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The Sebago Branch Duckers Snowmobile Club recently honored Ed and Norma Hall with a plaque for their 40 years of service to the club. Long time residents of Sebago, they have done nearly every job required to further snowmobiling in Maine from blazing new trails to trail grooming.
“Our first sled was a 1969 Mercury and we build our own trail groomer out of 2x6 lumber and a piece of angle iron to drag behind the sled,” said Ed. “In those days, the club members groomed trails using their own sleds, and we all took a section of trail to take care of during the winter.”
Ed and his wife Norma have owned a number of different snowmachines over the years and have worked together to make the trails in Sebago safer and well maintained. This caused an embarrassing incident several years ago, however. Ed was pulling a groomer with a riding sled behind his snowmachine with Norma riding in the sled.
“I went up a hill, and the tow rope must have parted and I didn’t realize it,” he said. “I got down the trail a good mile or more before I noticed that Norma and the groomer weren’t behind me any more!”
He turned around and went back, and found her pulling the groomer and sled down the trail with a rope. Ed said that she asked him “Don’t you ever think to turn around once in a while?” but there were probably more words spoken between them than just that.
Since then, Ed and Norma have worked pretty closely together. They have both been certified SCUBA divers, avid fishermen, and “for a while she used to go hunting with me,” Ed said.
Ed is a World War II veteran and served on the USS Wilkes-Barre (CL103) Light Cruiser (http://www.angelfire.com/ky2/usswilkesbarre/) in the Pacific during the last years of the war. He returned to the Boston area and worked for 33 years at Proctor and Gamble. His home was near the ocean (“right down at the end of my street,” he said) and he developed a strong love for clamming and diving.
He met Norma while he was diving on a water rescue in Sebago in 1964. He showed us a picture of him in his wetsuit and diving gear. “I was mainly interested in her boat, and kept coming back up to see her,” Ed said. “In the end, I ended up marrying her and forgot about the boat.” They were married in 1970 and have lived in Sebago since then.
Ed and Norma Hall were presented with a recognition award for their 40 years
of dedicated service to the Sebago Branch Duckers Snowmobile Club. Shown here
with Club Treasurer Carl Dolloff. (l-r) Ed Hall, Norma Hall, Carl Dolloff
Photo by Allen Crabtree
Ed was the president of the Sebago Branch Duckers Snowmobile Club for a year, was instrumental in starting the local poker rally run in the early 1970’s, and was a director of the Maine Snowmobile Association for a number of years. He blazed trail for the snowmobile trail on Peaked Mountain. “Forty years has gone by in a flash,” said Ed. “We enjoy the out of doors and snowmobiling, and hope to have many more years on the trails in Sebago.”
The Sebago Branch Duckers, like other snowmobile clubs, depended on a cadre of dedicated volunteers to keep up trails for snowmobilers to use, and deeply appreciate the forty years of support that the Hall’s have given to the sport. There are more than 550 miles of snowmobile and cross-country ski trails in the Lakes Region, all of which are maintained by one of the many snowmobile clubs in the area including the Sebago Branch Duckers club (Statewide there are 13,000 miles of trails.). Club volunteers work with landowners to get permission for trail routing, brushing out trails, building and repairing bridges, and posting trail signs. When the snows come the clubs begin grooming their trails for snowmobilers and skiers who enjoy the Maine woods in winter.
These trails are open to all to enjoy winter in Maine, and you don’t have to be a snowmobiler to be a member of the Branch Duckers club or another snowmobile club.
This winter has started out to be a good, snowy one with the promise of plenty of snowmobiling. The Branch Duckers invite all snowmobilers and cross country skiers to join them on the trails! All that they ask in return is that you ride safely, operate within the law and respect the landowner, the land and club efforts. For more information, to join, or to learn where to get a trail map, contact Branch Duckers club president Glenn Snow at P.O. Box 156, Sebago, ME 04029, call him at 207-787-8824 or e-mail him at snows105@yahoo.com. Additional information is available at the Maine Snowmobile Association in Augusta at 207-622-6983 (e-mail http://www.mesnow.com).
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