The Land Camping Area (Getty)
Unplug and get off the grid in the great Maine woods
The Land Camping Area is truly a quiet place on Earth. Located in the bullseye center of Maine, the campsite is deliberately unplugged. There’s no wifi, no cable, no streaming services. There are no dings and pings from phones and laptops. No honks and beeps from traffic. Just the sound of wind in the trees and the babbling of the Pleasant River as it makes its way across the terrain. If you’re quiet, you can hear the faint whistle of a train as it passes by.
Harriett and George Eddy wouldn’t have it any other way. Their 50 acres of pristine nature are located just outside the town of Brownville and is the only campsite around that’s truly wild. Life-long Mainers George and Harriett noticed a few For Sale signs for an overgrown farm in 2001. After prompting from a friend, George walked the land, contacted the realtor, “And the rest was history,” Harriett explains. “The first thing we purchased was a bush hog.”
With a chainsaw, a woodchipper, and a lot of help from friends, George, a logging contractor, started clearing the South end of the campground. Over the next three to five years, 30 acres were cleared into what is now nine one-acre lots featuring 3,000 feet of river frontage. About 600 campers will come to the Land Camping Area each year, bringing dollars to the local gas stations, stores, and outdoor music venues. Some stay for one night; some stay all summer. Some come prepared with their tents, campers and generators. Some have no idea what they’re doing. “We do see a few newbies. George will go down and help them build a fire,” Harriet chuckles. “You only have to go once, realize you forgot half your life, and you’ll never forget anything [when you go camping] again.”
The Eddys opted not to add electricity or running water to their property, and the people that come here do not mind. They are true-blue campers. They come equipped with tents and sleeping bags, or campers stocked for a long visit. For the price of your stay, the Eddys will provide you firewood and an area. They haven’t raised the prices significantly in over 10 years; they say they are committed to keeping this spot affordable for families, and children under 17 stay for free. They see many of the same faces year after year, some staying from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They say they’ve hosted family reunions and outdoor weddings set against the backdrop of the evergreen pine forest.
Unspoiled nature is still alive and well at the Land Camping Area. Trout season in the spring gives way to bass season in the summer. As the weather cools, the Atlantic salmon run all the way in from the ocean, up the river and right through the site. Fly fishermen will try their luck well into September. Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will even stop by a few times a year to check for salmon eggs as they track the health of the species. There’s a cabin on the property that stays open until mid-November to accommodate hunters. Turkey, deer, and moose hunting is a big deal in New England, especially in the great North Woods, the Eddys explained. There’s no hunting on the property itself, but the cabin provides a great place to rest and recreate. The Eddys have lost a few customers over the years because the cabin is not wired for cable, phone, or internet. But connectivity is off-brand for the Land Camping Area anyway.
People don’t come for creature comforts. They come for an authentic wilderness experience that’s accessible, for camping in Maine’s great North Woods less than a mile off Route 11. They come to canoe, kayak, and paddleboard on the Pleasant River. They come to hike Gulf Hagas, dubbed the Grand Canyon of Maine, and see amazing views from 2,000 feet at the top of the Borestone and White Cap Mountains. They want to commune with nature—they don’t mind when the family of turkeys who live on the property walks through their site or the occasional coyote howls at night. Junction Music Park is just across the river if they need a bit of civilization.
“The best part of the past 20 years has been meeting all the people. Especially the city people who are quite unsure of what’s happening,” says Harriet wistfully. “My hope for the future is to keep it just as it is now. It’s just solitude, relaxation, and wilderness.”
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