Hastings Campground
- otomola
- Jun 23, 2025
- 4 min read
June 18-22, 2025
On Thursday, June 18, I drove around 80 miles to Hastings Campground in White Mountain National Forest in Maine. Hastings is located near the town of Gilead, Maine. Gilead is located on Highway 2 about halfway between Gorham, New Hampshire and Bethel, Maine. Highway 113 (Evans Notch Road) runs north from Gilead. The campground is around three miles up the road, and it is another five miles to the Notch with nice views to the south. It is not a steep climb, rising around 700 feet over the eight miles. The road is newly paved, too! The smooth surface makes for a great feel on the bike.
Hastings has about thirty campsites. It is a simple campground in the middle of the forest. It does not have any hookups for electricity or water. There is one water source for campers, a hand pump that brings up cool water from some depth. It takes about 10 pumps pulling a three foot arm up, then pushing it down, before water starts to flow. It is a bit of a workout, too! It is not the most efficient means, as one must use one arm to pump and the other to hold the water container, and the way water flows out of the faucet, as much water misses the opening to a bottle as does enter it. It’s a little comical on one hand, but also, it’s a problem for some people. There was a woman trying to pump and hold a one gallon bottle, and she was having a very difficult time, as it also requires positioning that can strain ones back, too. I came along at the right time so I could work the pump handle while she held the bottle with both hands.
The Wild River flows adjacent to Evans Notch Road. I have never seen it too wild in the summer when I was here, but I am sure it has times when much more water flows along it's way, as there is a great deal of exposed rock and boulders along its path. There are many good swimming holes along the river, very popular on hot days.
I did three bike rides from Hastings, one up to Evans Notch and back to Highway 2 (30 miles round trip), one to Sunday River Ski Area (50 miles round trip), and one to Bethel and back 35 miles round trip.) It was good riding, nice roads, and not much traffic.
There was a guy named John camping adjacent to me. He went for a long bike ride during the day Friday. I took the day off, as it looked like rain and rain was in the forecast. I was glad it did not rain, because John was gone for around five hours. He took a long ride. He was joined by his wife Jessie on Friday night. They went hiking with their dog (Augie) and told me about some great trails in the area. They were nice people. Augie was very friendly, too.
John asked about my camper and the type of travel I did, wondering how much of the time I was traveling. I described my travels, and I told him I was going to do something new in the fall this year. I am going to be a camp host in Death Valley for three months beginning mid-October. He then told me he worked for the US Forest Service as the coordinator for volunteers. I found that very interesting.
There was another guy (Paul) with a dog (Mona) a few sites away from me. They had an interesting setup. He had a mountain bike with a trailer, and the two of them would go off on long rides, several hours at a time. The setup is good for roads and dirt trails, a rugged kind of adventure. Paul had a special pair of googles set up for Mona. They were quite a sight as he pedaled away with 65 pound Mona enjoying the wind on her face. Mona liked to bark at any commotion going by her campsite, but she was very friendly up close.
I noticed something here at Hastings that I had never noticed before. Campers were parking their cars in such a way that it shielded any view of their campsite. This was the case at four campsites. It seemed to be a privacy thing. They had to maneuver the car or truck across the driveway, perpendicular to it, to create the effect. Combining the vehicles and the trees around the sites did a good job of “hiding” them. At a fifth campsite, the campers had strung up a large grey tarp that shielded any view of the picnic table and campfire ring. That particular site had people who were yelling at their dog frequently, using language that was simply foul. I noticed this just walking by the site several times on my evening walks, and I was glad I was not camped withing earshot at my campsite.
The same camp host was here as last year when I was here. His name is Ken. He’s a retired ice cream guy. He and his wife ran an ice cream shop for twenty-six years. They had three stores of their own and he made ice cream for about ten other places. He said he made about 100 gallons of ice cream per day, seven days a week, over ten hours each day. He seemed happy with it.
I had a nice time here. This is my fourth year camping here in the summer. There are a lot of trails, but I opted for less walking due to my heel. It bothered me again a little on my first day here. I believe this was the result of doing the hike at Franconia. I iced the heel after my ride the first day, took ibuprofen, and it did not bother me the other days I was here. I left to go to Dolly Copp on Monday, June 23.
One more thing: as has been the case in my other visits here, it was a very buggy experience. Black flies and mosquitos.
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