I really like hunting camps. One of my favorites is camp Pick ‘Em, located in Aroostook County, just south of the town of Oxbow.
A friend of mine and I usually go up for a few days of buck hunting every fall. The camp itself is very near Umcolcus Lake and wildlife is prevalent virtually everywhere in that area.
What makes this camp so special is its dacor and it’s charm. It was built somewhere around the late 1930s and still has it’s original cedar shingles. The inside has an old-fashioned hand water pump and a separate bunkroom.
The dinner table is an old style cedar picnic table, the walls a bound with old advertisements from the 40s and 50s with antique cookware hanging from nails in the kitchen area. The outhouse is located just south of the “deer pole” which usually has three or four “cockers” (big deer) hanging from it.
I liked the place so much; I tried to model my own camp after it. My little hunting hideaway is located in the remote section of Northwest River in Sebago.
My longtime hunting partner Don Blake and I teamed up on money, labor, and favors from friends and came up with “Poachers Paradise.” I stole the name from a camp I once saw in northern Maine. I’d like to call the inside dacor “Early American Deer Hunter.”
The inside walls are 10-inch v-match pine decorated with tin hunting advertisements from rifle manufacturers, cartridge companies and outdoor equipment. The exposed 16-inch support beams are decorated with deer racks we’ve taken in the past, like camp Pick ‘Em, it has a cedar picnic table in the middle.
We have really enjoyed the little camp and it’s many visitors that show up usually every Friday night to have a cold one and hash over hunting stories or the newest deer rifle that just came out.
The best part is the feeling when you walk through the door, the stress goes south, your spirits go north and there’s a smile on your face. If you can, get yourself a little hunting hideaway, it’s great!
Until next time,
Hutch
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