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Outside Magazine
Summer Planner 1999
Editors' Top Ten
For a High Action-to-Dollar Ratio, Try These Weeklong Family Trips - Bradford Camps, Maine
Any parent who has priced a package to Disney World knows that kid-oriented vacations don't come cheap. There is hope, however, for moms and dads on the verge of raiding the college fund for a week's worth of family fun.
A hundred and eight years ago, Maine's Bradford Camps was established as a fishing and hunting retreat for stiff-whiskered outdoor types. Today, the cluster of eight rustic cabins and a main lodge ten miles north of Baxter State Park is still catering to the same rugged clientele - except now they bring their wives and kids. The only resort on the piney shore of 1,500-acre Lake Munsungan, Bradford Camps provides a week of nonstop fun for kids who have yet to figure out the art of porch sitting. Smack in the middle of three million acres of the north Maine woods, the hiking options are everywhere you look, a favorite being a bushwhack up to Munsungan Ridge, 500 feet above the lodge. Besides swimming, the lake is good for canoeing as well as fishing for landlocked salmon and brookies. At night, kids kids gather around the campfire to roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories.
Accommodations are in log cabins that contain single and double beds and full baths, with daily cleaning service. The meals are abundant - turkey with stuffing, fresh vegetables from the garden, rhubarb pie - and served family style in the main lodge. A full week for a family of four for July and August costs $1,500. For more information call 207-439-6364 before May 1 or 207-746-7777 after May 1.