In 2016, almost 14% of the US population went on at least one camping trip during the year. Half of these current campers were exposed to camping as adolescents and the average age of a first time camper is 10 years old. There are a lot of fun facts in the 2017 American Camper Report. The 14% recently came up in an economic impact study presentation, which then led some late night googling. If you’re ever bored, here are some fun camping stats, especially regarding costs.

Camping numbers have been steady for years. In fact, there’s been a slight increase from previous years. Some positive headlines should read, “Millennials haven’t killed everything!”.

Like anything we enjoy, things come in and out of our lives. Just because we love to do something now or we used to do it as a child, doesn’t mean it fits in our lives at the current moment. We took Eloise on four camping trips at various Maine state parks last year. We have another four planned this year and four next year. We know that probably won’t always be the case, but at this time we’ve made a conscious effort to be a part of that 14%.

For the first camping trip of the year we visited Lamoine State Park. Like mentioned in other posts, it’s sometimes better to stay closer to the coast early in the season because of mosquitoes. The temperatures can be colder, especially with the wind near the water, but we would rather bundle up than battle black fly season. We had a very dry late spring/early summer and because of that it appears the bugs have had a later than normal start, so that had us concerned a little before the trip. As a backup, and now we swear by it, a family member suggested purchasing a Thermacell because he uses it while hunting and it has helped a lot. We scooped one up and utilized it all weekend. Black flies weren’t the issue here but with the temps and some rain, the mosquitoes were out in force at times and this little thing worked like black magic. We’ll be bringing this on every camping trip!

Seeing our campsite for the first time is always a funny feeling. We look at the blank canvas and say, “how is this going to work?”. That’s how we felt when we rolled up to site #62. We picked it because it was guarded by trees to cut off the wind from the water, but we still had water views through the trees.

There were some cons to the site and it’s sometimes hard to look past them before we set everything up, but fast forward two days and we couldn’t imagine being anywhere else in the park. It’s a lot like buying a home and walking in with it completely empty. It’s hard to envision what it should look like and then before you know it, you can’t imagine anything else. We setup everything to our liking and it was home sweet home.

Let’s just address the elephant in the room…camping with a toddler is A LOT different than camping with a baby. It’s a ton more work, but guess what? It’s a ton more fun! One major issue we wanted to address was the fire pit. Eloise, like most kids her age, is touching, grabbing, throwing everything in sight. So, we did some research and decided the best way to go about this was to put up a portable dog pen around the pit. It was the MVP of the weekend! It was a close race between this and the Thermacell, but the “ring of prolonged life” came out ahead. The wire coating never got hot, even when the fire was raging at night, and most importantly it kept Eloise at a safe distance at all times. We had intended to take it down after she went to sleep at night but it wasn’t much visual barrier and didn’t take away the feeling of sitting around a fire, so we left it up all weekend.

 

Back to the park, Lamoine has quite the history and boy did it live up to it. If you’ve camped in Bar Harbor in the past, our recommendation would be to forgo your next trip there, bare left in Ellsworth and head to Lamoine. A lot like Cobscook State Park, most campers were from in state. You get some of what makes the area so popular, but without the crowds, and it’s only a 30 minute drive to Bar Harbor for those day visits.

There are 62 sites in the park and a day use area as well. We hiked, walked, strolled and wagoned every inch of the roads and trails throughout the park over the weekend.

There is a perfect 1 mile loop trail that wraps around the whole park.

One of the highlights is the park Treehouse! Yes, this place has a huge treehouse and the three of us loved it!

The only time we left the park all weekend was when we were trying to get the little monster to sleep at night and gave into driving her around. This caused us to stumble/drive onto the incredible nearby Marlboro beach. Lamoine beach is great as well and just a mile or so down the road from the park.

This trip marks state park visit #13 and #5 for camping, but what will make this trip so memorable will be the timing. It wasn’t just that it was Father’s Day weekend, but rather because each of us needed this getaway as a break from our weekly routines. It felt great leaving the city for a few days. Something we all needed.

Going back to work after a weekend like this was easy because it refreshed the screen, hit the reset button; use whatever analogy you want. A weekend away at Lamoine State Park shook up the monotony and we needed it more than ever since the start of our state park mission a year and six months ago.

So to recap Lamoine: You’re camping on the ocean, there’s a beach, killer playground, trails, a treehouse, the rangers are great and there are lots of other families doing the same thing as you. It was the most family friendly weekend of them all so far. To send things even more over the top, you can order lobster from a nearby business (cooked) and delivered right to your campsite! We didn’t take advantage of this because we had shopped and had dinners already planned for the weekend, but come on, that’s genius.

There were some firsts on this trip that made it more challenging than the others because Eloise isn’t a baby anymore. Like not being able to breastfeed to soothe a cranky or tired kid. We heard other kiddos crying at times, so it wasn’t a big deal. Getting a kid who constantly fights sleep to fall asleep took some trial and error. Set up and take down took longer because one of us had to be on toddler duty the whole time. With that said, every rock, stick, shell, crab, bird, and caterpillar was the biggest deal in the world. This 23 lb. badger made us reconnect and see things that we’ve overlooked for a long time. It was the definition of slowing down and enjoying each moment. She did take the longest nap since she was an infant over the weekend, she ate more than usual, enjoyed her bedtime books with a million $ view and even though she’s normally a happy kid…the smiles and laughs tripled. Home girl was in her element.

A weekend outdoors was what the doctor ordered for us all and we couldn’t have asked for a better host than Lamoine State Park. We give it 9 Rubies! Not a perfect ten but awfully close. With less than a 3-hour drive from our home, it will certainly be a place we reconnect with in the future. Oh, and next time, lobsters for everyone! Bar Harbor is wonderful of course but try not to have tunnel vision because there’s lots of quiet beauty around it. Lastly, to our dads and all the dads reading this, Happy Belated Father’s Day!

We took so many photos on this trip so we made a slide show instead of posting them all below. Enjoy!