Florenceville-Bristol, NB at the Amsterdam Inn and Suites did not disappoint for the 2026 NEC Meeting and Ride this last February. Major kudos to our friends in the Snowmobile Motoneige NB for hosting the event. The tourism team of West NB held a meet and greet on February 17 for those attending, with appetizers and live entertainment. This area of their province is known affectionately as part of the historic highlands. The terrain in the region was very mixed from farmland to deeper woods. Their trails in this region are a mix of forest roads, woods trails, farmland, and rail grades.
The clubs rolled out the welcome mat for representatives from Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts. Partly social and recreation, and partly work with opportunities to network and a roundtable style meeting where each state or province talks about successes and challenges of the season. By February every area had seen an average or above average season, and the issues of the day were masked by the longer season for many of us. Also, present for the meeting was Jaret Smith from the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA), and Chris Gamache was there with his manager representing the Polaris Ride Command team. Russ Davis and Terry Callum represented NHSA at this year’s event.
Some interesting notables from the riding for a couple of days in this region. The clubs in this region of New Brunswick maintain many small trailside warming huts, and some are at spots that have incredible views. The world longest covered bridge, the Hartland Bridge, spans the St. John river in this region and it is also how sledders can get across the river in Hartland to Somerville.
The clubs did an outstanding job on marking and grooming the trails while we were present, the weather was perfect for sledding.
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