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Askus3
02-12-2003, 22:17
I am planning a hiking trip thru the 100 Mile Wilderness. I found a website for Lake Nahmakanta Camp ( www.nahmakanta.com ) . Does anybody know anything about this place? Has anyone had any good, bad or any experience with this facility? I hear alot about Whitehouse Landing and nothing about this lodging. Their website says it is close to the AT and caters to hikers. I place this camp at 13.2 miles north of Whitehouse Landing (Mahar Road) and then .7 mile east. It sounds nice. So what has anyone else heard? Price is not an issue but it sounds on par with Whitehouse Landing. Actually I plan on staying at both.

walkin' wally
02-23-2004, 11:28
Hi,

I am a trail maintainer in the Rainbow Lake area just north of Nahmakanta Lake in Maine. I met the people that are running the camps one day as they were working on their access road to the camps They seemed like very nice people.
In my biased opinion Nahmakanta is one of the prettiest lakes in Maine. It has sand beaches,is surrounded by mountains, and has several springs flowing into it. It was created by glaciers and is quite deep. It has a boulder strewn shore on the southeast side and an undammed outlet. The view from the summit of Nesuntabunt mountain on a clear day towards Katadin is unbelieveable.
The Nahmahkanta Lake Camps has a website and they might be able to answer your questions about lodging.
About two and one half miles northbound from the access road the camps is the Rainbow Stream lean-to with it's baseball bat floor. It has a nice stream right in front of the lean-to. About five and one half miles southbound from the access road is Wadleigh Stream ( sometimes no stream) lean-to.
Hope this helps.

Walkin' Wally :)

TJ aka Teej
02-24-2004, 13:52
I am planning a hiking trip thru the 100 Mile Wilderness. I found a website for Lake Nahmakanta Camp ( www.nahmakanta.com (http://www.nahmakanta.com/) ) . Does anybody know anything about this place? Has anyone had any good, bad or any experience with this facility? I hear alot about Whitehouse Landing and nothing about this lodging. Their website says it is close to the AT and caters to hikers. I place this camp at 13.2 miles north of Whitehouse Landing (Mahar Road) and then .7 mile east. It sounds nice. So what has anyone else heard? Price is not an issue but it sounds on par with Whitehouse Landing. Actually I plan on staying at both.Camps like Harrison's, Rainbow Lake, and Nahmakanta cater to families and sportsmen that book week long vacations. So does Whitehouse, but they also take drop-in overnight guests. Harrison's provides breakfast if you check in the night before. At $95 per/with a 2 person minimum, requiring advance reservations/deposits, and the probability that they have no drop-in vacancies, I don't list such sporting camps as accommodations in the ALDHA Companion. Harrison's and Whitehouse reach out to hikers, so they're listed. Let us know how your visit goes, Askus!

BethD
05-16-2004, 12:40
Hello! Please help me if you can. As one of 211 volunteers for the AT Photo Prject, www.atphotoproject.com (http://www.atphotoproject.com), I will be photographing the Nahmakanta Lake to Rainbow Stream Lean to section of the trail on May 30, 2004. I need to know how to get there, where to camp and what to bring. My dad maintains a section of the trail in Caratunk but neither of us is familiar with the section of trail that I will be photographing. The project web site says I have "road access" to the ends of my section. What exactly does that mean? Please e-mail me at [email protected] with whatever advice you can give me for this adventur on the AT. Thank you so much for your help!

Beth

Peaks
05-16-2004, 20:47
Beth,

Get out your Maine Gazetteer. Looks like road access is off the Jo Mary Road.

But there doesn't appear to be any road access on the Rainbow Lake end of things.

weary
05-16-2004, 21:22
I am planning a hiking trip thru the 100 Mile Wilderness. I found a website for Lake Nahmakanta Camp ( www.nahmakanta.com ) . Does anybody know anything about this place? Has anyone had any good, bad or any experience with this facility? I hear alot about Whitehouse Landing and nothing about this lodging. Their website says it is close to the AT and caters to hikers. I place this camp at 13.2 miles north of Whitehouse Landing (Mahar Road) and then .7 mile east. It sounds nice. So what has anyone else heard? Price is not an issue but it sounds on par with Whitehouse Landing. Actually I plan on staying at both.

DEspite the furor over the AMC fee for Little Lyford. the typical overnight fee plus meals in Maine for traditional sporting camps runs around
$100 a day. I assume Nahmakanta falls in that range. No one is getting rich in the sporting camp business, so I assume that is what it costs to operate during the very short season and still provide the owner with an income to survive the rest of the year.

Most hikers can't afford such a rate. Whitehouse is one that shaves the cost a bit for whatever business reasons. REgardless. As someone who has been involved in that section as a hiker, maintainer and overseer for years, I know of no reason not to stay at these places if you can afford to do so.

Weary

attroll
05-16-2004, 21:29
Beth

It is accessable off from Jo-Mary road. It is a long ways up thorugh Jo-Mary road which is a logging road. But well maintained. There should be a gate keeper at the gate house that weekend at the entrance of Jo-Mary road. They will be able to tell you how to get there. I have the section from Jo-Mary road to the road past Antlers campsite. So I will aslo be going in through Jo-Mary road the same day as you. I have some maps of the area here at the house that the gate house hands out. They are about the same as the Gazetteer but have some more details. But not much more. If you want to see them we can arrange to hook up somewhere.

ferryman
05-25-2004, 17:22
I am not too familiar on how to reach these camps, however I hiked thru that area in mid november with two thruhikers by the names of "Forts from Maine" and "O.D. Coyote" and his dog "Skocomchuck" in 1980. I can attest that Don and Angel are true outdoorspersons who have always lived off the beaten track and have been avid dog sled racing participants. I started guiding with Angel's brother, Bruce, on the Penobscot River in 1979 and the rafting outfit was based at Millinocket Lakes Camps/Big Moose Lodge which was a great family run business which catered to all types of outdoor folks. Namakanta is a genuine Maine jewel and the proprieters there are the best also and I know that if you make the effort to get there, it will well be worth your expierience. Steve Longley

Hammock Hanger
05-25-2004, 19:06
Hi,

Nahmakanta is one of the prettiest lakes in Maine. It has sand beaches,is surrounded by mountains, and has several springs flowing into it. Walkin' Wally :)

I remember a wonderful July afternoon skinny dipping here. Later that night I had a feast of mussles. We were suppose to head on up to the next shelter but the N--Lake was just too pretty to leave. Hammock Hanger

walkin' wally
05-25-2004, 19:25
A while back I tried to E-mail the folks at Nahmakanta Lake camps. I asked if they had any lodging or facilities for hikers. I did not get a reply but maybe they were busy getting ready for spring. I did meet Don Hibbs a while back and he seemed very pleasant.

BethD
06-17-2004, 13:24
:banana Sorry, had to use the banana before we boycot him from this site! I shot 123 photos on the trip and came here to get some copy for the 200 slot photo album I'm putting together of the trip. I still haven't chosen my top 10 pictures to submit for the project. I'm still unpacking from the trip. I hiked 8 miles from Pollywog Stream to the Lake camping area on Saturday then hiked the whole length of the 10.5 miles for the shoot on Sunday and then hiked 2 miles back out. I was toast. I'm a cyclist, not a hiker, but since I bike 50-75 miles on a tour, hiking 12.5 miles didn't sound bad. It wasn't until after the trip that people told me hiking 21 miles in two days is a lot. Thanks for all the help with information to make this a great trip!

Beth