★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Piscataquis County
Drive-up · public land · Piscataquis County, ME · 46.45150, -69.19279
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Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A nice camping area on the shore of Spider Lake in North Maine Woods. Nestled in a shady wooded area with road spur access to water. Spent two nights here, very peaceful. Rustic shelter, enough room for one or two vehicles, fire rings, picnic tables, no cell service. Outhouse. Lovely lake for kayaking. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 24 June 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Piscataquis County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 961 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Piscataquis CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Piscataquis County · public land · ME
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater5 mi
- GGrocery29 mi
- ShShower29 mi
- OOutfitter38 mi
- FFuel38 mi
- LLaundry38 mi
- MMechanic40 mi
- @Mail40 mi
- RxPharmacy40 mi
- +Urgent care40 mi
- HHardware48 mi
- EVEV fast charger60 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 29 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 60-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Dump, Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Piscataquis County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
961 ft
Ground slope
4.2% · gentle
County
Piscataquis County, ME
Coordinates
46.45150, -69.19279
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Piscataquis County · public land · ME (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSpider Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Leadbetter Pond (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~5.3 mi
- Fuelnone within 30 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~29.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Piscataquis County · public land · ME — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger60.0 mi straight-line SE — Tractor Supply Plaza, Millinocket, ME (at a shopping center) · JULE · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-11 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · none within 50 · 10 within 100 · 58 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO76.5 mi — DC CORRIDOR JACKMAN DC 1, Jackman
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)40.1 mi — Portage Lakeside Cabins (at a b and b) · ZEFNET · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-14 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast charger$1 connection fee + $0.51 per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 465683 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Piscataquis County · public land · ME — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomNorth vault toilet · ~29.3 mi SE · NPS
- RestroomEast Branch vault toilet · ~30.0 mi SE · NPS
Coming out here — Piscataquis County · public land · ME
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Spider Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 4.2% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Piscataquis County elsewhere
Other camps near Piscataquis County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
How we know this — Piscataquis County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Piscataquis County, ME). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 24 June 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Piscataquis County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Piscataquis County
Finding water out here →Dumping grey & black →Cold-weather camping →Off-grid communication →All field notes →