Rangeley: Practicalities

The Rangeley Inn on Main Street (tel 207/864-3341 or 1-800/MOMENTS, ; $100-130) stands between Rangeley Lake and the smaller bird sanctuary of Haley Pond, so you can stay right in town and have a room that backs onto a scene of utter tranquility; there's also a gorgeous old wooden dining room. Northwoods B&B on Main Street (tel 207/864-2440 or 1-800/295-4968; $100-130) is a good second choice. Otherwise, the Chamber of Commerce (see below), can provide lists of private home/condo rentals and remote campsites around the lake - which really are remote, several of them inaccessible by road. For food , try the People's Choice on Rte-4 (tel 207/864-5220), where the portions are huge and the desserts divine.

Twenty miles north of Rangeley, the peaceful Grant's Kennebago Camps beside Kennebago Lake (PO Box 786, Rangeley, ME 04970; tel 207/864-3608) arranges fishing, canoeing and windsurfing, with accommodation in comfortable cabins, including all meals, costing around $90 per person per day; there are lower weekly rates. A more accessible campground is Cathedral Pines (tel 207/246-3491), just north of Stratton on Eustis Road. At its entrance stands a memorial to Benedict Arnold's expedition to Québec in 1775, which passed this way, and to Colonel Timothy Bigelow, who climbed what is now Mount Bigelow in a - "vain endeavor to see the city of Québec."

Rangeley Lakes' Chamber of Commerce , down by Lakeside Park (tel 207/864-5364 or 1-800/MT-LAKES, ), has details of various activities, including snowmobiling and dawn moose-watching canoeing expeditions (tel 207/864-5136; $38). One really fun thing to do is to take a seaplane trip with the Mountain Air Service (tel 207/864-5307) - a fifteen-minute tour, flying low over vast forests and tiny lakes, costing $25 per person. Boat cruises are also available, and various outfits along Main Street rent out canoes and mountain bikes.

Rangeley

• Rangeley
• Practicalities

Maine cities


All U.S. city guides