Summer is the time when many of us escape from the city and go to our special places by a lake or stream. Whether it’s a cottage or a resort, “opening up” is a little different for everyone. Here are some rituals shared by a group of local campers.
Come By Chance Resort - Whitefish Lake
For owners Greg and Sandy Burke, spring preparation usually starts at the end of March giving them a four-to six-week window to get the park spruced up. This involves painting, staining, and fixing any issues that may have cropped up over the winter. Turning the water back on is next, once they have the park water and hydro running, the common washrooms are open, and showers and the laundromat operational, they can dedicate their time to getting all the floating docks in place.
After the park opens and the docks are in, the focus for Sandy and the staff is on spring cleaning all ten of the resort’s cabins. During this time, Sandy is also busy getting the store, “Sandy’s Reach” (who remembers the Beachcombers?) ready. She orders new inventory and makes sure the ice cream freezer is full.
Sandy says refilling the pool is next.
“The pool has to be inspected by the Thunder Bay District Health Unit to make sure it has proper alkalinity, free chlorine and PH balance. Next we concentrate on ‘peopling’ for the season, making sure that everyone is enjoying themselves!”
Summer is a choreography of so many events: fish derbies, kids’ day and the big one being the Labour Day weekend, which culminates with a live band. Saturdays are a whirlwind. As guests depart, Sandy and the staff head out to give the cabins a deep clean.
Greg says that after the Labour Day weekend, it’s time to begin to winterize. Greg says, “Cabin docks are removed after the last guests have left for the season (usually the third week of September), and cabins are dewatered. Finally, we say goodbye to our ‘regular season’ RV guests and lock the gate at the entrance. For those who enjoy the fall, we offer a rate to stay throughout October. Those guests enjoy the peace of a nearly empty park for the month, and the water is left on as long as possible (which, so far has been the entire month)”. After the October guests are gone, the complete shutdown begins.
The Miazio family - Lake Superior
Taylor Miazio and his dad, Henry, team up every year to set up their camp at Ishkibibble. The toughest part is wading into the chilly waters of Lake Superior to install the docks, arrange the water toys and get the plumbing running. “The big job is hauling the pump out of the shed and hooking it up to the main intake and outtake lines. Then, we run the line into the lake with the foot valve, anchor it down, and drop a marker over it. Once that’s done, we prime the line and pray there are not leaks or pump issues”, says Taylor.
Fortunately, Taylor and Henry have streamlined the process over the years. “We redid all the plumbing lines a few years ago and installed a manifold that makes things a lot easier. Then it’s time to fill up the hot tub, fire up the sauna, and have a few beers ‘n whiskeys to keep the blood flowing!”, says Taylor.
Taylor says, “As soon as we have running water and the weather warms up, we move out there and stay until the fall.”
The camp carries a deep family history, originally purchased by Taylor’s grandmother back in July 1954. There are a few family gatherings & BBQs throughout the summer each year. “Friends and family are always welcome, especially when it’s too hot in the city, and they need to come cool down and have a swim in the lake!”
Taylor says many wonderful memories have been made there over the years. “But if I had to choose one, it would be the annual beach parties we used to hold with all the campers in July,” Taylor recalls. “It started back in the 70’s as a potluck dinner and expanded into a day/night-long party with lots of games in and out of the water, a penny auction and live bands, which I was fortunate enough to play with”.
Eagle Lake Island Lodge and Traditions Lodge on Eagle Lake
We often visit our friends, Charlene Snow and Jim Mcdougall, who run a fishing resort, “Eagle Lake Island Lodge.” Located about a half hour west of Dryden, and then a 10 minute boat ride to the island. Normally, the ice is out at least a week before the first of May, leaving lots of time to get all the cabins on the island ready for guests.
This year, Charlene, Jim & the rest of the ownership group expanded their operations and purchased another lodge resort called Eagle Lake Traditions. The new property features 11 cabins, a main lodge housing a kitchen, an office, and upstairs bedrooms, as well as various outbuildings, a laundry facility, sauna, exercise room and a dock system that accommodates 12 boats.
Charlene says there is always something needing repairing or replacing. “It’s also quite the job to move everything onto the island, find where any leaks are and clean everything that has sat empty for 6 months so you can prep the cabins for when the guests start arriving.”
Between the two lodges, many workers converge in the spring. Some are fishing guides and dockhands; others are housekeepers and servers.
Jim says that because the island lodge is an all-inclusive resort, prepping it is a massive undertaking. “The crew had to install water lines, de-winterize the plumbing, flush out the pipes, and deep clean the kitchen, main lodge, bar and cabins.” This year, the prep work included installing new docks that were built over the winter.
Meanwhile, at Traditions, guests cook for themselves using private kitchens and BBQs, meaning the setup there focuses mostly on housekeeping and guide services.
This year, the stubborn lake ice actually worked to their advantage. Because the island was completely unreachable until the thaw, the crew could focus entirely on getting Traditions ready first. Charlene said, “Once the lake finally opened up, it was all hands on deck to rush over to the island to get everything pristine for the first guests of the season.
After all, you never know what Mother Nature has done to the property until you arrive.”
Zaina camp at Come By Chance Resort - Whitefish Lake
Our camp rituals are pretty simple. Before we close up to leave in September we make sure all of the water is drained from the pipes and hoses, and antifreeze is added to the lines. I place everything in our trailer in bins and stack them until spring. I spray peppermint all around the trailer and place bars of Irish Spring soap that have been cut up around the inside of the trailer too, as rodents apparently don’t like it.
Before this spring, we only had ONE mouse in our trailer. It was when we were opening up camp just a few years ago, my husband, Joseph, opened the water and bathroom pipes…but forgot to close them. So, the next weekend, we found that a lone mouse had made its way in.
It didn’t get into anything, but it did leave some evidence of where it had been. We caught it, released it far away, and cleaned out the trailer, disinfecting everything.
I was happy to get into bed that night, but slightly annoyed that I had to reclean what I had cleaned the week before.
On our first trip out to the trailer this year, we waited until after the May Long Weekend; it was too cold. Everything looked pretty good. We got the electricity and water going, flushed the pipes and then started the inspection.
Remember that I said we empty everything and put it in bins? I’m glad we did that because we did have a furry visitor. There was ONE mouse poop in each drawer. That’s it, then it moved on. So we cleaned out the drawers and moved on with our camping season.
Oh, and on cleaning day in the spring and fall, I always throw on a movie, “The Wedding Date.” It’s just become a tradition for us.
Happy camping everyone!
