In the long, dark months that bridged 2023 and 2024, Aroostook County saw its worst winter in decades.
Just 88 inches of snow fell that season, the lowest total since 2010. Persistently mild weather mixed with heavy rain storms meant it didn’t stay on the ground for long.
Major events, like the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Races were forced to cancel or move. And snowmobilers — who contribute north of $700 million annually to Maine’s economy — had limited opportunities to ride the more than 2,300 miles of trails in northern Maine.
“We lost our snow mid to late February, and it never came back,” said Matt Stedman, the newly elected president of the Maine Snowmobile Association.
On paper, this winter was worse. Two fewer inches of snow fell, and heavy December rain wiped out most of the accumulation from an early storm.
Then it got cold. Really cold. The rain froze to ice and established a thick base layer for snow to accumulate on top of. And despite just two storms producing 4 or more inches of snow, the trails remained in good shape, bucking trends of recent years.
Chris King has never seen a winter with such little snow be so successful for snowmobiling.
“Not in my 38 years,” King, the president of the Limestone SnowHawks snowmobile club, said.
‘We were able to do miraculous things.’
Exact statewide snowmobile registration data has not been released, but Stedman said totals for the season hovered just under 80,000 at the end of March, 10,000 or so above the total from two years prior.
That is likely driven in part by surges in the more populated southern and coastal Maine, who saw all of the state’s largest storms this winter, some dumping several feet of snow. Those storms probably encouraged some sledders to stay in the southern portions of the state, club leaders speculated.
But for those who ventured north, cold temperatures and persistence from the volunteers that tend the trails promised a good experience.
The daily high temperature between December and early March hovered below 23 degrees Fahrenheit. During that same stretch in 2023-24, the average was nearly 31 degrees.
“If we would have gotten that 10-12 inch snowstorm at the end of February, we would have been much better,” Caribou Parks and Recreation Superintendent Gary Marquis said.”But we were able to do miraculous things, everyone was, with the little bit of snow that we got because it was so cold.”
Of the limited precipitation that fell on The County, a good portion was sleet, which does not lose much volume when it’s groomed.
“Last year we got a lot of real light fluffy snow,” King said. So if we get a storm of 3 inches of light, fluffy snow, once you compact that, you only get a quarter of an inch, maybe. With sleet, if you get a half an inch or 1 inch of sleet, that’s what you have when you go out to groom it.”
Clubs have also gotten better at working with less snow. They borrow from the sides of trails and build berms in open fields and other problem areas where strong winds can carry snow away.
The preparation extends to the offseasons through bush hogging, removing rocks or smoothing out low areas of trails to make them easier to groom during the winter.
“Most of our club members are very driven to put out a good product for their riders and to help support business in their community. So they’re just going to figure it out,” Stedman said. “If we’ve got a little bit of snow and the right amount of cold, they’re going to go out and make the trail flat.”
The season was a welcome change for local businesses in the hospitality industry, who have weathered tough times wrought by lackluster snowfall.
“The last two years were our worst two years, probably in the history of the hotel,” said Laurie LaFleur, who owns the Best Western hotel in Caribou with her husband Scott. “This past year we’re finally starting to see some improvements, which was promising.”
The Best Western, Caribou’s only full-service hotel, backs up onto a snowmobile trail. The LaFleurs saw more sledders this winter than in previous years, she said, and crucially, more of them booking return trips.
“It’s very important for our winter season,” she said. “As a business, we really rely on the snowmobilers.”
In the dead of winter 50 miles north in Fort Kent, you might find a few dozen sleds in the parking lot behind Swamp Buck, a popular restaurant and lounge on Main Street.
Their riders are a vital customer base in the winter months. In 2024, when fewer snowmobilers came through the doors, the restaurant had to cut hours for staff.
In contrast, this season was a “pretty good winter,” manager Allison Lutz said. She saw frequent out-of-state sledders from as far away as Oregon.
“The girls weren’t upset when they were going home at the end of the night,” Lutz said of her waitresses. “They had money in their pockets and that always makes everybody a little bit happier.”
