Hi, all.

I'm a couple years out from retiring from the Army and my wife and I are putting together our thoughts on places to retire.  She's from Cape May, New Jersey and I'm an Army brat from "the world".  We sure as shit are not retiring to NJ and I have no roots to any geographic place in particular, so Maine came up in our discussion.

I am planning on working for at least 10 more years after my military retirement...doing what, I have no earthly idea.  I am a weapon system acquisition program manager, so something along those lines probably.

What I'm truly interested in are locations central or near the great outdoors.  Living here in SE Michigan, if you want to do *ANYTHING* outdoors, it usually involves a 4 to 5 hour drive.

As a family, we scuba dive, backpack, hunt, camp, ski, kayak, you name it.  It'd be nice to have those kinds of things within an hour or two drive.

What towns/cities would you recommend we look at?  We're planning on coming out this summer for a few weeks vacation, which would be a perfect opportunity to check places out.

What should we avoid?  How are the intangibles...like quality of life, schools for kids (we'll have two high schoolers by then), taxes, gun laws, density of massholes, etc?

I really appreciate the insights!  Looking forward to visiting your beautiful state again!

Brian

I am in Millinocket and just retired from the military myself. If you want outdoorsy kind of stuff and very very cheap homes, this is the place to be. Schools are great too.

I would look at NH also.

BAE and Raython have locations in NH

I'm in the downeast area.. no real good jobs unless ya hook up with the old navy base as a fire fighter or some kind of technical field running a 2 megawatt transmitter. There's a mill in Baileyville that has a few decent jobs as well as the marine terminal in Eastport
If ya need a place to hang out for a few days to check the area out drop me an IM & we'll swap some info..
Thanks for your service.
Will help a fellow arfcommer as best we can..

Thanks, fellas.

You might want to consider Bath Iron Works (BIW) as an employment option. It's mid-coast and handy to more urban aspects like shopping and dining. There is excellent duck hunting at Merrymeeting bay, and good deer not far.

Next thought is Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY), either as a Navy civilian or for one of the many contractors there. Much closer to Boston and the things that city folks like.

Third, There are scattered federal employment opportunities in the northern part of the state, Cutler Navy hires temporary tower workers every summer, and occasionally has full-time openings, but acquisition is not in demand here like it would be at BIW or PNSY. Also seasonal maintenance jobs at both Great Pond (Navy MWR) and the Rangeley SERE school exist, but not many full timers there.

Acadia National Park hires seasonal people, but not sure about working for NPS. Might work for some.

Private employers are always looking for laborer types, but office work might be hard to find right off.

Suggest you look at indeed.com and set up some searches that include the whole state, so you can get an idea of what's out there and where the most openings in your field are located.

Go to USAJOBS.com for the .gov job openings.

I can't think of anywhere in the state where you'd be more than a couple hours from a campground and hunting and fishing.  

Good Luck!! Eric

Move to Forest City, buy some grass cutting and plowing equipment and your hired.

There really are two Maines.

The well to do Maine which is mostly found on the coast from NH to about Belfast... and the other Maine...

Getting a good paying job 1.5 hours west of Portland can be a challenge... but they are there.  The good news is that home and land prices are cheap.

Also Maine has some good laws if you hunt and fish. 

First there is permissive trespass.  If land is not posted... it is legal to assume it is ok to trespass for "fur, fin or feather".  Which means if you are driving down some dirt road in the middle of nowhere, you can just pull over and hunt the land around it as long it is not posted.  Mainers, mostly, have a really good attitude about letting others hunt on their land.   Some out of staters have the wrong attitude.  Do not be like that please.

The other law is the Great Pond law.  This law states that if a body of water is greater than 10 acres, it is legal to trespass on undeveloped land and on foot for the purpose of "fur, feather or fin" even if it is posted.  Most people still ask to be polite.  And the land owner would be committing a crime if they hinder your access in any way.

It is also against the law to harass hunters.

We have Constitutional Carry and CCW permits.  We are the only state to beat Bloomberg and his background check.

Also Maine has a great network of snowmobile trails. You can google that to see.  Maine is real good about getting public access to water with boat ramps as well.

It is a great place to live... you just have to find a way to live here.  And if you get up here... please be like the natives... do not be one of those out of staters we cannot stand.  Thanks.

You should also join Gun Owners of Maine.  If you have any questions about guns in Maine.. you can join their Facebook group.