The towns of Rangeley and Oquossoc, not typically known for their hustle and bustle, have been two of the hottest spots in Western Maine over the past few days.

Thursday marked the start of the Rangeley Lakes Snowmobile Club’s annual Snodeo, a festival that brings hundreds of riders to the region, some from as far away as Connecticut and New York.

For about 20 years, the Snodeo has been a regular attraction to help raise money for the snowmobile club. Put together by about 20 club volunteers, the Snodeo includes cookouts, auctions, raffle drawings, suppers and children’s activities.

That and lots and lots of snowmobiling.

According to club officers Vince Banaitis and Gail Gavigan, this year’s Snodeo was one of the biggest and best yet.

“Compared to past years, it just keeps growing,” Gavigan said. “I’m guessing over 8,000 people came in throughout the weekend. It’s definitely our biggest fundraiser.”

She said the money brought in through the various events are used to cover the cost of grooming trails in the area. In this year of heavy snowfall and steep gas prices, those costs are larger than in the past.

“We’ll probably raise between $8,000 and $10,000 this year, but we’ve already spent $15,000 on grooming,” she explained.

The Radar Runs, one of the most popular events of the festival, pit several different classes of rider and machine against the speed gun. This year’s snowmobile runs, held all day Saturday in normally quiet Russell Cove, were besting last year’s top speeds by significant margins, according to run organizers Sandy Dumont and Judy Waterman.

“Some are as fast as 108, maybe 112. Well over 100 miles per hour,” Dumont said as she sat next to a table covered in trophies being prepared for riders with the fastest times. “Those are the ‘muscle’ and ‘super-modified’ divisions, those are the die-hards who run five or six times.”

But not everyone was aiming to break the 100-mph barrier. There were a total of 13 divisions made up of 180 sleds, including a mini-sled ridden by a 4-year-old competing in a division of racers under 10 years of age. Despite running a bit off pace, the youngster was clearly a crowd favorite in her first Snodeo run.

The grand finale of the Snodeo weekend began Saturday evening with the awards ceremony – including the much-anticipated raffle of a 2008 Arctic Cat Snowmobile – and ended with a snowmobile parade and fireworks display at Lakeside Park. But before it was all over, there was already talk of ways to build on the success of this year’s Snodeo for next year.

“I’d like to see it go to four days instead of three,” Gavigan said. “I’d like to see us have even more events.”