Mid-July, the boat ramp in Wayne, Maine
June and July are the busy stretch around here. The pontoons came out of the building weeks back, and now that everybody’s had their boat in the water a few times the next question is always the same one. Where are you taking it.
If you’ve got a usual spot you probably already know what you’re doing this weekend. But the area around Livermore Falls has more decent pontoon water than people give it credit for, and trying a new lake once or twice a summer is usually worth the gas. Five worth knowing about, in no particular order, with the disclaimer that you’ll probably figure out which ones are our favorites by the time you finish reading.
Androscoggin Lake (Wayne and Leeds)
About 35 minutes south. If you’ve never really run a pontoon before and you’re a little nervous about it, this is where we’d send you. The lake is forgiving, the wind usually behaves itself until later in the afternoon, and it’s big enough to be interesting without being intimidating.
Launch is in Wayne village. Parking gets tight on July weekends so don’t show up at eleven and expect a spot. The lake runs about four miles, plenty of coves, depth is reasonable almost everywhere you’d want to be. The south end can get a little choppy in the afternoon if the wind picks up out of the north, so don’t dawdle on the way back if anyone in your group is the seasick type.
Webb Lake (Weld)
This is our favorite. Putting that out there now.
About an hour from us heading northwest. The lake sits at the foot of Mount Blue and Tumbledown, which means the view from the water is, depending on the light, somewhere between really nice and ridiculous. State park launch is in good shape. Parking is rarely a problem unless it’s a holiday.
Webb usually stays pretty calm, which makes it good for tubing and for anyone in your group who doesn’t love a rough ride. There’s almost no shade out in the middle, so bring something for your head and more sunscreen than you think you need. Sun off the water plus a breeze means you don’t always realize how much you’re cooking until you’re back at the truck wondering why your forehead hurts.
Wilson Lake (Wilton)
Twenty minutes from the shop, which is why you’ll probably end up there more than anywhere else when you actually want to go after work and not next Saturday. Wilson is small, and that’s the whole point of it. You can do a loop of the shoreline in under an hour. There’s not much room for high-speed traffic, so the water stays smooth enough that a pontoon is comfortable the whole way around.
Town launch on the east side. Paved, fine. The beach end gets families and the north end gets quieter, so you can take your pick. Sunsets on Wilson in June are real good and we will defend that opinion in front of anybody.
Parker Pond (Mount Vernon)
Forty-five minutes southeast. Smaller crowd than the Belgrade lakes a few miles over, which is most of the reason to drive out there in the first place. The launch is on the small side, so back in slow and don’t try to bring a second rig if you can help it. The lake itself is deep enough for a pontoon basically anywhere you’d want to go. Couple of islands that are nice to do a slow lap around. Fishing isn’t bad either, if somebody in your group wants to drop a line for an hour. Parker is the lake for the kind of day where you want to read a book on the water and not hear another motor. Even in August on a Saturday, it stays quiet.
Cobbosseecontee Lake (Manchester and Winthrop)
For a bigger-water day, Cobbossee is the answer. About an hour from us. Over nine miles of lake. You could spend a whole summer poking around it and still find coves you haven’t seen.
There are a few different launches. The one off Route 135 in Manchester is what we’d use with a trailer. Pontoons do well on Cobbossee because there’s enough room that things almost never feel cramped, and a few of the local spots have docking, so lunch or ice cream can be part of your trip if you want it to be.
One real warning. Wind. The open stretches can get noticeably rougher than people expect from an inland lake, and a pontoon is not the boat you want to be in when things turn on you. Check the forecast before you load up.
Before You Pull Out of the Driveway
A couple of things regardless of where you’re going.
Check your drain plug. We know. Just do it anyway. Every summer there’s at least one story.
The water can still be cold, especially in June. Maine lakes don’t really warm up until well into July, and even then it depends on the lake. An unexpected swim early in the season gets serious faster than most people think, so wear the life jacket even if you swim fine.
If it’s your first time on a lake you don’t know, go slow for the first half hour. Better to find out where the rocks are at five miles an hour than at twenty.
And if anything on your boat sounded a little off at the end of last season and you’ve been telling yourself you’ll deal with it later, this is later. Come see us in Livermore Falls.
