In the wake of paper mill closings in Millinocket and East Millinocket, Skip and Nicole Mohoff saw a newspaper story that ended up changing their lives.

“It showed a home that cost $10,000, and it said, ‘Why won’t anybody live here?'” Skip Mohoff recalled.

The question, it seemed to the Portland couple, was a good one.

So they headed to Millinocket to take a look around … and ended up buying the house they’d seen in the paper for the less-than-princely sum of $9,300.

“It was on a beautiful, clean street with wonderful neighbors,” Skip Mohoff said.

Each had worked in the hospitality industry, and each thought they could do the same in Millinocket. Now, four years later, they’re living their dream as owners of Katahdin Cabins and Katahdin Nordic, a cross-country skiing operation.

The cabins cater to snowmobile riders, cross-country skiers, snowshoe hikers, and nature lovers. And this year, they’ve finally benefited from a much-needed ingredient for their kind of business: snow.

The Mohoffs have been tenacious in their pursuit of a new life in the Magic City, and adapted to the roadblocks they encountered.

After locating a second home that they wanted to purchase, the couple learned that their business plan – which called for purchasing a 60-year-old farmhouse for $43,000 and six adjacent cabins for $26,000 – wasn’t going to work.

The bank’s reply: No experience running cabins? No way, unless you put up a huge chunk of money as a down payment.

The Mohoffs thought for a bit and came back with another offer. They ended up buying the house for $69,500, and the previous owner threw in the cabins for a hundred bucks.

That financing plan went through without a hitch.

A year ago, geared up and ready for business, winter never truly arrived in the Millinocket area. Snow was virtually nonexistent, and sledders and skiers looked elsewhere.

So did the Mohoffs.

“We went to New Orleans and did relief work for 31/2 months,” Skip Mohoff said. “Rather than sit and feel sorry for ourselves, we decided to help, and saw people who really had things to worry about.”

What a difference a year makes: Earlier this week, the Mohoffs looked out their window and saw snow … lots of snow. Finally.

“We cried,” Skip Mohoff said. “And then we saw the weather report.”

That report called for plenty more snow on Friday and today, leading him and his wife to start planning for what he hopes will be a busy winter.

If that’s the way it turns out, they’ll be ready. Nicole Mohoff will be greeting breakfast visitors with her soon-to-be-famous jalapeno cheese grit cakes.

And they’ll be providing plenty of incentive for guests to come give Katahdin Cabins and Katahdin Nordic s a try.

You can leave their cabins and hop on a snowmobile trail, or you can snowshoe or ski out to Dolby Pond – an eight-mile trek – along trails that start just behind their business.

“And we’re giving our guests, for the first time this year, complimentary cross country ski or snowshoe [rental] to get them to come give them a try,” Skip Mohoff said.

The shoes and skis will fit children all the way down to age 2 or so, he said, so parents can introduce their children to the sports and spend some time outdoors with their children.

Sounds like quite a deal from here.

Nordic notes: If you’re among the Bangor area skiers who consider Sugarloaf your “home hill,” the recent wintry weather has done wonders.

For Nordic skiers especially, Monday’s storm was a huge relief. The Sugarloaf Outdoor Center groomed 50 kilometers (31 miles) on Friday, with both classic and skate-skiing trails open. Before Monday’s storm, no classic tracks had been set up.

Having spent a week at Sugarloaf during last February’s school vacation, I know the two avid cross country skiers in our party were frustrated with the lack of natural snow, which led to extremely icy conditions. This winter’s first real large storm for most of the state has begun to make the area look more like a winter wonderland.

According to the Sugarloaf/USA Web site, the mountain itself received between 12 and 14 inches of the white stuff during this week’s earlier storm. That, along with snowmaking efforts, has boosted the Alpine experience as well: As of Friday, seven lifts were servicing 81 of the mountain’s 133 trails.

East Grand derby rescheduled

The call from Buck Plummer wasn’t one he wanted to make.

“We’ve got changes happening up here,” the organizer of the East Grand Lake Snowmobile Club ice fishing derby said on Thursday.

Considering the warm weather that has plagued ice anglers all year, bad news was clearly coming … and it did.

Plummer said the ninth annual derby, which includes East Grand, Brackett, Deering and North lakes, won’t be held on Jan. 27-28 due to unsafe ice conditions.

Instead, the derby has been moved to Feb. 24-25.

“It’s kind of a royal pain, but we don’t see any other way of doing it,” Plummer said.

Plummer said the big part of East Grand only recently froze over, and impending snow wouldn’t allow thick ice to form before the derby.

“If we had another week or eight days of good, cold weather it would have been fine. But with this snow coming, especially if we get 14, 16 inches like they say, it’s just not going to be safe,” Plummer said.

Local anglers might know spots to avoid, he said, but others who travel long distances just to fish the derby would be more likely to end up in dangerous situations.

“There’s no way around an unsafe lake,” Plummer said. “There are places on East Grand that are safe and people have been fishing it for a couple of weeks. But there’s no way to get [that local knowledge of safe spots] out to everyone who’s coming from away.”

Plummer said that any anglers who have already bought tickets will receive a refund if they aren’t able to attend the derby on the new dates.

And those looking for ice reports as the derby approaches are welcome to call him, he said.

For refunds or more information, Plummer can be reached at 448-7018.

Moose auction bill introduced

For several years, Maine’s youth have benefited from an auction of five moose permits, with proceeds going toward outdoor education scholarships to conservation school.

In this legislative session lawmakers will decide whether to increase the number of auctioned permits to 10, with money going toward that same cause.

The bill was suggested by officials of the Greenland Point Center, which (along with a facility at Bryant Pond) hosts a conservation school.

In past years the auction of five permits has raised about $50,000 per year.

According to Woody Higgins of the Penobscot County Conservation Association, also a member of the Greenland Point Coalition, the money allows children to attend conservation camp on scholarship.

“It’s $400 to go to Greenland Point, $475 to go to Bryant Pond,” Higgins said. “We give [campers] all but $50, and the parents have to pay the 50 bucks.”

With more money from the moose-permit auction, Higgins said more children could be accommodated.

“We turned down kids that could have gone to Greenland Point last summer,” he said. “We put roughly 100 kids through Greenland Point last summer, a four-week camp. That’s roughly 25 per week. We could have put 35 or 40 [per week] through if we’d had the money to put them through.”

If you’re interested in supporting the bill – LD 175 – Higgins suggests contacting your local legislator.

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