Millinocket sits, figuratively and literally, at a crossroads in the Maine woods. Known as a town carved out of the rugged wilderness that became prosperous through the paper and lumber trades, the Magic City is a bit different these days.

Its defining feature is still there, and that mill has begun producing paper again after a devastating shutdown put hundreds out of work.

At one end of town is the road to the Interstate, and to worldwide markets for that paper. And at the other end of the main drag is a road toward Baxter State Park and the woods, and to recreational options that both locals and visitors have come to cherish.

In the spring and summer, there’s plenty of opportunity for hiking and fishing up here. In the fall, hunting takes over. And in the winter, it’s on to ice fishing and snowmobiling.

If winter ever arrives, that is.

“It’s been so discouraging lately that I’ve stopped watching [the weather reports],” said local businessman Matt Polstein the other day as he sat in the restaurant he owns and gestured to the nearly bare ground outside. “I try to limit my visits to the Caribou weather station on the Internet to once or twice a day, hoping that something will change.”

Maine weather always changes, after all. Just wait a minute … or so the saying tells us.

The problem is, every time the weather has changed this winter, it’s gotten even worse for those whose businesses depend on cold and snow for a steady flow of customers.

“The frustration’s been that we get cold weather that’s dry and we don’t get the precipitation,” Polstein said. “And the minute we get the precipitation, it seems to warm up to the point where most of it falls as rain.”

And that’s been the dilemma for business owners outside of the St. John Valley in the extreme northern section of the state, which was socked in by 36 inches of snow earlier in the winter and has largely been able to withstand some finicky weather since then.

Down around Millinocket – usually a gateway town for those looking to enjoy a variety of outdoor activities – the snow hasn’t arrived. Either that, or it has arrived and been washed away by subsequent rains … just like it has farther south, in Lincoln and Bangor and Newport and Portland.

And while Polstein is an obvious choice to illustrate this point – his New England Outdoor Center offers rafting trips in the summer, rents snowmobiles in the winter, has 11 cabins to lodge visitors, and feeds many at the popular River Drivers Restaurant – he cautions that his situation is merely one of many similar stories faced by folks in these parts.

“This is a winter that for my business, and for many others, is going to be a punishing [one],” he said. “The loss of activity from snowmobiling really is going to hurt. It’s going to hurt the small mom-and-pop, few-room hotels, the B-and-B’s, it’s gonna hurt the gas stations. It’s gonna hurt people all the way around.”

You want to feel the pain? Consider a few numbers from just one of dozens of businesses that cater to the traveling outdoors enthusiast.

Polstein has a rental fleet of 70 snowmobiles. Most winters, he’d have all 70 on the trails every weekend. This year, the most he has rented on a given weekend is fewer than 40.

And out at Twin Pine Camps, Polstein typically sells 20,000 gallons of gasoline a year as a trailside convenience to sledders. Not this year.

“I think we’ve taken one 2,000-gallon delivery and still have half of it,” he said.

Not that Polstein is complaining, mind you. His business is diversified and offers a four-season experience.

It’s important to point out that Polstein didn’t call this paper to complain about the weather. This paper called him, figuring he’d be a pretty good guy to ask a pretty pertinent question: Where’s winter, anyway? Have you seen it?

“It has shown its face for brief moments, but it certainly hasn’t been willing to stick around,” he said with a wry grin.

That doesn’t mean that people in and around Millinocket aren’t making the best of a bad situation.

Ice anglers on Ambajejus and Millinocket lakes are still evident, their shacks forming stark silhouettes on the snowless ice.

And there’s still snowmobiling to he had, as long as you’re not too picky.

“Mostly our rental riders, we’re sending them all out with guides right now so they don’t have to go out on their own and get lost on a trail that doesn’t have adequate snow conditions,” said Polstein, who says conditions do get a bit better at higher elevations farther from town.

“Rental riders, they still seem able to come and have a decent time. It’s more the hardcore snowmobilers that want to cover 150 miles and go in a different direction every day that we can’t provide a good product for,” he said.

But that may change. Maybe today. Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

With just a bit of snow, Polstein says, there would be a lot more options for the sledding public … and a lot more smiles on the faces of the business-owners who cater to them.

“We could start grooming a fair amount of our system with six or eight inches of snow,” he said.

“But if we got a foot and a half, my smile would be something other than a pained smile,” he said.

Be careful what you ask for …

I wanted winter. I begged for winter. I needed winter.

Well, if the weather-guessers were right, and you just retrieved your paper from the little green box after a surprisingly frigid early-morning walk, I’d say I got my wish.

“Nighttime lows of 5 below,” I kept hearing all day on Friday.

On the bright side, I suppose our favorite lakes are finally making ice.

On the not-so-bright side, if it did get that cold, and if you’re reading this before 8 … or 9 … or 10 in the morning, I can safely tell you that I’m probably still in bed … waiting for winter to go somewhere else.

It’s not that I’m not a tough, hardy Mainer, mind you.

It’s just that after a string of 50-degree Saturdays, I haven’t had quite enough time to properly acclimate myself to the real rigors of a Maine winter.

At least that’s my story.

And when I get done hibernating, you’re welcome to tell me how much I missed.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.