Having grown up in Maine, I am a sucker for camping. My standards are low and I’m content with a fire, tent, and sleeping bag to meet my needs. I’ve never been picky about the site and am happy just to be outdoors and smell the fire.

For my birthday, I wanted the perfect campground for my friends and me to spend a few days and have a good time which meant needing things to do with relatively lenient rules. My standards skyrocketed and I wanted the perfect site. We weren’t crazy about the idea of a family campground but where we ended up far exceeded our expectations.

Lake Pemaquid Campground

This campground was built for me. When the founders got together and erected this place, they had Meghan Morrison in mind. I didn’t really know what to expect so when I showed up and saw it for myself I was GIDDY.

I don’t even know where to begin…

We knew we wouldn’t have a lot of privacy and expected the site to be small but we had ample space for the group which included a giant school bus, multiple-person tent, mega grill, and a truck. I’m all about setting good vibes so we hung up tapestries, a hammock, and lights and created a quad at the quid - a closed-off space for our campsite that gave us privacy and our own little home on the lake.

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We were an extremely short walking distance to the main entrance with basketball courts, tennis courts, soccer field, a stage for live music, cornhole, and minigolf and in the other direction, we had a short walk to the general store, the bath and shower house, pool, jacuzzis, playground and zipline, the boat house, and the lake.

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The bathrooms were multi-stall and clean which was a major plus. I couldn’t tell you about the shower house because even though I was there multiple days I let the lake cleanse me, not a shower.

The general store had souvenirs, hot food, groceries, and booze. They even sold a bucket of Jell-O shots as if they knew it was my birthday.

A Weekend at Lake Pemaquid

The lake was perfectly clear and at the ideal temperature where it was refreshing but you could stay in for hours and not get cold. A floating dock a short distance from shore made for great cannonball competitions and we grabbed our koozies, put air in our floats at the boathouse, and floated around.

The boathouse has paddle boats, motor boats, kayaks, and canoes to rent but nothing that fit six people. The boathouse master, Terri, put us in contact with a local guy who owns a pontoon boat and he took us around the lake for a few hours and let us jump off, swim, and drink beer on the boat. Thanks, Dave Ross, that was epic.

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Mornings were spent making breakfast on the grill, whacking around a tennis ball, and breaking out a sweat at the basketball courts. Afternoons were spent floating, boating, and swimming. Nights were spent at the main stage rocking out to cover bands with the other campers.

Oh, and the best part? We got to bring our dog.

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Lake Pemaquid Campground is all my favorite things wrapped up in one beautiful place. Packing up camp after a few magical days off the grid was rough but we all agreed on one thing: We will be back.

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