City: Camden, ME

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (207) 236-3438

Address: Hosmer Pond Rd.

Description: Every community should have a ski mountain like this one. The town-owned center sits on the side of 1,300-foot Ragged Mountain on the inland outskirts of Camden. There’s plenty of skiing to be had here when the weather provides the fluffy stuff. Nine trails, most of them classified as intermediate, await schuss-boomers, so it’s a good learning mountain. Better still, though, perhaps, for young kids is the tubing run at the base of the peak, which is a safe, fast, fun, and bouncy run. The Snow Bowl is also famous for its toboggan chute, a 400-foot trough that shoots the wooden sleds down the mountain at high speeds and out across Hosmer Pond. There is ice-skating on the pond as well. The well-run facility with its classic A-frame lodge is not about wearing the newest and tightest ski fashions or about zillion-dollar lift tickets, but about having an enjoyable day on the slopes with the rest of the community. In summer there is a rec program for kids between second and sixth grades that includes all sorts of sports, arts and crafts, hiking and canoeing, and day trips to beaches. There are also ball fields and tennis courts and concerts during the summer months.