ROXBURY — A few hundred people of all ages from across Maine participated in the ninth annual Lee Hodgkins Memorial Poker Run on Saturday.
The all-terrain vehicle event was hosted by the Roxbury Riders ATV Club. It is held in honor of former club member Gilbert “Lee” Hodgkins Jr., who died in 2005.
They were greeted by an overcast sky during the morning’s registration period that gradually gave way to sunshine and a patchy blue sky.
A rain shower arrived just before noon after many had finished a 25-mile loop trail from Roxbury toward Byron and Andover, picking up their playing cards from envelope stations.
After registering and paying $5 for each poker hand, participants started out from the Roxbury ATV Park and Ride on Route 120.
“We have buckets set up every two or three miles across the trail with envelopes in them,” club President Michael Worthley said. “Inside each envelope are cards. When we get back to my house, everyone will open their envelopes and whoever has the best poker hand wins.”
The trail traveled over a variety of terrain ranging from hard-packed logging roads to stone-strewn, hilly stretches and soggy, muddy waterholes. The ride circled back through Roxbury and ended at Michael and Wanda Worthley’s house, where a cookout was held.
Gloria Patneaude won the poker run with four 9s. She received $133, club Treasurer Jane Ryerson said.
Mike Patneaude took second place and $116 with a spade flush, and Ryerson took third place with three kings, ace high, winning $85.
The club’s ongoing, annual 50/50 raffle, which started on Jan. 1 and ended Saturday afternoon, was also drawn.
“We always give $500 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the rest goes to whoever wins,” Michael Worthley said.
Additionally, the Hope Association will receive $378.57, he said.
Becky Preble of South Paris won $1,386 in the raffle and Carl Johnson won $165 in the small 50/50 raffle.
“We had a really, really good turnout, considering the weather,” club member Gloria Patneaude said.
“This is the first ride of the year,” said Wanda Worthley, club secretary. “This is always our biggest ride.”
Members of ATV clubs from across Maine participated. They included the Pulpit Rock Trail Blazah’s out of Waterford, the Turner Timberland, the Western Maine ATV Club and clubs from Rumford, Mexico, Peru and the River Valley.
For most, it was their first ride of the season: The Roxbury club opened most of its trails on Friday after declaring mud season over.
“This is our first ride with this,” Ann Carver of Mexico said of her and her husband Ray Carver’s 2013 Polaris ATV. “This is our first year with a side-by-side. We’ve had wheelers for 10 years.”
Carver said she was enjoying that first ride on Roxbury’s trails.
“They do a lot for the club and they maintain their trails very well,” she said. “And it’s a lot of good family fun.”
“It was an awesome ride,” Jen Williamson of Mechanic Falls said. “The trails were great. This is our first ride of the season.”
In other Roxbury Riders news, two trails that remained closed because of recent trail work could open June 15, Michael Worthley said. They are Mine Notch Trail and West Branch Ellis River Trail from Lonas Farm Road to Ellis Pond Variety.
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- Emily Carver, 7, of Mexico watches her mother, Ann Carver of Mexico, retrieve an envelope with a card inside at one of the Lee Hodgkins Memorial Poker Run stations along a 25-mile loop trail from Roxbury toward Byron and Andover on Saturday. The event was hosted by the Roxbury Riders ATV Club on its trail system.
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- Many of a few hundred all-terrain vehicles are parked at Roxbury Riders ATV Club President Michael Worthley’s house beside Route 120 in Roxbury on Saturday after 200 poker hands were turned in at the club’s ninth annual Lee Hodgkins Memorial Poker Run.
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- All-terrain vehicle riders participate in the ninth annual Lee Hodgkins Memorial Poker Run lineup Saturday to head to the next poker card station after getting an envelope with a card at this station on a 25-mile loop trail from Roxbury toward Byron and Andover and back.
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- Glenn Prescott of Mexico navigates his Bennche 4×4, crew-cab side-by-side all-terrain vehicle through a waterhole on a Roxbury Riders ATV Club trail during Saturday’s ninth annual Lee Hodgkins Memorial Poker Run hosted by the club in Roxbury.
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- Noah Morton places cards on a table to display a poker hand that a participant in Saturday’s Lee Hodgkins Memorial Poker Run got while riding an all-terrain vehicle on a 25-mile loop trail in Roxbury.
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- All-terrain vehicle participants in Saturday’s ninth annual Lee Hodgkins Memorial Poker Run watch and comment as their envelopes containing cards they picked up at poker card stations along a 25-mile loop trail are opened to see what kind of hands they got. Opening envelopes and recording cards from left front are Victoria Ryerson, Noah Morton, Jane Ryerson and Gloria Patneaude.
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