The Working Waterfront

Islander discovers the joys of backwoods snowmobiling

Breakdowns, snowdrifts don’t deter Weber in his winter adventures

George Smith
Posted 2019-12-03
Last Modified 2019-12-03

Making Tracks by Matt Weber

Islandport Press, 2019

Review by George Smith

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.

Matt 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.

My wife 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!