Sebago Lake

Sebago is Maine's deepest lake and its second largest — big, cold, open water forty minutes from Portland, and the southern end of a connected system that runs up through the Songo River to Brandy Pond and Long Lake.

It behaves more like a small sea than a pond. There is enough fetch across the main basin for a genuine chop to build in an afternoon southwesterly, and boats that are fine on Long Lake are not automatically fine crossing Sebago. The eastern shore around Raymond and Jordan Bay and the Windham end hold most of the marinas, ramps and fuel.

The route north matters if you are moving between lakes. The Songo River is narrow, winding and slow, and the Songo Lock at its top is hand-operated with a queue on summer weekends — allow real time for the passage rather than treating it as a shortcut.

Season runs roughly mid-May to mid-October. Gas is available dockside at several marinas; diesel on the lake is scarce enough that it should not be part of a plan.