The Millinocket Trail System, although easily reached from I-95, offers miles of wilderness riding, often right from the parking lot or motel. I.T.S. 81, 83, 85, and 86 cross through the area. Combine that with local trails and the Baxter State Park perimeter road and your talking of mile and miles of great riding. The Interstate Trail System (I.T.S.) extends thru the Katahdin and Millinocket area allowing snowmobile enthusiasts to access 540 miles of maintained trails. Travel time to reach the Millinocket Trail System ranges from 1 hour from Bangor International Airport to as much as a 1 day drive from Boston and Quebec.

The I.T.S. system in the Millinocket area also enables snowmobilers to gain access to over 500 miles of maintained club trails for those who prefer less traveled trail conditions. This represents approximately 1,040 miles of trails to ride, certainly more than the average snowmobile visitor can handle on a long weekend. A view of the trail map for the Millinocket area helps the reader to plan his vacation before he arrives to the area.

Not only does this allow the snowmobiler to access such winter scenes as Mt. Kineo on Moosehead Lake, Mt. Katahdin in the Baxter State Park Area, but also points further north in the Aroostook County area.

Maine has one of the largest and best developed trail systems in the country with over 9,000 miles of groomed trails including 2,500 miles of I.T.S. main arteries. Part of the Northeast Snowmobile Trail (N.E.S.T.), which originates in Pennsylvania, runs thru Maine and into Canada.

The Northern Timber Cruisers Snowmobile Club maintains 85 miles of I.T.S. 86 which not only includes the grooming of the trails, but also the maintenance of 13 bridges that allow the Tucker Snow Cat and the Bombardier groomers to smooth the trails a day after hundreds of snowmobiles have passed over the trails. The section of I.T.S. 86 maintained by the Northern Timber Cruisers Snowmobile Club allows the snowmobiler to leave the clubhouse and travel to communities such as Greenville  (100 miles), Rockwood (85 miles), Jackman (140 miles), and East Millinocket (26 miles). Aroostook County communities and Canada are also accessible from the Millinocket Trail System.

Maintenance of the Millinocket Trail System begins in September when the weather begins to cool. Trails are cleared of over hanging brush and fallen trees. Gravel is brought in to fill in holes where large rocks have been removed. Some 13 bridges are inspected and the decking replanked as necessary as well as the supporting structure. Trails are marked with caution and warning signs, stop signs, trail identification signs, and various directions to places to eat as well as places to stay. A four wheel ATV is used by the club to travel some of these trails in the fall months to facilitate travel and maintenance. The two grooming machines are given complete mechanical preventive maintenance checks. Trails have to be re-routed so as not to conflict with paper company timber harvesting operations. Large sections of of trails have been lost due to this fact and it has proven to be a job of great magnitude to clear these 10 feet wide trails thru the woods. Land owners are contacted every year to gain permission to use these areas and to promote good communications between the club and the land owners.

Click here for a chart of destination points and their distances.