Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of you out there in Blogland. I wonder what 2012 has in store for us. It should be an interesting year. We trust that each and every one of you our guests and visitors to the site will have a prosperous year mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically and financially.

It has been a milder than usual winter thus far, but we still have good ice on the lakes and plenty of snow for outdoor activities like snowmobiling, ice fishing, dog sledding, cross country skiing and snow shoeing. John and Joanna took a couple of folks out yesterday for a full day dog sledding trip and they said it is a gorgeous winter wonderland in the woods.

This last fall, John opened up a hiking trail across the river from camp that runs alongside the river and uphill to a breathtaking over look of Indian Lake. We plan to build a bench this summer for hikers to sit on once they get up there.

We also completed a few projects on our list such as two new outhouses for the campground area; another larger campfire ring right on the lake beside the campground for our cabin guests to be able to sit around a fire and visit; and renovations on cabin 4 in the kitchen and bathroom.

There are a few new administrative changes as well at camp. We raised our prices for the weekly rate from $350/person to $365/person and our nightly rate from $60/person to $65/person- our first rate increase in four years. Right now the U.S. dollar is holding its own against the Canadian dollar which is great. We will be monitoring the two currencies weekly during the fishing season and if necessary adding a currency fee if the U.S. dollar declines below the Canadian dollar. Another decision we made for the health and safety of all our guests is to ban smoking in all of the cabins. Most of our guests who do smoke have been courteous to others and smoked outside the cabins, but we felt we should simply make it clear that there will be no smoking in the cabins from now on.

We had a bit of excitement last week when four Duluth, MN men came up to stay with us to go ice fishing. We've been trying to promote ice fishing at our camp, but haven't had any takers until now. They said they enjoyed the cabin accommodations, had a great time exploring quite a few lakes in the area, had plenty of fish to eat and would be back again. That was good to hear. Dog sled trip reservations are up this winter also which has been helpful to us. It is fun to meet new people and guide them into some of the most beautiful scenery there is.

We feel very blessed to be able to live here and to be able to serve such wonderful guests that come our way. Happy winter!