Maine is 4 season Ranger country

[bogmanjr]

New here so I thought I would share a few trip pic's with you all. I live in southeast Ma. and have a camp in burlington Maine. My Ranger is a 2007 700XP that I have put almost 4000 miles on so far. I use the Ranger often around the Cranberry farm that I live on but the real fun is day trip's and hunting/g trip's to camp. We generally do between 50 and 80 miles a day when riding the trails from camp.The club's in Maine have done a great job getting acess to expand the trail systems.Here is a few pic's of my crew on the trail to get started.


all loaded and ready to head north.






this is a trailside picnic area that one of the clubs has.



one of our stop's at a takeout joint with awesome food. This town has atv acess on 95% of the town's roads.



This is what happens when you ask the kid's to wash the dust off after a ride.LOL






The rest are various ice g shot's on the pond in front of camp. I chain all 4 wheels to be able to drag my ice shack around and get through the deeper snow.

[GRAZOR]

Looks great and glad to hear Maine is opening up some of the vast lands they have for recreation. I am partial to the Moosehead lake area up around Rockwood and north on the Golden Road.

If I had places like you have to ice fish I would add a winch and plow set up to the front and then you could plow your path out to the spots and drag your shanty real easy.

What part of Maine do you ride in?

Gary

[bogmanjr]

Originally Posted by GRAZOR

Looks great and glad to hear Maine is opening up some of the vast lands they have for recreation. I am partial to the Moosehead lake area up around Rockwood and north on the Golden Road.

If I had places like you have to ice fish I would add a winch and plow set up to the front and then you could plow your path out to the spots and drag your shanty real easy.

What part of Maine do you ride in?

Gary

My camp is just east of Lincoln in Burlington. From there we can go east or south to grandlake stream or Machias and to the north all the way up into Millinocket and even father I'm sure.We did around 250 miles on memorial day weekend. I tried plowing the snow once, I ended up with a foot of water everywhere we plowed from the weight of the snow on the ice. It was a real mess LOL. Hoping to invest in a track kit before this winter.

[GRAZOR]

Nice country there for sure. Only been on that end once while coming down Rt 1 after going through Baxter SP. See if you can find any info about riding over near Seebomook and Pitstons farm. Mostly all paper company owned but they seem to be pretty willing to let folks enjoy themselves.

We plow ponds here but always in the morning right after it snows and just to keep skating rings open. If we let the snow sit on the ice it becomes a blanket and warms the top ice to water unless it is real cold.

Check out some of the ice g forums from the upper penninsula of Michigan and Minnisota and see the pics where they plow the ice through shanty towns and even have road signs out there.

We had pretty poor ice conditions this year here in NY but only because of the snow on top of 18 inches of ice with a foot of slush between most of the season.

gary

[bogmanjr]

usually the snow will either blow off or the weight of the snow pushes the water up through cracks and will make slush and refreeze. It all depends on how I catch it when I get there as to the snow conditions. We had a maybe 3 feet of snow in the woods this year and 30 inches of ice on the pond. Most of the time I had no problem driving on the pond.

A lot of the trails that we ride on is owned by the the paper company's too. We are going to do some wilderness camping this summer on the ranger and new RZR.

[GRAZOR]

Wilderness camping is our favorite activity and doing it in the RZR with the trail wagon attached would be a great time.

Please see if you can find out who I can contact for info about camping up around the Seebamook area north of Rockland. There are some gorgeous rivers and lakes with dams and spillways up there that are loaded with nice brook trout and would be perfect for wilderness camping. Last time we drove the Golden Road we had to stop at a check point to pay a day toll and you had to be out through one of the gates by 8 or 9 PM or they came searching for you. That road is about 110 miles of deep wilderness with nothing but wildlife and wood lots and an occasional gigantic trucks blows past. I think we saw every game animal in those parts up on that road and I caught a great brook trout that was just under 5 pounds and let it go back. Just don't go before mid July or the flies will carry you away!

Gary

[bogmanjr]

You should check out northmainewoods.org I think everything you need to know is on there. You need to get a Thermacell for the bug's I discovered it about 2 years ago and skeeters/blackflies are a non issue no matter what the season. The best bug gadget ever invented. Hope this help's Harrie

[utvracr]

I have been looking at a rural camp called Bulldog Camps which has direct access to trails that stretch from the Forks through Jackman to the Canadian border with another loop going over to Greenville. The last I checked the state regs were $68 state registration, helmets and nothing over 60" wide so your RZR should have no problems. You can access the golden road from the Jackman area but most logging roads are now closed to ATV's unless managed by local clubs.. The ATV club north of Jackman (forget the name) was working on getting a cross border loop approved into Canada.. I could not make it last year but working on it this year.. I have hunted around Jackman for over 20 years and there is some beautiful country up there

[GRAZOR]

I went to the northmainewoods site and it says they do not allow any ATVs on the Golden Road at all. I also sent an inquiry to the Contact Us section asking about the area around the north branch of the Penobscot and Seebomook lake area. I'll let you know if I get a reply.

About the last thing I want to do is drive 15 hours dragging all my gear and the RZR only to find out I can't do what I want to do or camp where I want to camp. Eyes and ears on the ground up in that area with accurate info is important.

I already went to ride with a SO Called club around here once and found myself trespassing on private lands most of the day. No one got busted but it is not worth going if you have to worry and the fines around here can be mighty stiff.

Gary

[utvracr]

Since the state changed it regs about 4 years ago most logging roads are closed.. They now state that the trails and roads must be posted as accepting ATV's. Most clubs update the loops of snowmobile trails to accept ATV's and coordinate with the state.. The best source for info is the individual clubs in the state.. The state does publish an ATV trail map for the state and most trails are under local club management
Tom