When venturing forth on unknown challenges, it helps to have shades of the familiar -- like wearing your lucky underwear on a job interview, or wearing your lucky not-underwear on a job interview. Unleash your inner woodsman with all the touchstones of home, at The Forks Resort.

Sprawled out on the banks of Maine's Kennebec River, Forks is a commodious rustic resort whose enormous hunting lodge eases your entree to the outdoors with traditional backwoods comfort (stone fireplace, cushy leather chairs, dead-animal heads) plus modern amenities like Wi-Fi, a fitness room, and a lounge w/ foos, pool, air hockey, and other games that got you sent on Outward Bound. Activities start with the modestly burly (fishing, hiking, ATVs, snowmobiles) and move up to Class V whitewater rafting on the Dead River and guided whitetail deer hunts -- like Big Buck Hunter, except you must go to a courthouse if you want to name yourself ASS. As for your most crucial modern nicety (endless beer), Forks boasts its own microbrewery and brewpub, serving six ales including Ripogenus Red, Big Mama Blueberry Ale, and Magic Hole IPA (named after a turbulent stretch of the Kennebec, not David Blaine's posterior).

FR also sports a wide selection of stand-alone log cabins, from the luxe "Lynx" (sleeps 8-10, 2 floors, 2 baths, jacuzzi) to the "Cant Dog" cozy cabin, with a twin bed and pull-out -- so no matter what you get up to, you'll be relieved to wake up on the couch.

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