When you tramp the woods looking for deer, moose, bear or wild birds...does the smell of the outdoors, the wind in the pines, and the freedom to roam make you think could you do this for a living?  You could. Not just guiding hunters, helping anglers find the fish in your new home in Maine either.  Many have come to Maine for years on sport outings..to snowsled, hunt, fish and to tour the outdoors with all terrain vehicles.  You could buy a job...and turn in your badge at your present company out of state.  Start looking at sporting web sites..and think not just going after hunters and fisherman.  Think families that want to rent a real log cabin in the woods..next to a lake, or on a river. Think the couple visiting the area for reunion, wedding or on vacation that would rather be in a cabin than in a motel room. Consider a writer or painter looking for a quiet place to get inspiration.  There is a place in Northern Maine called Bible Point where President Teddy Roosevelt used to daily spend time with his creator while on hunting vacations south of Island Falls.  He sat on a stump in the wild reading his bible at sunset before the big hunt. Bow hunters, fly fishermen...specialty fishing and hunting groups.  Cross country skiing, hiking, mountain biking, foliage tours, white water rafting, kayaking, photography, bird watching, big game, small game, women only trips, executive retreats, church retreats, therapeutic weeks for cancer survivors, outward bound trips.. Or how about family vacations, youth weeks..with a good marketing plan, a killer website, and a spot that folks come to every year and tell their friends. Yes...you could start a sporting camp.  This country has sooooo much disposal income, and recreation is something needed desperately the harder folks work.  You provide a service that is needed.  Sooo....now that you are more than thinking about how great it would be when you find yourself in a stressful situation or stuck in traffic...let's start developing the plan.  Let's do it! Define the scope of your new enterprise as a sporting camp...what groups you target and that you share a passion for to be their guide and get paid for it.  Even get tips!

     Next, you need a spot...100 acres on a river could work..build a main log lodge from a Maine log company.  An extra rental cabin a year gets built..slowly so you have no giant overhead of debt service to make your new job like your old one that you ran away from. Build a shower room in your walk in lodge cellar...no running water in cabin if you want that rustic crowd...you decide the audience you are after.  Ring the dinner bell when it is time to eat. You now seem more relaxed, you share the knowledge of the area with your guests. You and your wife or girlfriend make some super dinner dishes from old family recipes too..with vegtables from your own garden and local meat.  Heck you even serve fiddle heads  (what's a fiddlehead..that's another blog). You sit on the open porch at night with guests helping them plan the next day after a big meal was just served that they continue to rave about.  Depending on your audience, it may be that they want you to just outline tomorrow for them to hike say Baxter State Park...pointing out a good rigorous climb for their abilities, age and group dynamics. You may pack them a lunch after the gut busting breakfast you lay on them and point them with a detailed map in the direction they need to go knowing you will not see them again until sundown for a New England boiled dinner.  Or you guide them during the winter on snowsled journeys pointing out frozen waterfalls, deer tracks, and sunsets from a mountain top during a break off the machine your rented them.  Or drop them off with a bus ride to the start of that white water rafting trip..complete with a BBQ chicken feed with homemade potato salad, native corn on the cob and other morsels served where you eddy out right on the river after a few set of exciting rapids to build that appetite. Starting to think you could develop a routine running a lodge?  Instead of the river acreage, maybe a spot on a lake, or on a farm where guests can ride horses, help shovel manure and even pitch hay and water  the animals as part of the experience. You offer what families want.. an unforgetable  vacation complete with pictures you take with everyone happy and laughing.  You provided a break from the hectic pace of life and stress they go back to next week. You will see them again year after year.  You are their friend in Maine with directions to the fun places, and owner of the facility they feel is their second home. Heck...run a summer camp where the rich parents gladly ship the children to your care for the whole summer.  Set up shop near a ski area, golf course or a series of lakes...there is your entertainment.  Your lodge could also be a school of various type..the sky is the limit. Maine is "vacationland"...it's on the license plate on the wall next to Mr Maine Black Bear above. Let's talk about starting a sporting camp...and to develop a budget for the game plan.  Live your dream. Make money, have fun doing it while you are able.  Create memories for yourself and others instead of staying a prisoner on business arrest in your present 8x10 cubicle called work.  Your new Maine office will be 300,000 acres of nothing but miles and miles of woods, scenery and unspoiled waterways to explore.  The time is right..make the call or plan your trip.