Maine Sporting Camps

Maine has a long and rich history of involvement with outdoorsmen and women. The Great North Woods have long been the destination of choice for residents and visitors alike looking to bag a trophy buck or land a record brook trout. And there have always been sporting camps to cater to the "sports" and guide them on their excursions. However, trends come and go and the outdoor sports of hunting and fishing have had decreasing numbers of participants. As fewer and fewer people have sought game in the north woods, the sporting camps have had to adapt in order to survive. Now people head to the wilderness for biking, hiking, bird watching, kayaking, or simply to experience the tranquility. And Maine sporting camps have met the challenge, offering a wide array of services, from animal and bird watching excursions to wild flower and native plant guided walks. And the services have changed too. Today camps offer everything from gourmet meals and the finest amenities to unheated, unplumbed cabins to give you the true wilderness experience. In this guide, George Smith profiles the 50 or so sporting camps that are still in operation in Maine. He includes interviews with the staff and owners and gives his own experiences staying at each camp. Each entry also includes pertinent information on amenities, services offered, seasons and times of operation, as well as directions. If you're looking to get away from it all in Maine, this guide will help you find the road less traveled.

George A. Smith is an outdoor writer, newspaper columnist honored with awards from the Maine Press Association, television show host, and former executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, the state's largest sportsmen's organization. He writes monthly columns for The Maine Sportsman magazine (for more than 30 years), a weekly editorial-page column for central Maine's two daily newspapers (for twenty years), and a blog for Down East magazine's website (started in 2009). He is co-host of a unique weekly television show called Wildfire, a talk show now in its 11th year, focused on conservation and environmental issues and seen on the Time Warner cable stations throughout the state (in 312,000 homes) and the internet (www.wildfiremaine.tv). He is the father of three children and grandfather of two boys. In addition to his family, his interests include hunting, fishing, birding, writing, reading, and eating. He is very fond of Maine's micro-brews.