What is a Maine Sporting Camp?

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“I suggest that you go to a sporting camp,” Charlene, a Maine native, said to me as I was getting advice on what to do on my trip to Maine. “Okay….” I said with a little hesitation wondering to myself if I should know what a sporting camp was. Was it a place to play baseball and volleyball? Or maybe a kid’s camp in the woods? Oh lord…I hope it’s not a kids’ camp in the woods!

I love being exposed to new cultures in my own country. This was my first trip to Maine and I found myself being surprised and delighted by little Maine ‘oddities’ that I knew nothing about. Sporting Camps was just the beginning.

So you might be wondering, what exactly is a Sporting Camp?

A sporting camp is your gateway to the wilderness, and they’ve been a part of the Maine outdoor culture since the mid-1800s. Wealthy “sports” from New York, Philadelphia, and Boston rode the then ‘new’ train from Boston and made the arduous multi-day trek to the Maine woods in pursuit of rustic lakeside views, geeking out to the latest rifle attachments and opinionated thermal scope reviews and ‘manly’ hunting and gathering activities. It really was an escape from the big, stressful city life. The camps (otherwise known as cabins) typically had wood stoves, oil lamps, big porches, a ‘camp dog’, lake views, and a campfire. And there is typically one larger communal cabin where everyone eats home-cooked, meat-heavy meals.

Most of these camps were family-owned and ‘handed down’ through generations. Libby Camps, where I stayed, was celebrating their 125th year of family business!

Take this 8-day road trip to see and experience parts of Maine most people don’t take the time to see