Got a favorite Maine Sporting Camp? Tell me about it!

DSCN3506Down East Books has asked me to write a book about Maine sporting camps, to be published early next year. Our state once boasted more than 300 sporting camps, but now has less than 100, and many of those are not the traditional in-the-woods sporting camps, but new camps on lakes and on the coast.

Linda and I own a camp at Camp Phoenix on Sourdnahunk Lake north of Millinocket. It was a sporting camp for 100 years. About 20 years ago it was turned into a condominium, where we own the camps individually and the property in common. It’s a magical place, with an abundant supply of wild trout, and on the edge of Baxter Park. Paradise.

The book will include a history of our state’s sporting camps, an inventory of the camps available today, and stories from and about my favorite camps. At least three dozen camps will be profiled in the book.

Linda and I plan to visit some camps (and yes, what a great excuse to do that!), and will write about them in our weekly travel column, which you can access at www.georgesmithmaine.com. I also hope to drag along a few hunting and fishing buddies to engage in those activities at sporting camps during the spring, summer, and fall. Fun!

If you have a favorite sporting camp, let me know! And please tell me why. Your own stories about time spent at your favorite sporting camp are also welcomed. You can reach me by email at georgesmithmaine@gmail.com or by mail at 34 Blake Hill Road, Mount Vernon, Me 04352. Thanks!

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.