Ever want to hunt caribou or ducks, or experience the golf adventure of a lifetime with your own personal guide?

These trips and more can be yours, maybe even for an eBay-style deal.

The parent company of Sunday River and Sugarloaf has rolled out Boyne Adventures, a unique travel package that resort officials hope will create a buzz in the adventure travel business.

Seven packaged outdoor adventures around North America have been up for auction online for the past month. Some have sold, some are still up for bid, and a bunch are in Maine. So long as the minimum bid is met, these multi-day trips could go for a steal, said 25-year Maine saltwater guide Peter Fallon, one of the expedition hosts.

And after the first round of seven excursions are auctioned off, another set will be rolled out.

“All kinds of adventures are going to come out of this. And as time goes on, they’ll get more adventurous,” said Stephen Kircher, Boyne Resort president of eastern operations in Michigan.

“The sky is literally the limit. This could get really crazy in the future.”

Boyne Adventures were Sunday River President Dana Bullen’s brainchild. But the spirit of the trips is pure Boyne, said Kircher, the second generation owner of the family company started by his father, Everett, an avid fisherman, hunter and adventurer.

“It’s about creating adventures that you can’t experience or buy off the shelf,” Kircher said. “We have 8,000 people who work for us and they’re all outdoor adventurers at their core. Basically, this showcases our core DNA.”

Each adventure will have a Boyne representative as a guide or host, providing an “insider’s view” into the world the trip explores, whether it’s golf courses in Michigan, a snowcat ride at Big Sky ski area in Montana, or the Allagash Wilderness Waterway as shown by a Sunday River canoe guide.

The bidding aspect is a way to distinguish this offering — and maybe offer a deal. And Kircher said each adventure is unique, so the only fair way to sell them was through an auction.

Fallon said an important element of each trip will be for the guide to bring the group together at the end of each day, to connect over the experience. This “coming together” is an important way to celebrate the outdoors as much as the adventure, he said.

“For me, that’s the one thing I enjoy with the sports and as a guide,” said Fallon, Sunday River’s director of guest services.

The travel packages are just another part of the Boyne effort to become the best four-season resort company in North America by 2015.

Already, Michigan-based Boyne is the largest privately owned ski operator in North America with 16 resorts. Here in Maine the push continues at both Sunday River and Sugarloaf to grow as four-season destinations, Fallon said.

“The (Boyne) resorts in Michigan truly are four-season resorts. Right now at Sunday River we’re a ski area expanding into summer, but the Michigan resorts are much more of what we think we can be,” he said.

Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:

dfleming@pressherald.com

Twitter: Flemingpph

 

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