RANGELEY – Whine, squeal, crunch. Whine, squeal, crunch.
The sound of hundreds of snowmobiles, some racing on the puddle-topped ice on Rangeley Lake, others hobbling on gravel and asphalt looking for snow, broke the silence in this usually quiet mountain town this weekend, as winter sports lovers from all over gathered for Rangeley’s 24th annual Snodeo.
This year’s event, which began Thursday night with a chili cook-off, and ended Saturday with a fireworks display, did not come off with quite the grace that it has in previous years, through no fault of the Rangeley Lakes Snowmobile Club members who organized the event. Rather, in the words of a few Snodeo-goers, it was “Mother Nature’s fault.”
On Saturday morning, the digital clock and thermometer outside on Main Street gauged the temperature at a balmy 50 degrees. After a week of unseasonably warm weather and a large volume of rain that caused power outages and ice jams all over the state, most of the snow that typically blankets the Rangeley Lakes region all winter long had already melted, and by noon on Saturday the rest was on its way out.
Snowmobilers stood around on street corners, outside gas stations, in parking lots and in hotel lobbies, chatting and complaining. “This year (stinks)!” said Brian Wargo, of Connecticut. He said he has been coming to Snodeo every winter for the past 11 years. This is the first one without snow, he said. “Its mother nature’s fault,” he added. Still, he said, the ice on Rangeley Lake was thick enough to ride on, and he spent the day on his sled.
Deb Duvarney, from Massachusetts, said she and seven or eight friends have rented a house on the lake Snodeo weekend every year for 18 years. “This is one of the worst years, weatherwise,” she said. “There’s no snow. But we couldn’t get our money back (from the rental), so that’s why we’re here.”
“We’re making the best of it,” said another member of her group, Rick Gendron, from Massachusetts.
Snowmobile Club Secretary and Treasurer Gail Gavigan said there were many fewer people in town this year than most. “It’s not what it usually is, the crowd is down,” from the usual 4,000 that attend, she said, although she said Saturday it was too early to know for sure how many people had come for the weekend.
Still, for all the disappointment many of the Snodeo-goers exhibited, some people in Rangeley were happy to be spending the weekend walking on slushy streets without jackets. Michelle Elliott, who lives near Rangeley, said that given the amount of snow and bone-chilling temperatures that usually grace Snodeo weekend, “I love a warm sunny day – it’s awesome.”
Elliott and her family spent the day like most of the rest of the nonsnowmobiling crowd, walking the streets, chatting in restaurants and attending scheduled events like the frozen turkey toss, gingerbread-making and games inside the Clubhouse restaurant.
For Anika Malia, 3, of Westbrook, the lack of snow was not a problem. Malia, who won a turkey in the turkey toss, just wanted more turns to throw.
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