directors, Gail has been working tirelessly behind the scenes tracking all this legislation and keeping us informed. Those that have attended recent County meetings should be keenly aware of the effort being put forth by the NHSA.

Businesses and Merchants like the one raising concerns here could greatly help the process, and be kept in the information loop, if they had their business join the NHSA and helped us all contribute financially to fight these Bills. Currently too many snowmobilers and too few businesses help contribute to the funds necessary to keep the best people we can tracking and fighting this legislation. In politics we all know that money talks!

I hope this helped set the record straight by confirming the accurate informaton several folks have alreay given here, either by attending a County meeting or checking directly with the appropriate State agency, and not relying on rumor and gossip from one of a number of internet sledding sites.

Back to the original question. I joined my Club early on and recently registered my sled. I will register my wife's sled Wednesdat before we head up to the Ride-In. Neither of us have had the opportunity to ride yet and the Ride-In will provide some riding for my wife, but little for me for obvious reasons.

But I would never ask folks o register sleds that they had not or were not going to ride. As SEG pointed out, that could cost him hundreds of dollars, an unsurmountable amount for many who are struggling in this tough economy.

I look at it different. While I encourage folks to register if they can afford to, I really wish that no matter what they do about riding in a particular year that they join their chosen Club (or Clubs) as usual. When you don't join a Club they lose that money forever. Unlike the State, which can roll over unused funds from registrations when grooming bills are low do to a light snow year, Clubs have no such cushion. When you skip a year with your local club that missing money may never be recovered.

Simply stated, you don't have to register (or even own) a sled to financially help your local club. I know that many clubs have skiers, hikers, snowshoers or dog sledders that join to help maintain the Club that keeps the trails they use open for all. We enjoy that relationship at the OVSC and encourage other Clubs to develop and cultivate those relationships with folks in their communities.

Finally it bears repeating. You don't need to register your sled to support a local Club. And while the price of multiple registrations may be enough to scare many away, $30 to join your Club and help support the NHSA in a tough year may be more palpable to many.

The two separate issues, registraiton and Club membership, should always be looked at as two separate equations when you factor in how much you can help in a given year. Please, don't let the price of a registration(s) stop you from annually joining and participating in your local Club!

(I apologize for this long wided response, and tip my helmet to the few of you that find the time to struggle though my convoluted prose here)

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