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Photo: Jennifer Tzar
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Maine Attraction: Three of the State's Best Lakes
Forget about the ocean. The lakes are where you'll
find the real Maine. Here, an essential guide to three of the state's best
By Jessica Dineen
Here's how it will go: You'll say to a friend, 'We're taking a vacation in Maine.' Before
you can continue, you'll be interrupted by a barrage of talk about lobstermen and salt-sprayed air and a B&B
on a cliff. When, at long last, you get a chance to interject that you're going to inland Maine, you'll
be met with skeptically raised eyebrows. This will happen every time you tell someone you're planning a trip to
the Maine lakes.
But I—daughter of Mainers—am here to tell you that this indignity is the price you pay for
joining the elite. By the end of your stay, you'll have something in common with inlanders: disdain for conventional
ocean types. Dare I suggest the lakes are better? Let's just say it's a quieter, subtler, more sensuous experience—the
real Maine. This is where residents go to escape from overeager out-of-state vacationers, to take a break that
is, in keeping with Maine character, both understated and transcendent. There's nothing like walking on a lakeside
path cushioned with pine needles, miles from the nearest road, or canoeing after dark on still blackness that reflects
the Milky Way.
Tourism at the Maine lakes reached its heyday around the turn of the 20th century. Those
who felt that the coast was overrun by commoners traveled inland by ship and railroad to seek out the unspoiled
frontier. Grand resorts and rustic sporting camps soon sprang up. Most of the old resorts have long since burned
down or turned private. Meanwhile, many of the sporting camps—deep in the woods, with pine-log cabins and dining
halls adorned with furs and moose heads—are exactly as they always were.
The sheer number of lakes—5,785 at least an acre in size, 267 exceeding a square mile—fuels
an ongoing discussion as to which are "good" and which are "the best." A good lake is relatively
free of algae and has visibility of at least 10 feet. It has varied views, rather than a monotonous tree line,
and its shores are thinly developed, so that long stretches remain as they were a thousand years ago. Fish, ducks,
cormorants, and loons are thriving, and it is not unheard of to spot an eagle or a moose. The best lakes have all
of the above, secret swimming spots, and perhaps a sandy grove of pines by the water.
Like many Mainers, my parents grew up with family "camps" (Mainespeak for cottages)
on lakes. My father contended that both of these lakes were merely average—and in that healthy competitive spirit
made a successful search for one of the best locations for his young family: Kezar Lake. Back in the seventies,
the local gas station/store carried everything from live bait to videos of B horror films (Stephen King, who has
a summer house on Kezar, rented them daily). As a child, with missionary zeal I'd steer visitors to the place to
get an ice cream cone by boat, the restaurant with singing waiters, the well-hidden granite gorge. But the best
thing was the 10-mile-long lake itself, in the shadow of the White Mountains.
Later in life, I learned that each of Maine's lakes has its secret pleasures.
Here, the inside story on three of the best—Kezar, Rangeley, and Moosehead—and tips for venturing into the north
woods.
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