This guy snowmobiles in all of Maine’s best places

Even though I don’t snowmobile, I really enjoyed Matt Weber’s book, Making Tracks, published by Islandport Press. Although he lives on Monhegan, he snowmobiles all over Maine, and his stories are very entertaining.

His book’s subtitle is How I Learned to Love Snowmobiling in Maine, and given the number of difficult trips he’s experienced, he must love it. Matt enjoys taking the most difficult trails and rides and he has spent many hours shoveling his way out of deep snowdrifts. He also had his share of snowmobile break downs, but he always seemed to be able to laugh about it all. Quite clearly Matt loves being outdoors, just like me.

Mat has snowmobiled in a lot of my favorite places including Rangeley and Oquossic, Katahdin and the Moosehead region, and Washington County. His book includes stories about everything he encountered along the way, including a sick moose.

I was surprised when the book arrived to learn that Matt is the author, because I know him. Matt is a lobsterman on Monhegan Island and he and his wife Mary started a brewery there.

Linda and I love Monhegan and we had many wonderful trips in May to see the migrating birds. We also wrote some of our travel columns about the island and we always included Matt and Mary’s brewery which is a wonderful place. And yes, they brew great beer!

 

 

 

 

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.