48 | Snowmobile VERMONT “The Arace Lodge” on Jenny Coolidge Road from 11 a.m.–4 p.m. weather permitting of course. Come and have some food, meet our members and officers and make some new friends. Check out our new groomer while you’re there. The Derry Sled Dogs want to give a big thank you to Steve Brown and Brown Enterprise for their contributions and continued support to our club. Pray for a snowy winter and come ride our trails. They are awesome! Valerie Doane, Club News Correspondent sites.google.com/view/derrysleddogsvt Like us on Facebook The Derry Sled Dogs upgraded their groomer from a 1993 to a 2008 model. Jacksonville E-Z Riders  It was great to be able to open our trails on Dec. 16, but a week into the season, it was like hitting the repeat button of last year and things looked questionable. Thankfully, Santa would be in a giving mood and left us with a fresh 12 inches of snow on Christmas Day. That, along with a few inches here and there and another nice storm for the New Year, got the season off to a good start. Although the temperatures most days until the end of the first week of 2018 were subzero, it allowed our groomer volunteers to make some day runs which greatly helped shape our trails for the season. As of Jan. 8, all trails have been opened and grooming is well underway throughout our trail system. New intersection signs have been installed and we can’t thank all our volunteers enough for the extra effort of clearing trails after several strong wind events. We do want to remind everyone that Deerfield Valley Stump Jumpers  Hope everyone had a great holiday season! We sure did in the southern part of the state with rideable conditions. Our base of snow has been great for this early in the season with the multiple snowstorms of over 10 inches. The super cold temps have helped freeze the water bars and get the reservoirs off to a good start. Come visit our trails to have a beverage and a bite along the way. Our trail system continues to have some of the most restaurant choices accessible to snowmobilers in the entire state of Vermont! Places such as The Saloon, Last Chair, West Dover Joe’s, La Toscanella Pizzeria, Wilmington House of Pizza, The White House Inn, Beer our reroute on Corridor 100 coming from Hogback after crossing Sheer Hill Road has a very steep uphill with a very short approach. Make sure you check the conditions of the hill before you try and climb it. We are looking into seeing if we can make some changes to the route.  The EZ Riders’ Third Annual SNOWFEST was held again at the Amos Brown house in Whitingham on Feb. 3. It was a fun filled day with 2018 Polaris snowmobile demo rides, our amazing raffle, Timbersled Snowbikes, Team Southside Snocross, great food, music and much more. Our club ride dates will be posted soon. Come join us. Wishing you a happy New Year and a safe and enjoyable season.  An E-Z Rider  ezriders.org  Like us on Facebook Naked Brewery, The Wilmington Inn and the Nutmeg Inn all welcome snowmobilers. We’re very excited about the upcoming season and just want to remind everyone to respect the landowners by staying on the trails and picking up your trash. We’ve already had a number of messages into the hotline about out-of-bounds riders and trash left behind. Ride warm, ride far and ride safe. See you at our Pig Roast on March 3!  Brian Harty, President  dvsj.com  Like us on Facebook Vernon Trail Breakers Another season is upon us and it looks like we can get grooming and trail trimming done. The two storms we had made a bit of a mess with ice on branches and then snow on top of that. But I’m not complaining, because at least we have snow! The Brattleboro Winter Carnival Snowmobile Rides have been scheduled for Feb. 17 at Memorial Park. This event has a long history around these parts and we look forward to getting folks on the drivers seat in hopes they may become addicted to the sport in the future, as so many of us are. And what an addiction it is! You look forward to the snow falling so much that some of your friends who do not snowmobile tell you to your face that you are sick! But we don’t care. I generally tell them they live in the Northeast and it’s part of who we are, and what we enjoy. The short version of my response would be, “Move to Florida!” Anyway, we have plenty to keep us busy. I hope the weather cooperates with us. I am hopeful we will look back on this season as one with an old fashioned winter and plenty of riding fun. Enough for now, I’ve got some snowmobiling to do! Don Rosinski, President vernontrailbreakers.org Like us on Facebook