Maine
There’s a lot more winter fun at Maine ski areas than just skiing. Here’s a few.
With great powder comes great responsibility.
The folks who run Maine’s ski areas seem to understand that. They have these beautiful hills with scenic vistas, state-of-the-art snow machines, groomed trails, warming huts and everything else you need for winter fun.
And while skiing is the main reason these places were built, the folks who run them want to share them (usually for a price) with all the non-skiers, too. All around Maine you can find ski areas that also offer tubing, tobogganing, snowshoeing, ice skating or fat tire biking.
Here’s a list of places where a non-skier can enjoy the powder as much as anyone else.
The Edge Tubing Park at Black Mountain is now open for the winter. There are two 500-foot-long chutes for the tubes, and a lift to bring people and their tubes back up to the top. The tubing park is usually open on selected Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and school vacations. Tickets are $25, tube included, and there’s no time limit. You can come and ride all day.
The Jack Williams Toboggan Chute at the Camden Snow Bowl in Camden is a one-of-a kind attraction. First built in 1936, it’s a 70-foot-high and 400-foot-long wooden chute that sends tobogganers speeding through the trees at up to 40 miles an hour and onto frozen Hosmer Pond. The chute is open most Saturdays and Sundays in winter, after the U.S. Toboggan National Championships (Feb. 6-8). It costs $10 an hour per person, toboggan included. The Snow Bowl also has a 500-foot-long tubing hill, besides ski slopes. There’s a lift to carry you and your tube back up to the top. The cost is $15 per person, for an hour.
While your friends are skiing or snowboarding at Lost Valley, you could be showshoeing. Passes for snowshoe trails at Lost Valley are $6 and snowshoe rentals are $18. A map on the Lost Valley website shows a half-dozen or so trails winding around and at the base of the ski area.
This ski area near Bangor features a 600-foot tubing hill, with a slightly U-shaped slope. It’s usually open from Feb. 1, with hours every day but Monday, although it’s sometimes open on holidays, as it was on MLK Day this year, which was a Monday. Tickets are $20 per person and there’s a lift so you don’t have to trudge back up the hill when your ride is over.
Not strictly a ski area, but Pineland Farms offers 18 miles of groomed trials over gently sloping hills for Nordic skiing. But it’s really become a winter fun hub, with lots of other things to do, including sledding, ice skating, snowshoeing, fat tire biking and even a disc golf course that’s open in winter. The flooded skating area is lit up at night, and, along with the sledding hill, are both free to the public. The disc golf course is $8 to $10 a round or $10 to $12 for all-day play, plus $2 for disc rentals. Showshoe passes are $9 for a half day and $12 for a full day, while a fat tire bike pass is $5 a day. For rental information call 207-688-4539.
The Rangeley Lakes Trails Center, while not officially part of Saddleback, is nestled at the base of the mountain. So if you have friends skiing at Saddleback, it would be very easy for you to take advantage of the snowshoeing or fat tire biking at the trails center. The trails have stunning views of the Saddleback range and beyond. Snowshoe day passes are $10 to $15 while a fat bike pass is $10. Snowshoe rentals are $12 to $18 while fat tire bike rentals are $50 for half day or $75 for a full day, trail pass included.
This major ski resort in the state’s western mountains offers snowshoeing and ice skating at its Outdoor Center. All the trails, and the rink, have beautiful views. Skating is at an outdoor, NHL-sized rink, open daily from December through mid-March, weather permitting. Rink passes are $5 (children) to $15, while skate rentals range from $5 to $13. Snowshoe trail passes are $6 (children) to $21, while snowshoe rentals range from $11 to $22.
The Iglu at Sunday River is a slopeside lounge, carved into a giant igloo made of snow and ice. It’s open daily from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and is definitely a different place to have a drink. People can ski in or take a shuttle to get there. There are sweets, drinks and music.