Hosted by Mark Koep the Campground Views podcast brings camping to you with stories, destinations, people and adventures about the outdoors and travel.
Episode 3 discusses the nature of RVing and how not planning can be more effective than not. We then explore Loons Haven Family Campground Maine located on a super clear fresh water lake. (https://www.loonshaven.com/) A scenic summer location sites are available along the pristine lake called Tricky Pond.
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Transcript
Speaker 1:
Hello and welcome. My name is Mark Koep and this is podcast number three of the campground views podcast series. Our goal with these shows is to help you engage, discover and learn more about camping and RV camping. We believe that camping is the most amazing thing that you can potentially do in the United States because it allows you to explore the outdoors, explore this great country and reconnect with family and friends. Our entire mission is to make camping amazing and we’re constantly working to do just that. So in these podcasts you’ll find that we do interviews, conversations and specials. Today we’re going to take you to Maine.
Speaker 1:
We’re going to learn about a unique campground and RV park located on a beautiful Lake near the ocean and near all the great things that Maine has offer. And we’ll have that conversation a little bit. That. Meantime, let me share a little story with ya. Last two episodes. I talked a lot about our first days of traveling and the reason we travel, again, my wife and I are full time RV years. We’ve been doing it for almost 11 years. Travel in this country. You’ve been around the country as we say twice. We’ve been all of the lower 48 States. I’m the only States. We have not visited our Alaska and Hawaii. And I know Alaska is a big camping destination, but there’s some strategic reasons why we’ve not RV to that location yet. And primarily being what you’re viewing us on internet. I need bandwidth in order to do my job and traveling through Canada, up into Alaska.
Speaker 1:
You get a lot of dead spots out there, so it ends up being more of a vacation then work and you know, summer times really our busy time. So that’s the reason why we haven’t gone to Alaska, but it’s definitely one of those places we want to go. But as our veers and as explorers, as adventurers, as entrepreneurs, one of the big things we’ve learned, and that’s become really ingrained in our opinions and our actions is the concept of planning and expectations. So when we first started RVing, we came from an apartment in a suburban area where you had all the amenities and you had your set expectations and you had the ability to really plan out your days into a fulltime RV lifestyle where you’re really kind of have some plans, but you’re always have to be flexible. And the story I like to share with this is a story that happened a few years in.
Speaker 1:
So now we, we’d gone beyond the, the first year and a half, two years, and we were still young couple at that time. And not, not old yet, but you know, younger than we are now. And we wanted to start a family and we had this debate on whether or not we settle down rent a house or buy a house and start a family there or if we continue RV, you know, it was really a big decision. And we spoke to a lot of people and the advice we got and what we ended up going with was, well you can always start out a family in the rig and if it gets too hard, just stop. And so we did and our son was born seven years ago and once he hit about one, we were like, wow, we need to get him a bedroom.
Speaker 1:
You know, he’s, he needs to have his own place. And at the time we were in a 38 foot fifth wheel, really nice, a Keystone challenger unit. We love that thing. But it didn’t have a bedroom for him. We just had our own bedroom and we had a crib up there for him. And so we started looking around for these toy haulers cause we figured we would take the toy hauler space, turn that into a secondary bedroom and then I can have an office area. And you know, that was the vision and started looking around for units in a toy haulers are pretty price either generally pretty heavy. And they’re J they’re generally designed for storing, you know, equipment in the back, right, motorcycles, side-by-sides, that type of stuff. So they don’t have the slide outs. It gives you the extra space. And so really we were struggling trying to find a good unit.
Speaker 1:
We weren’t really finding a good unit. Anyways, I happened to be browsing around Craigslist and we were in Arizona at the time and I came across as really bad Craigslist ad and it said 44 foot fifth wheel with two bedrooms. I was like, well, what is, you know, I needed it. Had the brand name never heard of it. And I said, Hey, let’s, let’s go check this out. So I called, made an appointment, we went in and looked at the unit and as we came around the corner, we saw the fifth wheel that we’re in right now and said, wow, the thing is absolutely perfect, but here’s the catch. We’re full time RV here. So if you have a house and you go buy an RV, you can easily park that RV on the side yard as you get ready to go. Or, you know, you put it in storage or whatnot.
Speaker 1:
This is our home. So we have to move out of one of our homes into the other home, right? So we have to move out of one RV and the other RV and then we have the problem where at any one point in time there we have two RVs, where do we put them? How do we handle that? You know, it actually creates a real dilemma as a fulltime RV or how do you go about doing this? And so it was a really big challenge and we’re trying to plan this all out and it was, you know, really think through the process. Anyways, so we’re talking to the couple that were buying this that we bought this unit from and we ended up negotiating a price right there and, and I’m agreeing to buy the unit and something came up, you know, we are worried about where we’re going to store this.
Speaker 1:
And he said, well, you know, we’re willing to sell it to you, but, but is there a right if we stay in it through the next month as we get ready to go back to our house? And we Catarina and I looked at these each other and said, yeah, that sounds great. You know, cause it, it gave us a month of, of what do we do now? Right. And so then we’re driving home trying to figure out what’s going to happen next. And you know, a few days go by and we’re still not figuring out what’s gonna happen. And all of a sudden my phone rings and this gentleman with a heavy Wisconsin accent, and I forget his name. But we’ll make it up. It was Irene and an owl from Wisconsin. Do you still have that, that Keystone challenger that you had advertised on eBay a few months back?
Speaker 1:
Cause previously we thought about this problem we were deciding on debating on whether or not we should sell our RV in advance, move into an apartment in the flip over into an RV. And so for the heck of it, I’d thrown the RV up on eBay to see if there’s any takers and didn’t get anything. We’re now two, two weeks into trying to fit our two days into trying to figure out what we’re going to do now that we bought this other unit, how we’re gonna get rid of our Keystone challenge. And he says, Hey, I’m interested in buying your unit. I was like, site on scene. Are you going to come out and see? He’s like, no, I’ve got an uncle in Arizona. I’ll have him swing by. Check it out, make sure it is what it is. Are you still good with that price you were asking for?
Speaker 1:
And I was like, yeah, as you know, is that a fair price? He’s like, great price. We’ll take it if it, if it looks good, but the only catch is it’s cold up here in Wisconsin. I don’t want to come get it. So can you hold onto it for me for a month and then I’ll have somebody come pick it up. Yeah, sounds good. And so that is exactly the story that happens. So we sold our unit, bought this other one we moved our Keystone challenger in right next door to the new unit and literally pull them door to door like this. And we just carried our, our stuff across into the other unit. Got the Keystone challenger cleaned out five days later, delivery truck pulled up, backed up to it, hooked it up and took it away. And there we were with our new RV.
Speaker 1:
The big lesson we learned from all that, and it’s something that we’ve carried through, is we don’t try to drive a lot of our expectations in Jordan decisions. We know that fate, karma, religion, faith will guide us through where we need to be. So instead of trying to force ourselves in our decisions and our needs onto a situation, we simply put out what we’d like to see happen and then go with the flow. So maybe when you’re on your next RV and tripping and stuff isn’t going your way, maybe you can just take a step back and say, maybe it’s not going our way for a reason. Let’s just see where stuff is leading us and go along on that journey. Instead, maybe you have more fun, maybe you might just discover your next amazing RV, amazing RV adventure. And to that, let’s jump over to this interview. The covers and RV park in Maine and unique location. I hope you enjoy it. They have got Billy McNamara with me from loons Haven campground belly. Thanks for joining us here today. Thank you, Mark. Okay, so loons Haven campground, is that for a bunch of crazy people or what is it?
Speaker 2:
I think so. I think our seasonals would agree with that. We are loons Haven because here on tricky pond we have a lot of loons. Like they, they are protected here. We have babies every year. You can see on our website, I have awesome pictures of the loons that are out there. So, but I guess you could go with
Speaker 1:
Canada up in Maine. So you’re open seasonally, correct?
Speaker 2:
Yes. May 15th through October 15th.
Speaker 1:
And how many sites do you have and you know, why do people want to come here?
Speaker 2:
So we have 150 fours sites here. Most of them are seasonal sites because people are here. They love the pond. They want to be here. The campground actually opened in 1961 so some of these seasonals that have been here, they’ve been here since the campground opened or they’ve passed it down to their families. People want to come here because tricky pond is actually considered one of the cleanest bodies of water in the state of Maine. It’s spring fed from the mountains. Crystal clear. We are in the Sebago lakes, but we are on tricky Palm where the only campground entre coupon. So we just us and a few private residences. It’s very quiet. It’s about 450 acres, 60 feet deep in the middle. You can go out to the middle and you can see straight down. That’s how clear the water is really.
Speaker 2:
And they stock it with fish. They don’t, I don’t think they have to. I don’t think they have to. Cause again, it’s just us and a few private people. But fishing is abundant here. People love to come here and fish. So are you, do you draw a lot of folks that are mostly locals or do you get folks from out of the area also? You know, we actually get both. We we get people from Maine because Maine is such a diverse state. We have everything here. We’ve got the ocean we’ve got the mountains, we’ve got the woods. And where we are is actually considered a Lake region. So we’re, you know, a little bit of ways from the, the ocean front, but it’s just a different thing. You can drive half an hour in Maine and be in a whole different environment. So yeah, you’re definitely an hour away from Portland and I haven’t seen Mount Washington here on a map and you’re not far away from there if this thing on just about an hour from that. And you know, I actually have that sticker on the front of our, of our big fifth wheel. It says I climbed Mount Washington.
Speaker 2:
So this area main or you’re open when you open up May 15th, we opened May 15th and then you’re open through October, October 15th. Yes. What is the absolute best time to come to me? So the best time I think to come to Maine is either between the middle to end of June and then from middle of July to August, because that time in June the bugs are gone and it’s still, you still have those really nice brisk mornings, you know, nice evenings. And then in July we have maybe about two weeks of really hot weather and then it gets beautiful again. So here’s the, so you’re from Maine, right? I am from Maine, yeah. Okay. So what’s really hot weather to you? Oh, okay. So I’m from Maine, but I did spend part of my life in the South. So if I understand what hot weather is, we did get up to a hundreds last year, last July, but it was only for about two days. So that’s legitimately hot. Okay. So again, it gets warm there a little bit, but it’s still gets cool. Call me evenings. Beautiful area. So folks who are planning a trip for this summer you say you’re a lot of seasonal guests there, but I imagine you have some short term sites also. When should they start booking? They should start booking now. So we open up rates actually May 15th for the next year. So this May 15th we’ll be opening for 2021. So you know, get those bookings in because our premium waterfalls front sights was where I’m sitting. Right.
Speaker 2:
So you are right on the edge of the water. It’s, it’s a great site to be. So all of our transient sites, our visitors sites are right here on the water’s edge and people like their sites. So you need to get booking now you do, you have a a boat launch. We don’t have a boat launch here. It’s about half a mile down the road, the public boat lunch. But we do have three boat slips here so you can bring your boat, keep it here, go out, enjoy the,
Speaker 1:
Okay, perfect. And it looks like you have a fish. A beach available would be a good location. What you got? You got a link here on your website of things to do in the area and why would somebody want to come to your park and what’s going to draw them in in order to come stay at the location.
Speaker 2:
So you know, again with this area of Maine, we are very close to Portland so we’re close to that water. We’re close to all those amenities that Portland has. But we have hiking trails. A, here you go a little bit Northern Maine where we have the mountains to view we have events. Our little town in Naples here actually has quite a few events. It’s, yeah, you can see it there.
Speaker 2:
Right on the Causeway there we have the Songa river queen, which is an old steam boat, which is really neat. You can take a ride on that. It’s just, I think it’s a song go. S O N G O river. Queen river queen. Okay. Yup. And so it’s right down there. We’re a mile off the Causeway. So there’s a little restaurants. There you go see, nice picture of it. Go out. They have sunset cruises. They have, you know, day cruises really beautiful. And it’s been here for a long time. I have pictures of me when I was a kid on the Sanga river queen. So I mean, it’s up to you if you want to come here and stay on your camp site and just enjoy tricky pond and not talk to anyone, you can do that. There’s plenty of room here. All of our sites are wooded. There’s trees between the sites are, if you want to go and try out the different restaurants that are in the area in Portland, it’s an easy drive.
Speaker 1:
So I notice there’s a state park nearby. Savago Lake state park. What, what’s the draw to those States? The state park there?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So Sebago Lake state parks, the bagel Lake actually feeds all of the water for Portland. It is ginormous, as you can see on your map there. It is a very, very big very big Lake. So the state park has trails. They have camping there as well. You know, we’re not the only, that’s the good thing too about us is we’re not the only camp run around. There’s some amazing campgrounds that are near us and they have awesome amenities too. So Sebago Lake, you can go out there, you can go fishing on Sebago Lake and boating, swimming, and it’s two miles down the road from us.
Speaker 1:
That’s amazing. How has cycling around area the good bike trails around there?
Speaker 2:
There’s not bike trails here. There are at Sebago Lake, we don’t have any bike trails where we’re at, but you can go down to Sebago Lake and get on trails through there, through the state park.
Speaker 1:
And it’s a heavily wooded forest, that area. Look at that. So I imagine the fall colors, I mean we’re, we’re kind of getting a look at it right now, but those fall colors must really pop around that area.
Speaker 2:
Oh yes. It is beautiful. And that’s another good time to come. You know, if you, if you like that fall camping and come and see, Mmm. You know, the foliage, this is the place to be.
Speaker 1:
And how far are you from Acadia national park?
Speaker 2:
It’s a, it’s a little bit of a drive from Acadia, but Mmm.
Speaker 1:
Well on the way though, I know this area is like a stopover spot. If you’re heading North to go to Acadia too. So it’d be a good spot. And especially for you to go to New Hampshire or Vermont and the green mountains and so forth and be a great stopover spot.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. See I think that would be great cause if you came up and you went to Acadia first, you could cut across the state, stay with us, go through New Hampshire, go through Vermont and back down. You know, kind of get the different views of Maine that I was talking about with the, you know, you’ve got the Sandy beaches down in old orchard, you’ve got the Rocky coast summit Acadia, and then you can come over to us and have the Lake region and the woods and the mountains.
Speaker 1:
So what are your rates at? What’s the nightly rate for somebody staying through?
Speaker 2:
So our rates varied because we do have a few different types of sites. So we have these waterfront sites that like where I’m sitting at now. And then we have, you know, wooded sites that are in the back. They range between 41 up to $80 a night during the busy time during the holidays
Speaker 1:
And your holidays. Do they do fireworks over the Lake at all?
Speaker 2:
They do. They don’t do them here, but they do them down on the Causeway. So you can just take the trip down to the Causeway and see the fireworks down there. They have a big 4th of July festival down.
Speaker 1:
Oh, and you’ve got some glamping tents along the water also?
Speaker 2:
We do. We have two glamping tents. So we actually added we had one glamping tent and one rental cabin last year. We added a glamping tent and a rental cabin this year. So they’re right on the edge of the water. They have all the amenities, they even have air conditioning in them. So, and then our cabins have all the amenities, bathroom, kitchen, everything. You just bring your toiletries and your clothes and you’re good to go.
Speaker 1:
Very cool. So if you’re looking for a great spot to go on Maine, it’s loons Haven family campground located is a, is a city actually Naples, is that what your address is? Yes. Where Naples, Naples, you can get more information@loonshaven.com Billy, thank you for bringing us in, inviting us to your part.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much, Mark.
Speaker 1:
So that seems like a fun spot up, a main moon Lake campground and RV park. And if you’re looking to stay, do you reach out to them? Let them know you saw, saw them here on this interview on this podcast, and we look forward to sharing more of these with you. If you’re enjoying these episodes, please give us a thumbs up and a nice comment. If you’re not enjoying the episodes, give us a thumbs up in some useful feedback so we can just and make them better. My name is Mark [inaudible], our company’s campground views.com and I’m hoping you have some safe and happy travels.
