September 3, 2025 • 69 mins
The wilderness has a way of teaching its toughest lessons at the most inconvenient moments. Steve Niedzwiecki pulls back the curtain on the chaotic realities of running a northern fishing lodge, where Murphy's Law isn't just a saying—it's practically a business partner.
Steve's first year of ownership coincided with historic drought conditions on the French River, creating a perfect storm for boat damage. With water levels so low that even experienced guides were hitting rocks, guests in rental boats faced an obstacle course of underwater hazards. Over 200 propellers were damaged that season alone, leading to uncomfortable conversations about responsibility and payment. From the guest who destroyed two engines in the same trip by hitting the identical rock twice, to another who allegedly "lost" a brand-new engine overboard while doing donuts, these stories highlight the delicate balance between customer service and business survival.
Mother Nature proves to be both the lodge's greatest attraction and its most formidable adversary. Steve recounts a recent forest fire that began as an unattended campfire and rapidly consumed 10-15 acres before being controlled by a community effort. He shares a personal near-miss when he slipped on a dock during a violent storm, narrowly avoiding a potentially fatal fall into the churning water. This experience fundamentally changed his approach to staff safety protocols. Then there was the four-day power outage that created a nightmare scenario with backed-up septic systems, teaching him the hard lesson of preparedness that led to investing in multiple generators.
The wildlife stories add both charm and challenges to lodge life—from "Earl" the bear who became too comfortable entering buildings, to mischievous otters stashing fish carcasses under the dock house, to a helpful little mink that cleaned dead minnows from boats. Each creature interaction required different management approaches, balancing guest experience with safety concerns.
Through these candid stories of disasters dodged and lessons learned, Steve reveals why lodge ownership, despite its many challenges, creates such deep connections and unforgettable experiences.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
If I had have hit my head and I had have landed one
inch differently, I would haveslipped into that water and
nobody would have ever knownuntil they found my body.
And that is when I realized howdangerous things can be down on
(00:27):
the dock.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This week on the Outdoor Journal, radio, podcast
Networks, diaries of a LodgeOwner Stories of the North.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
We're getting real about the moments every lodge
owner secretly dreads, the kindthat start with you've got to be
kidding me and end with eithera cold beer or a great story Out
here.
It's not a matter of if thingsgo wrong, it's how spectacularly
and how quickly can you getthem fixed.
(00:58):
On this show we talk about thebehind-the-scenes chaos, from
power outages and rocks thatjump into the paths of rental
boats to storms and wildlifeencounters that make you
question who's really in charge,and guests whose experience is
so bad you've got to pull everytrick in the book out to save
(01:21):
their trip.
So if you've ever wondered whathappens when Mother Nature,
murphy's Law and a group ofhungry guests all meet at the
same time, stick around.
These are the stories ofdisasters dodged, lessons
learned and why, in the lodgebusiness, the worst days can
(01:43):
sometimes make the best memories.
Welcome, folks, back to anotherepisode of Diaries of a Lodge
Owner Stories of the North.
This is Steve Niedzwiecki, herewith you, and it's a great,
great day.
I'm just freshly back from thecottage with my daughter, maddie
(02:06):
, and her second annual fishingtrip, and it was a successful
one, to say the least.
We didn't do a whole lot offishing out there.
We spent more time in the saunaand on the dock, but that's
okay with me, but that's okaywith me.
So today I decided that wewould talk about something that
(02:30):
a lot of people ask me a lotabout when it comes to the lodge
business, and that's the thingsthat go wrong, and some behind
the scenes and some not so muchbehind the scenes, and it was.
It was a huge learning curvefor me and um I I'm really
(02:52):
looking forward to diving intosome of these stories with you.
Um, because the, the learningcurve that comes with adversity
is steep, to say the least, andmy learning curve over the 10
(03:12):
years that I owned Chaudiere wasvery steep.
Sometimes I barely kept myfingernails dug into the was
because it was so steep.
But you know, one of thebiggest things that I learned
(03:33):
very quickly in my very firstyear, largely due to the fact
that it was a drought year inhistory of the area and the
water was so low, so low thatthe guides were clipping rocks
(03:54):
with the guide boats becausethey were going through areas
where every other year they wereable to get through with no
problem, like this way rock, andthey were touching the bottom.
So if the guides were havingissues, you can imagine what the
(04:19):
guests were doing.
And this brings me to the rocksthat jump out in front of the
rental boats.
And that year was just a.
There was over 200 props in 20boats that were damaged.
I wasn't set up my way to dealwith the damages and charging
(04:51):
people for them.
I had Jerry's old paperworkfrom when he run the lodge and
we basically just had peoplesign on the dotted line saying,
yes, the boat is in goodcondition, I'll return it in
good condition and I'll pay foranything I break.
And it sounds verystraightforward until you get
(05:16):
into the thick of it.
And people don't particularlylike paying for damage.
People don't particularly likepaying for damage.
And one of the things that Ithink I told you the Dick story
Well, I shouldn't say Dick story, richard story when he smashed
(05:43):
the bottom end of one of theboats and refused to pay because
he wasn't the first one to hitit.
And why should he pay for thestraw that broke the camel's
back and nobody in front of himpaid for anything.
But you know, and he had noidea what was going on and you
know what, off the top.
I had said that you know a lotof these situations.
(06:04):
You learn from lessons learned,stories of disasters dodged and
lessons learned as much as Dick, you know, owed me for the
(06:27):
bottom end because he hit a rockand smashed the whole thing
wide open.
The one point that he made wasthat you know there's damage
done to it before me and thatkind of hit me hard because
(06:47):
that's true.
And is it a fair statement.
Well, in that situation,because he smashed the whole
bottom end case wide open no,that didn't.
And I give him a break.
Well, he wasn't going to pay.
And then when I told him that Iwasn't going to drive him back
to the marina, that he couldswim, he got all worked up and
(07:14):
stomped around, made a big sceneand yelled at me he'd pay half.
So I took the deal at half andthat was when I started to
formulate in my mind how can Ido this and not have to deal
with this?
(07:35):
A big scene, and I hatedcharging people extra costs.
Like it's hard, you know.
And in that first year Iremember there was one poor
fella and I'm not sure what hewas thinking, or anyway.
(07:59):
He ended up taking out one ofthe cedar strips and hit a rock
behind dead man's island and umtook the, took the bottom like
smash the bottom end.
And whenever that happened, Iwould never, I told the dock
hands never make a big deal ofit.
Just be sure to to um get themset up in another boat.
(08:22):
Explain to them it happens tothe best of us.
They already feel bad enough,like I mean, they feel bad
enough about it, um, so justjust be kind about it, don't
make them feel any worse thanthey already do.
So we set this fella up and andI should remember his name, but
(08:42):
this is going we're going back15, 20 years but we got him into
another boat and he hit thesame rock.
He hit the same rock and didanother bottom end and this was
like on the third day, third orfourth day it was a seven day
(09:04):
trip and after he hit the, hedid the second bottom end and
like I mean he did him good,like I had to charge him and at
the time on the sheet it was$900 to replace the bottom end,
which didn't even cover my costs.
They were $1,200 or $1,300 forthe bottom end.
(09:27):
I didn't know that because Iwas so overwhelmed with
everything else.
I had never had to replace abottom end but anyway.
So I couldn't even charge.
I wasn't even getting paid thefull amount that it was going to
cost me.
But I felt so bad and herefused to get into another boat
(09:48):
.
He was like no, I'm done, I'mgoing to hang out on the dock,
I'm going to fish off the dockand I'm done.
And um, I remember we um, um hewas a musician and um, um, to
make him feel better, I said,hey, listen, why don't we play
guitar tonight to make them feelbetter?
I said, hey, listen, why don'twe play guitar tonight?
And there was two or three ofus that played guitar and we sat
(10:09):
there in the lodge and weplayed Seven Spanish Angels and
I don't know.
That was back when my voice wasin better shape and I sang the
shit right out of that songSeven Spanish Angels, with Ray
Charles and Willie Nelson andman, we had a wonderful time and
(10:43):
potentially those days andevenings really could have saved
.
Well, I think it did.
It saved his trip, and thoseare the types of things that
you've got to do to try and helppeople through a hard time,
because you know the two bottomends cost him more than his trip
(11:06):
, and that's a lot, like I mean,in today's numbers.
I was just over at Chaudiere onthis last trip up north and one
of their rental boats, theirhigher end rental boats, with
their minx, their Stanley minx,so they're like 18 foot aluminum
(11:33):
boats but heavy aluminum boatswith a 90 horsepower on them and
somebody like took the wholebottom end right off like not
smashed right off and actuallybroke the housing on the top end
of the engine and to replacethat the bill was either $10,000
(12:01):
or $12,000.
So you know, whenever you're,whenever you're signing on that
dotted line for these rental,rental boats, you really truly
have to make sure that you knowwhat you're getting yourself
into.
And, um and um, you're carefulwith the equipment because it is
(12:23):
some expensive shit these days.
And you know as much as I saythat those evenings singing and
spending time with that finegentleman saved his trip, which
it did, and we had a wonderfultime.
And when he left he thanked mefor those times.
(12:48):
But he never come back, like Imean that that that left such a
such a a bitter taste in his,his mouth.
Um, he never did come back and Iand, and I'm not even sure if
he ever went to another fishinglodge because, um, it was, it
was one of those things, right,and um, um, so, for every story
(13:13):
where where somebody pays um for, for the damage, um, you know,
there's stories that that aretotally opposite.
Um, you know, and uh, like I,this would have been my second
or third year I had just boughtum two Lund Alaskan, uh, guide
(13:41):
boats 20 foot Lund Alaskans withone 15s on them.
Um, I bought two 16 foot lundfuries with 50s or 60s on them
and I bought five brand new 20horsepower electric start, um
(14:02):
mercury engines for the cedarstrips and um, uh, we put, we
installed all the, uh, the, um,the, the motors on the cedar
strips because the old yamahasthat I had were old, like um, um
, this would have been back.
So we're talking 2013.
(14:23):
Um, I was still usingtwo-stroke Yamahas from the
early 90s which were gettingreally tired, and I had a group.
We had just broken in all ofthese engines and I had a group
come in and they took out acedar strip with a 20 horsepower
(14:44):
and I remember sitting in theoffice and seeing somebody
towing in a cedar strip.
Wow, that was the other therewas.
They had two cedars in theirgroup, I think there was five of
them, and it was a father, twofathers and three sons, and the
sons would have been, you know,early teens, and the one guy's
(15:08):
towing the other guy back and Iwalked down to the dock to see
what was going on and I lookedat the cedar that they were
towing and the engine was gone,like there was no engine there
and the guy was like irate at mebecause the engine had come off
of the back of the boat and hesaid the gas can went by him at
(15:35):
100 mile an hour and it almostpulled him right into the lake.
And he's like he's irate andI'm without an engine.
He signed that if he broke ithe pays for it.
And the story that I found outthat he told me is he was doing
(16:04):
donuts in the Cedar Strip tocreate a bunch of big wake so
that he could drive the boatthrough the wake and try and
jump the boat over the wake andin doing this the engine come
(16:24):
loose and it come off of thetransom and it ended up in the
bottom of the lake.
And I was like and he's mad atme and he's like.
He is telling me that he'sgoing to sue me because it
almost hurt him to sue mebecause it almost hurt him.
(16:50):
Well, being new and Cole was,cole was very good at uh, all of
the, the, the legal baloney andwhatever I didn't, I, I didn't
know what to do, like there's no, there's no, I had, I had no
policy written in on the sheetthat Jerry had for well, there
was total loss, I guess.
But anyway, the bottom line wasthe guy was was threatening me
(17:15):
and yelling at me and you know,I told him.
I said, listen, your negligenceby doing donuts and everything
else caused this.
And now I'm out an engine andyou should be paying me for the
engine.
And he lost again.
(17:37):
He didn't want to pay, he losthis shit and he said no, no, not
a chance.
Blah, blah, blah.
This is ridiculous.
Why did the engine come off?
This is, you know, um, it's notsafe and everything else.
And again, tough lesson learned, right?
Um, he's right in a sense.
(17:58):
He was, he was, he was wrong tobe doing donuts and driving
through the wake.
But having said that, water canget rough, water can get rough
out there and those boats needto be able to handle rough water
and every engine should be, andI knew this and I had explained
(18:19):
it to the guys on the dock.
Every engine should be chainedto the.
On those old cedar strips therewas a bracket that went from
the transom to the floor and youcould get underneath it.
It was like a gusset and yourun a chain underneath the
(18:41):
gusset, bolt that chain togetheraround that gusset and then you
, you take the, you chain theengine through the handle, not
the steering handle, but there'salways a little looped handle
or they actually have tabs withholes on the engine where you
can bolt the chain so that ifthat does happen because
(19:02):
occasionally if you don't checkthe clamps on the engine, the
screw clamps on the engine, theywill back off from vibration,
whatever, and in that case thenyour engine is chained to the
boat.
We didn't do that, that hadn'tbeen done.
Do that that hadn't been doneand um, anyway, I learned, uh, I
(19:30):
learned about a, a $4,000lesson that day about making
sure that all of the um boatengines are chained to the um,
to the uh, um boat and um andthe and that guy and his uh, his
um group, the, the two fathersand three sons.
They left that day and theywanted their money back.
(19:52):
I said I'm not giving you yourmoney back If you're leaving
today.
What I'll do is I'll prorateyour stay for the time you were
here the two days you were here,and then I'll give you the
money back for the other threedays, which, again in hindsight,
(20:14):
I really think what happenedwas because we went back to look
for that engine.
It was in 50 feet but with thetechnology that we had at the
time, the downscan would havebeen clear enough, especially if
the story that the gas tankwent in with it and stayed on
(20:41):
the engine because there was nogas tank floating around, like
the gas tank, apparently stayedhooked to the engine because
there was no gas tank floatingaround, like the gas tank
apparently stayed hooked to theengine and the engine went to
the bottom of the lake.
We would have seen that theengine and the floating gas tank
that would have been above ittethered to it by the gas line.
(21:04):
I'm pretty sure what happenedwas they may have seen that this
was a brand new engine, cookedup a story and took it off and
hid it in the bush and then comeback in a recon mission later
on and got themselves a brandnew engine Because, like I say,
(21:27):
there was no sign of an engineanywhere in the vicinity where
they and they took me back andshowed me where this happened.
They took me back and they, theyshowed me where this happened.
So I don't know, I don't know,maybe not.
You know I should give peoplethe benefit of the doubt, but
(21:51):
that was a hard lesson.
That was a real hard lesson,you know, and it's again.
There's so many differentthings that happened with the
rental boats, in particular onthe French River.
It's a treacherous body ofwater if you're not paying
(22:13):
attention.
It's very well mapped, theNavionics app and mapping is
excellent.
I can honestly say I don'tthink that there is a place, if
you're paying attention to yourmap, that you can get yourself
in trouble these days.
But if you're not payingattention, you will eventually
(22:39):
hit something and you knowthere's so many.
I remember there was a groupfrom Buffalo and, well, new York
area, new York Buffalo area,and there they had a bunch of
(23:03):
and they would come big group.
They would come and bring theirBoston whalers, beautiful boats
, and we were back in Marshy Bayand when you're going into
Marshy Bay, right at the right,at the mouth of Marshy Bay,
you've got to stay to the left.
And everybody knew, knew thatyou had to stay to the left.
And, um, on the way out, um,you know, um, the, the, the, the
(23:29):
guys and they, and they weren'tyoung Like I mean, and they
weren't young Like I mean, theyweren't old, you know, like
45-year-old men got playing andone of the guys decided that
they wanted to get out in frontand lead or race or whatever was
going on, and decided to pullout on when they were heading
(23:50):
out, pull out on the left side.
And I'll never forget the soundthat that bottom end made when
it come into contact with thatrock and the boat.
It lifted the ass end of theboat three feet up out of the
water.
Like, I mean, nobody was hurt,but it's lucky that that nobody,
(24:12):
nobody was, nobody was hurt orthrown out of the boat, for that
matter.
You know, and I just happenedto be right there and uh and
watching it unfold and and Iknew, as soon as he pulled out
onto the left, I was yelling.
But you know, a hundred yardsaway, with those engines going,
he, it's a.
You might as well not, but um,yeah, like it's.
(24:36):
Uh, it's one of those thingswhere rocks jump out in front of
boats on the French river andum, and you gotta be mindful of
it, um, but uh, you know, andand when things like that happen
, you've got to try and and uhand um do your best to make sure
(25:00):
that the experience is stillgood or it's not tainted to the
point where they don't.
My worry was always they wouldnever come back.
You know, and a lot of times Iwas able to make it so that they
(25:21):
would come back.
You know, they're just toughlessons learned.
And also, you know, I wouldhaving said that the experience
wasn't always because ofcollisions on the water or
things like that In the diningroom I would be very cognizant
(25:43):
of how people were feeling andmaking sure that every person
was having an outstanding time.
And you know there's justsometimes you don't.
I hate it when people say youcan't please them all, because I
(26:05):
think that's bullshit.
I truly try to please them all,um, but you know there was
another.
There was an instance where, uh, a fella brought his um, his um
wife, and they were actuallylocal, they were fairly from
(26:26):
around, uh, I don't know,Sudbury, north Bay, maybe a
little north, but they were fromOntario and they brought their
family from Dubai over andeverything that could go wrong
went wrong.
And you know, I think, thatthey were expecting, their
(26:49):
expectations of the place wereskewed.
And that was tough sometimesbecause you know, we advertised
as a five-star northern resortand a five-star northern resort
(27:12):
is not a five-star New Yorkresort, you know what I mean.
And right off the bat I thinkthat they just assumed that this
was going or Ritz-Carlton andit's not.
But anyway, they complainedabout the cleanliness of the
(27:38):
cottages and when I went to lookthe girls did the bathroom had
not been cleaned properly in oneof the cottages and there was a
little bit of mud in the well.
It wasn't even mud, it was likea little bit of dirt in the
bathtub and we cleaned that up.
(28:00):
And then there was anotherissue and I felt bad.
So I took the family from Dubaiout on a guide.
Actually I took them out twiceto try to ease the
dissatisfaction of the localfella and he was just the family
(28:31):
from Dubai.
They were, they were wonderful,they were, they were, they were
beautiful people.
Um, uh, two young kids, a youngcouple.
We went to the beach.
I took them out to um Frank'sBay.
We went to the free flowingchannel, we went fishing Like I
spent a lot of time with themand they were, they were
wonderful.
We went fishing like I spent alot of time with them and they
(28:52):
were, they were wonderful.
The um, the older couple fromthe local couple, there was just
no pleasing them.
Um, it's, it's a, it's a wonderthat, like I mean, he, he did
pay, he paid for the for thetrip, didn't pay for any of the
guides, that was all free.
Um, but then, um, when he left,right after he paid, he said
(29:19):
that um, um, he was verydisappointed with everything
that happened and you'll hearfrom me and, uh, I didn't know
what that meant, but what thatmeant was, he took me to the
Better Business Bureau and I hadno idea what the Better
(29:39):
Business Bureau even was, and wegot a letter.
This is when Cole was there.
We got a letter from the BetterBusiness Bureau and they were
saying that we needed to refundthis guy for his trip because of
all of the stuff that happenedand everything else.
(30:03):
And Cole and I said to Cole Isaid, well, I guess we better
just get rid of this problem.
Like I was of the mindset thatyou know, just get rid of the
problem, pay, give him his moneyback.
And that was early in my tenurewhen every dollar counted and
(30:25):
Cole said you got to be kiddingme, you're not giving them a
cent back.
Said you gotta be kidding me,you're not giving them a cent
back.
Those, this, that guy.
There was no possible way thathe would ever have been
satisfied anywhere.
And Cole said in my opinion, hedoes this all the time and he
does it to get free trips and heain't getting a free trip from
(30:48):
us.
You leave it with me.
Wow, I'm so thankful for ColeBecause he had it looked after
in I don't know three or fouremails it was.
He didn't even I said how'sthings going?
(31:09):
He said don't worry about it,it's been taken care of right
from the start.
And he took care of it andthere was no bad review.
They had to remove the reviewoff of Better Business Bureau or
whatever it was, and theyobviously sided with us.
(31:31):
So it was something that I wasvery appreciative with Cole and
he was a very, very importantpiece and still is by the way,
he's still up at Chaudière buthe was a very important piece in
(31:52):
the business for me because,for lack of a better term, he
was the bad cop.
He looked after all of the um,uh, the, the, the billing people
and collecting um, um oninvoices at the end of the week
and all of that stuff which I,and admittedly so, am not good
(32:17):
at.
I am not good at taking moneyfrom friends and when you come
as a guest you left as friends.
That was our mantra.
Come as guests, leave as familymantra, come as guests, leave
(32:37):
as family.
And I needed coal to collectthe money so that we could be
there year after year and thatwas that's.
You know, that whole BetterBusiness Bureau thing really,
really stressed me out.
It was something that I had ahard time thinking, that
somebody come and had such a badtime that they wanted to tell
(32:58):
the world that we were badpeople.
And that gave me so muchanxiety that I couldn't sleep at
night thinking about it.
And thanks, cole, I'll neverforget how you handled that for
(33:18):
me and for us.
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they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
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However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(34:33):
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On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
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Speaker 1 (35:40):
You know other things that would go wrong.
You know you get these, themother nature, right in a couple
of different ways.
Mother Nature comes in storms,comes in fires, comes in
wildlife getting too close.
(36:01):
Speaking of fires, I mentionedoff the top I'm just freshly
back from the French for thegirls' second annual fishing
trip and when we were out Iforget what day it was, maybe
three, four days ago we werecoming back from the lake and it
(36:27):
was rough and really, reallywindy.
So we took the back channel andwe were coming through just
past Allison Island and I was,for whatever reason, debating in
my mind do I go main channel?
And I knew, because of the wind, the main channel was going to
be a nightmare.
So I took the back channel andas soon as I turned right to go
(36:50):
on the inside of Allison Island,I saw smoke and one of the
campsites there was asignificant amount of smoke that
it wasn't a campfire.
So the girls and I drove overand, sure enough, somebody had
had a fire in the fire pit andleft it without completely
(37:16):
putting it out and like it was,40 kilometer an hour, sustained
winds with gusts of more thanthat, and by the time we got
there, there was probably by thetime we got there there was
probably, I'm going to say, a200-foot radius that was on fire
on the shoreline.
(37:38):
And I looked in the boat andthere was a big cooler, you know
, a cooler the size that you gotto lift with two hands on each
end.
And I told the girls I saidempty that cooler real quick,
because I thought that I couldpull up on the shoreline and use
(37:59):
the cooler to get it undercontrol.
But as we were pulling up tothe shoreline, the fire had
gotten so hot that one of the 60to 80 foot pine trees that were
right there exploded intoflames.
Like it was.
It was, it was and and as soonas that happened like I mean,
(38:22):
you've got a 80 foot torchthat's burning from bottom to
top and it's the pine needlesand the wind I knew right away I
said to the girls okay, we'renot going to get this one with a
cooler.
So we pulled out and there weretwo cottages that were in the
(38:48):
line of fire and probably abouta kilometer, maybe not even half
a kilometer, away from the site, and I didn't have cell service
to call anybody.
I tried to use that textingoption now that Apple has where
you can point your phone atsatellites.
(39:10):
But I couldn't figure it out.
So we pulled out and saw a boatwith a couple of younger people
in it, a guy and a girl, and itwas over towards the two
cottages that were kind of inthat line of fire and I asked
them.
I said hey, is that yourcottage?
And they said yeah.
(39:31):
I said do is that your cottage?
And they said yeah.
I said do you have a phone?
And they said yeah.
I said you need to go and youneed to call 911 right now and
tell them that there's a forestfire and you've got less than an
hour before your cottage goesup with it.
And they said okay, okay, okay.
And they pointed to the cottageon the other side of the point
(39:52):
and they said go and talk tothem.
And I think they were trying touse their cell phone, but
anyway.
So I drove to the other side andtalked to the people there.
They were out on their dock andI said listen, there is a
forest fire right over there.
And by that time now the smokeis billowing.
You need to call 911, callRiverview Marina and call Bud at
(40:20):
Doquese Marina, and I give themthe phone numbers, and took off
to get our fire pump and runinto Corey, one of the guys at
Chaudière, and I turned aroundand we drove over to Corey and
Corey's like hey, what's goingon?
What should we do?
I said, corey, go back toChaudière, get the fire pump now
(40:44):
.
And by the time I got back to myplace and I got, and I actually
I phoned Bud because my firepump was plumbed into the island
.
I borrowed Bud's fire pump wasprobably I'm going to say, 10 or
(41:11):
12 boats from people on theriver that brought their
firefighting equipment, allfighting this fire.
I jumped off and startedfighting the fire as well and
they were dropping firefightersvia helicopter at the site.
(41:32):
We got it, we got it undercontrol, but in the 45 minutes
that I was gone that fire wentfrom you know a couple hundred
feet in diameter.
I bet you, by the time we gotit under control, which was
(41:54):
about four hours later, it hadburnt 10 acres, 15 acres.
It was a serious fire and thatright there is the most
(42:15):
dangerous thing that cottagersface and lodge owners face up
there is fire.
I've seen tornadoes, we had astorm that tore up, I don't know
(42:36):
, 150 trees in Doakies Bay.
I don't know 150 trees inDoquese Bay, but to watch how
quickly that fire spread in thatwind was scary, man, it was
truly scary.
And you know storms and that,like I mean storms are a concern
(43:00):
as well, like there's been snowin beginning of June and when
you're at the lodge and peopleare coming in and you know it's
snowing, and there's been snowin beginning of September too,
you know so those are.
(43:22):
But again, there's a bigdifference between a forest fire
and a little bit of snow.
You know what I mean.
But I, uh, I remember, um, Ilearned a real, um tough lesson.
Well, I was lucky and, and I'lltell you the story, um, there
(43:43):
was a time, a period for acouple of years, where we
experienced some thunderstormsup at the lodge that were
magnanimous, like these thingswere were were really, really
violent storms.
And this one evening there was astorm coming in and everybody
(44:09):
had packed in for the night.
So it was like 10, 11 o'clock,I don't remember what time of
year it was, but it was dark andall of the boats, the docks,
face south, southwest, and whenthe wind is right, sometimes
(44:30):
even in our small little part ofthe river, the waves can get
big and the way we park theboats, you just drive the boat
straight into the dock with thetransom exposed to the, to the,
to the water, and when you get areal big storm, if you're not
(44:52):
careful, the water will washover the back of the transom and
and the and the boat will sink.
So I saw this storm coming inand it was.
The waves down on the dock werebig enough that they were
washing over the backs of thetransoms and I didn't want to
get anybody like.
I mean, the staff worked hardand I didn't want to, at 11
(45:18):
o'clock, go and wake everybodyup, to go and turn the boats
around, bow into the wind, right, so that you don't have to
worry about water coming in,because with the bow into the
wind it takes the waves right,right, right, right.
(45:39):
So that meant I had to go downto the dock and spin every boat
around so that they were facingnose out, and you could do that
from the dock, like I didn'thave to jump into all of the
boats and drive them and backthem in.
I just, you know, untied theboats pushed the boat out, the
(46:01):
ass end would swing around.
I'd pull the ass, end in andthen put the, put the um, tie
the boat up with the bow facingout.
No big deal, I figured I'll,I'll just do it myself.
So I went down and got them alldone on the uh, on the floating
docks, and then there were acouple on the main dock and I
(46:24):
remember well, I don't know whatI was doing I went onto the
main dock and then I jumped offof the main dock onto the bow of
one of the cedar strips, forwhatever reason, and honestly I
don't remember why, but Islipped on that um, I slipped on
(46:46):
that that bow of that boat andmy feet come right out from
underneath me and I ended upfalling and landing just about
mid of my, the middle of my back, not quite far enough onto the
(47:09):
end of the dock and with myshoulders and my head hanging in
the water and my legs and myass and the small of my back on
the dock.
So I just hit that spot where Ididn't go head over heels into
the lake and I'm going to tellyou it hurt, it hurt bad.
(47:33):
And in that moment, moment, Imanaged to squirm my way back
onto the dock in the lightningand in the thunder and
torrential rain.
And I thought to myself, and,and you know, when I come down,
(47:53):
the gunwale of that boat wasright there, like it was right
there, and I don't know howclose my head come to that
gunnel when I was in full flight.
And I was in full flight, um,and I thought to myself, you
know what, if I had have hit myhead and I had have landed one
(48:17):
inch differently, I would haveslipped into that water and
nobody would have ever knownuntil they found my body.
And that is when I realized howdangerous things can be down on
the dock, with not just myselflike this is me we're talking
(48:41):
about, this is me, and I'm theperson that is instructing all
of my staff on how to do things.
And I nearly knocked myself outand drowned myself in the
middle of a storm, and it was atthat point that I started.
Well, first thing I did was um,uh, I made it mandatory, uh,
(49:05):
for all uh dock staff to buySperry's, which are like um, um,
a, uh, a shoe that um, umpeople use on yachts, because of
the grip that you get, um,because I didn't, you can't slip
right and half the time, youknow, I, it was always closed
(49:30):
toe, but I would, uh, you know,there would be times when people
were down there, um, not somuch working, but in their
crocks, or you know, it's justsafety was one of those things
that that night become crystalclear how paramount um safety
(49:51):
had to be down there, because itum, it, it, it, it, things
happen quick, things happenquick.
And when you're in the momentand you're trying to to do the
things that need to be done,like spin the boats around so
they don't sink, you still haveto be mindful of safety.
(50:16):
And that was a very lucky andand I'm I'm very thankful for
the way things turned out andthe lesson I learned that night.
The other memory I have of thatnight is, just before I jumped
onto the bow of that boat, therewas a crack of lightning that,
(50:39):
like I mean, the lightning andthunder were simultaneous.
And, uh, that lightning bolt,man, it was above the, the main
lodge, and it was one of thoseones that bounces through the
cloud about four times and it itbacklit the lodge and the image
of, of seeing the lodge and thetrees backlit by this massive
(51:07):
bolt of lightning, um, it burnedinto my, my, my eyes and my
mind.
I wish I had a picture of thatUm, because it was that?
Because it was a violent storm.
It was a violent storm and I'llnever forget that.
(51:30):
And you know the other thing too, with Mother Nature you've got
your fires, you've got storms,but you also have nature and
animals and wildlife that gettoo close.
And I've told the story aboutEarl the bear, you know, and he
(51:52):
turned into an issue.
He turned into an issue.
But as far as other problem andnuisance animals, you know, the
only animal that were nuisanceon the island were the raccoons
and they, well, the raccoons forsure, and to a certain extent
(52:16):
we had otters.
And if you left the gut bucketfrom the fish cleaning shack um
on the ground and left itovernight, cause a lot of times
you'd clean, you'd clean out theum, clean the fish in the
evening when people come in andum, I didn't like uh going and
(52:37):
dumping the uh, the guts um atnight just because you know it
would sit on the shorelineovernight and that would attract
four-legged fur-bearing animalswhen, if you put it out in the
morning, in the daylight, all ofthe birds had everything
(52:57):
cleaned up, that was.
And our slop buckets were thesame right and a slop bucket is
just all of the birds hadeverything cleaned up, that was,
and our slop buckets were thesame right, and a slop bucket is
just all of the food that comeoff of the plates from the
dining room after guests hadeaten all of the waste.
We'd keep that separate fromour garbage, because if you put
food waste in your garbage bagsand we only took the garbage
(53:20):
once a week sometimes it couldgo a little longer than that
shit got real quick with theamount of food waste that we had
, so we just separated it out,put it into slot buckets and
then in the morning we wouldtake the gut bucket and the slot
buckets and we would take itaround the backside of the
(53:42):
island and there was a big flatrock and we'd throw it up on
that big flat rock and theturkey vultures, seagulls, all
the birds they would have thatthey would have everything
cleaned up within, you know,three, four hours and they were
(54:03):
waiting.
They were waiting every morningSome of the best employees I
ever had, you know, always atwork early and never left until
the job was done, believe me, um.
(54:24):
So you know, but in the uh, inthe, in the um, uh, situation
where you would forget to hangthat gut bucket in the cleaning
fish cleaning station up four orfive, six feet off the ground.
We had otters and the otterswould come up, they take the,
the carcasses in the gut bucketand they would stash them under
(54:44):
the dock house, which was afreaking nightmare, because you
can't, we could not get in underthe dock house, like it was
impossible.
And well, you could startpulling up floorboards, I guess,
but they would stash thosecarcasses under there and then
they would begin to rot and whata stink.
(55:05):
You would get inside the dockhouse and that was where we had
our store, like our dock storewith tackle, and you'd buy your
bait and all of that stuff downthere and people would meet in
the morning for coffee and youknow what a nightmare those
(55:26):
little otters could be.
Having said that, one of theotters had a nest up under the
main lodge and the mother wouldrun back and forth from
underneath the corner of themain lodge down to the dock and
people loved seeing her.
She'd slide right down therocks and into the water.
And then, you know, for a coupleof years we had a little pet
(55:50):
mink who found his way to thedock and that little fella man,
he was money cute and he wouldjust run right around.
You could never pet him, likehe wasn't that tame, but he
would run around your feet andhis main goal in life was to eat
(56:11):
all of the dead minnows in thebottoms of the boats, the cedar
strips especially.
Because when you'd go out andyou'd be fishing with live bait,
you know a minnow would fallinto the bottom of the boat and
they all leak, so there would bejust enough water in the bottom
there to keep them alive.
And this little mink he'd jumpin there and he'd catch all them
(56:33):
minnows that are either dead oralive in the bottom of the
cedar strips.
And he'd go every morning, boatto boat to boat to boat to boat
, no matter if there was 50people down there or if there
was nobody down there.
He was cleaning out my boatsfor me and, uh, he was another.
Is that I, if I could have hada, a wee army of of little minks
(56:56):
down there?
I, I would have if they werethey and a beautiful little
little animal.
But um, you know, you got tokind of manage the wildlife
because it can get a little outof hand and, like in the case of
(57:19):
Earl the bear you know he was Idon't think that he would have
ever hurt anybody intentionally.
I know that he could have hurtsomebody unintentionally, and
what I mean by that is he wasstarting to venture into the
(57:42):
laundry room and there was oneway in and one way out.
And if he had have gone intothe laundry room and there was
one way in and one way out, andif he had have gone into the
laundry room and one of thegirls or guests or guys walked
in while Earl was in there, earlwould have run them down just
to get out and, um, you know, wehad to deal with, uh, we had to
deal with Earl.
(58:03):
But you gotta, you gotta manageyour, your wildlife.
And then the last thing that Iwant to talk about when things
go wrong at the lodge and thishappened a couple of times the
first was by far the worst andthat's power outages.
(58:28):
It is a nightmare when you'reat the lodge and the first time
that I ever that it happened, Iwas totally unprepared, never
thought about it.
I didn't have a generator, itwas just, it was.
(58:51):
It was not good.
Now, that power outage lastedfor four days, four or five days
, it was, it was.
It was one of the longest.
Well, I think to this day it'sit's been the longest power
outage at the lodge that I wasinvolved with and we managed to
(59:15):
feed all of the guests becausethat was all on propane.
Now, let me think I did have onegenerator.
I had one generator and I thinkthat I ended up mom and dad may
have brought it up, but I hadone generator going because we
(59:37):
had lights in the main lodge.
We had the fridge was on, thefreezer was not the freezer, we
had to just keep the door closed.
It was toward the end of theyear, so there wasn't a whole
(59:59):
lot of food left in the mainfreezer.
But the worst, and so all ofthe kitchen other than the
convection oven runs on propane.
So we were good that way.
We were good with propane inthe kitchen.
So we had our stove, we had theability to still cook and we
(01:00:22):
had lights in the main lodge.
Our biggest problem was ourwater system.
I didn't have, I didn't haveany water, so we we were.
We had a big, a large stockpileof bottled water, which was
(01:00:43):
which was fine as far as cookingand drinking went, but things
got awful shitty awful quickbecause there was no power to
run the septic system and, um,the way that that septic system
worked is there were like 40gallon drums outside the cottage
(01:01:07):
and, um, and once those fill toa certain point, then hydro
turns a pump on and that pumppumps all of that waste up into
the, the main septic tanks.
For, you know, without gettingtoo deep in the weeds there, we
(01:01:31):
had no ability to deal with that.
And after a couple of days,when those tanks fill, shit
starts backing up into thecottage and overflowing out onto
the ground and, um and um stinkand there was no way to to deal
(01:01:56):
with with that.
And it ended up that afterthree days, um, most people left
, most people went home because,um, um, it was just, uh, it was
.
It was not a very pleasantsituation.
There were people that stayedbecause they didn't like I mean,
hardcore outdoor enthusiaststhat are used to camping know
(01:02:17):
how to deal with situations likethat but most people just
decided that yeah, no, this isnot what I signed up for and I
ended up having to refund all ofthose people or give them a
rain check to come back thefollowing year.
There wasn't enough time thatseason to get them back that
(01:02:38):
year and that's what happened.
I either refunded people orgave them a rain check and I
lost on all of that late seasonrevenue, which was a kick in the
nuts really.
But it is what it is right.
I learned a valuable lessonthere.
After that I went out and Ibought two 7,500 watt generators
(01:03:03):
and Uncle Barry, myself andAndy, my brother, or Dave, my
other brother they both areelectricians.
Anyway, we had one generatordedicated to the water system
and septic system so that Icould plug the generator in and
(01:03:26):
run the water and septic, whichwas perfect.
It didn't run any of the lightsor anything in the cottages,
but the water system and septicsystem was good Lights.
You know what we can deal withlights out in the cottages.
I had another generator thatrun the fridge, freezer and main
(01:03:53):
lodge and that did a good jobfor quite a few years.
Well, that did a good job forany power outages that we had
since.
But again, another tough lessonto learn.
Yeah, I would never want to dothat again.
(01:04:15):
That was.
That was one of the worst.
One of the worst and mostill-prepared situations that I
was in as a lodge owner andtrying to explain to guests who
were there and had expectationsand paid good money to come,
(01:04:35):
even though it was, I'll call it, an act of nature or out of my
control.
Not really, I could have hadgenerators there before.
It was just a part of thelearning curve that uh, that I
uh, that I went through.
But, um, on that shitty note, wehave come to the conclusion of
(01:05:01):
uh of today's episode and, asusual, I'd like to thank all of
you for getting to this point.
I really appreciate it and it'syou that makes this possible.
If you like what we're talkingabout here and love diaries,
reach out, let us know, leavecomments on whatever app you're
(01:05:23):
listening to us at.
If you have any questions, youknow how to get me steven at
fishincanadacom.
And thank you to LakesideMarine in Red Lake Wonderful,
wonderful people up there.
If you're ever in the area,give them a call.
They've got what you need andthey'll look after you, to you.
(01:05:53):
And thank you to the producers,anthony mancini and uh, dino
taylor.
Um, we uh, I really appreciateeverything you guys do and uh,
and also head on over to thefish and canadacom and get your
name in and watch for thesegiveaways.
I have been told that there issome big stuff coming along.
I've mentioned it in the pastCould be boat, could be motor,
(01:06:13):
you know some big stuff.
So get on over there have alook, and not only that, look at
all of the new SKUs that we'vegot going on at fishincanadacom.
There's a bunch of really coolthings that you can, that you
can dress your family in forsure.
(01:06:34):
Anyway, thank you folks.
And thus brings us to theconclusion of another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Stories of the North.
Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
I'll be making my way .
Someday I might own a lodge,and that'd be fine.
I'll be making my way, the onlyway I know how.
Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Working hard and sharing the north with all of my
pals.
Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Well, I'm a good old boy.
Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
I'll buy the lodge and live my dream.
Oh boy, I bought a lodge andlived my dream, and now I'm here
talking about how life can beas good as it seems.
Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
Yeah, back in 2016,.
Frank and I had a vision Toamass the single largest
database of muskie anglingeducation material anywhere in
the world.
Our dream was to harness theknowledge of this amazing
community and share it withpassionate anglers just like you
thus the ugly pike podcast wasborn and quickly grew to become
(01:08:00):
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Speaker 5 (01:08:09):
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Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing.
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Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an unwavering
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Speaker 5 (01:08:32):
Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our
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Tight lines everyone.
Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's Favorite
Fishing Show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Now, what are we going to talkabout for two hours every week?
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.
Speaker 4 (01:09:08):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
From athletes.
All the other guys would gogolfing Me and Garton Turk and
all the Russians would gofishing To scientists Now that
we're reforesting and lettingthings freeze.
It's the perfect transmissionenvironment for limestone.
Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
If I had have hit my head and I had have landed one
inch differently, I would haveslipped into that water and
nobody would have ever knownuntil they found my body.
And that is when I realized howdangerous things can be down on
(00:27):
the dock.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This week on the Outdoor Journal, radio, podcast
Networks, diaries of a LodgeOwner Stories of the North.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
We're getting real about the moments every lodge
owner secretly dreads, the kindthat start with you've got to be
kidding me and end with eithera cold beer or a great story Out
here.
It's not a matter of if thingsgo wrong, it's how spectacularly
and how quickly can you getthem fixed.
(00:58):
On this show we talk about thebehind-the-scenes chaos, from
power outages and rocks thatjump into the paths of rental
boats to storms and wildlifeencounters that make you
question who's really in charge,and guests whose experience is
so bad you've got to pull everytrick in the book out to save
(01:21):
their trip.
So if you've ever wondered whathappens when Mother Nature,
murphy's Law and a group ofhungry guests all meet at the
same time, stick around.
These are the stories ofdisasters dodged, lessons
learned and why, in the lodgebusiness, the worst days can
(01:43):
sometimes make the best memories.
Welcome, folks, back to anotherepisode of Diaries of a Lodge
Owner Stories of the North.
This is Steve Niedzwiecki, herewith you, and it's a great,
great day.
I'm just freshly back from thecottage with my daughter, maddie
(02:06):
, and her second annual fishingtrip, and it was a successful
one, to say the least.
We didn't do a whole lot offishing out there.
We spent more time in the saunaand on the dock, but that's
okay with me, but that's okaywith me.
So today I decided that wewould talk about something that
(02:30):
a lot of people ask me a lotabout when it comes to the lodge
business, and that's the thingsthat go wrong, and some behind
the scenes and some not so muchbehind the scenes, and it was.
It was a huge learning curvefor me and um I I'm really
(02:52):
looking forward to diving intosome of these stories with you.
Um, because the, the learningcurve that comes with adversity
is steep, to say the least, andmy learning curve over the 10
(03:12):
years that I owned Chaudiere wasvery steep.
Sometimes I barely kept myfingernails dug into the was
because it was so steep.
But you know, one of thebiggest things that I learned
(03:33):
very quickly in my very firstyear, largely due to the fact
that it was a drought year inhistory of the area and the
water was so low, so low thatthe guides were clipping rocks
(03:54):
with the guide boats becausethey were going through areas
where every other year they wereable to get through with no
problem, like this way rock, andthey were touching the bottom.
So if the guides were havingissues, you can imagine what the
(04:19):
guests were doing.
And this brings me to the rocksthat jump out in front of the
rental boats.
And that year was just a.
There was over 200 props in 20boats that were damaged.
I wasn't set up my way to dealwith the damages and charging
(04:51):
people for them.
I had Jerry's old paperworkfrom when he run the lodge and
we basically just had peoplesign on the dotted line saying,
yes, the boat is in goodcondition, I'll return it in
good condition and I'll pay foranything I break.
And it sounds verystraightforward until you get
(05:16):
into the thick of it.
And people don't particularlylike paying for damage.
People don't particularly likepaying for damage.
And one of the things that Ithink I told you the Dick story
Well, I shouldn't say Dick story, richard story when he smashed
(05:43):
the bottom end of one of theboats and refused to pay because
he wasn't the first one to hitit.
And why should he pay for thestraw that broke the camel's
back and nobody in front of himpaid for anything.
But you know, and he had noidea what was going on and you
know what, off the top.
I had said that you know a lotof these situations.
(06:04):
You learn from lessons learned,stories of disasters dodged and
lessons learned as much as Dick, you know, owed me for the
(06:27):
bottom end because he hit a rockand smashed the whole thing
wide open.
The one point that he made wasthat you know there's damage
done to it before me and thatkind of hit me hard because
(06:47):
that's true.
And is it a fair statement.
Well, in that situation,because he smashed the whole
bottom end case wide open no,that didn't.
And I give him a break.
Well, he wasn't going to pay.
And then when I told him that Iwasn't going to drive him back
to the marina, that he couldswim, he got all worked up and
(07:14):
stomped around, made a big sceneand yelled at me he'd pay half.
So I took the deal at half andthat was when I started to
formulate in my mind how can Ido this and not have to deal
with this?
(07:35):
A big scene, and I hatedcharging people extra costs.
Like it's hard, you know.
And in that first year Iremember there was one poor
fella and I'm not sure what hewas thinking, or anyway.
(07:59):
He ended up taking out one ofthe cedar strips and hit a rock
behind dead man's island and umtook the, took the bottom like
smash the bottom end.
And whenever that happened, Iwould never, I told the dock
hands never make a big deal ofit.
Just be sure to to um get themset up in another boat.
(08:22):
Explain to them it happens tothe best of us.
They already feel bad enough,like I mean, they feel bad
enough about it, um, so justjust be kind about it, don't
make them feel any worse thanthey already do.
So we set this fella up and andI should remember his name, but
(08:42):
this is going we're going back15, 20 years but we got him into
another boat and he hit thesame rock.
He hit the same rock and didanother bottom end and this was
like on the third day, third orfourth day it was a seven day
(09:04):
trip and after he hit the, hedid the second bottom end and
like I mean he did him good,like I had to charge him and at
the time on the sheet it was$900 to replace the bottom end,
which didn't even cover my costs.
They were $1,200 or $1,300 forthe bottom end.
(09:27):
I didn't know that because Iwas so overwhelmed with
everything else.
I had never had to replace abottom end but anyway.
So I couldn't even charge.
I wasn't even getting paid thefull amount that it was going to
cost me.
But I felt so bad and herefused to get into another boat
(09:48):
.
He was like no, I'm done, I'mgoing to hang out on the dock,
I'm going to fish off the dockand I'm done.
And um, I remember we um, um hewas a musician and um, um, to
make him feel better, I said,hey, listen, why don't we play
guitar tonight to make them feelbetter?
I said, hey, listen, why don'twe play guitar tonight?
And there was two or three ofus that played guitar and we sat
(10:09):
there in the lodge and weplayed Seven Spanish Angels and
I don't know.
That was back when my voice wasin better shape and I sang the
shit right out of that songSeven Spanish Angels, with Ray
Charles and Willie Nelson andman, we had a wonderful time and
(10:43):
potentially those days andevenings really could have saved
.
Well, I think it did.
It saved his trip, and thoseare the types of things that
you've got to do to try and helppeople through a hard time,
because you know the two bottomends cost him more than his trip
(11:06):
, and that's a lot, like I mean,in today's numbers.
I was just over at Chaudiere onthis last trip up north and one
of their rental boats, theirhigher end rental boats, with
their minx, their Stanley minx,so they're like 18 foot aluminum
(11:33):
boats but heavy aluminum boatswith a 90 horsepower on them and
somebody like took the wholebottom end right off like not
smashed right off and actuallybroke the housing on the top end
of the engine and to replacethat the bill was either $10,000
(12:01):
or $12,000.
So you know, whenever you're,whenever you're signing on that
dotted line for these rental,rental boats, you really truly
have to make sure that you knowwhat you're getting yourself
into.
And, um and um, you're carefulwith the equipment because it is
(12:23):
some expensive shit these days.
And you know as much as I saythat those evenings singing and
spending time with that finegentleman saved his trip, which
it did, and we had a wonderfultime.
And when he left he thanked mefor those times.
(12:48):
But he never come back, like Imean that that that left such a
such a a bitter taste in his,his mouth.
Um, he never did come back and Iand, and I'm not even sure if
he ever went to another fishinglodge because, um, it was, it
was one of those things, right,and um, um, so, for every story
(13:13):
where where somebody pays um for, for the damage, um, you know,
there's stories that that aretotally opposite.
Um, you know, and uh, like I,this would have been my second
or third year I had just boughtum two Lund Alaskan, uh, guide
(13:41):
boats 20 foot Lund Alaskans withone 15s on them.
Um, I bought two 16 foot lundfuries with 50s or 60s on them
and I bought five brand new 20horsepower electric start, um
(14:02):
mercury engines for the cedarstrips and um, uh, we put, we
installed all the, uh, the, um,the, the motors on the cedar
strips because the old yamahasthat I had were old, like um, um
, this would have been back.
So we're talking 2013.
(14:23):
Um, I was still usingtwo-stroke Yamahas from the
early 90s which were gettingreally tired, and I had a group.
We had just broken in all ofthese engines and I had a group
come in and they took out acedar strip with a 20 horsepower
(14:44):
and I remember sitting in theoffice and seeing somebody
towing in a cedar strip.
Wow, that was the other therewas.
They had two cedars in theirgroup, I think there was five of
them, and it was a father, twofathers and three sons, and the
sons would have been, you know,early teens, and the one guy's
(15:08):
towing the other guy back and Iwalked down to the dock to see
what was going on and I lookedat the cedar that they were
towing and the engine was gone,like there was no engine there
and the guy was like irate at mebecause the engine had come off
of the back of the boat and hesaid the gas can went by him at
(15:35):
100 mile an hour and it almostpulled him right into the lake.
And he's like he's irate andI'm without an engine.
He signed that if he broke ithe pays for it.
And the story that I found outthat he told me is he was doing
(16:04):
donuts in the Cedar Strip tocreate a bunch of big wake so
that he could drive the boatthrough the wake and try and
jump the boat over the wake andin doing this the engine come
(16:24):
loose and it come off of thetransom and it ended up in the
bottom of the lake.
And I was like and he's mad atme and he's like.
He is telling me that he'sgoing to sue me because it
almost hurt him to sue mebecause it almost hurt him.
(16:50):
Well, being new and Cole was,cole was very good at uh, all of
the, the, the legal baloney andwhatever I didn't, I, I didn't
know what to do, like there's no, there's no, I had, I had no
policy written in on the sheetthat Jerry had for well, there
was total loss, I guess.
But anyway, the bottom line wasthe guy was was threatening me
(17:15):
and yelling at me and you know,I told him.
I said, listen, your negligenceby doing donuts and everything
else caused this.
And now I'm out an engine andyou should be paying me for the
engine.
And he lost again.
(17:37):
He didn't want to pay, he losthis shit and he said no, no, not
a chance.
Blah, blah, blah.
This is ridiculous.
Why did the engine come off?
This is, you know, um, it's notsafe and everything else.
And again, tough lesson learned, right?
Um, he's right in a sense.
(17:58):
He was, he was, he was wrong tobe doing donuts and driving
through the wake.
But having said that, water canget rough, water can get rough
out there and those boats needto be able to handle rough water
and every engine should be, andI knew this and I had explained
(18:19):
it to the guys on the dock.
Every engine should be chainedto the.
On those old cedar strips therewas a bracket that went from
the transom to the floor and youcould get underneath it.
It was like a gusset and yourun a chain underneath the
(18:41):
gusset, bolt that chain togetheraround that gusset and then you
, you take the, you chain theengine through the handle, not
the steering handle, but there'salways a little looped handle
or they actually have tabs withholes on the engine where you
can bolt the chain so that ifthat does happen because
(19:02):
occasionally if you don't checkthe clamps on the engine, the
screw clamps on the engine, theywill back off from vibration,
whatever, and in that case thenyour engine is chained to the
boat.
We didn't do that, that hadn'tbeen done.
Do that that hadn't been doneand um, anyway, I learned, uh, I
(19:30):
learned about a, a $4,000lesson that day about making
sure that all of the um boatengines are chained to the um,
to the uh, um boat and um andthe and that guy and his uh, his
um group, the, the two fathersand three sons.
They left that day and theywanted their money back.
(19:52):
I said I'm not giving you yourmoney back If you're leaving
today.
What I'll do is I'll prorateyour stay for the time you were
here the two days you were here,and then I'll give you the
money back for the other threedays, which, again in hindsight,
(20:14):
I really think what happenedwas because we went back to look
for that engine.
It was in 50 feet but with thetechnology that we had at the
time, the downscan would havebeen clear enough, especially if
the story that the gas tankwent in with it and stayed on
(20:41):
the engine because there was nogas tank floating around, like
the gas tank, apparently stayedhooked to the engine because
there was no gas tank floatingaround, like the gas tank
apparently stayed hooked to theengine and the engine went to
the bottom of the lake.
We would have seen that theengine and the floating gas tank
that would have been above ittethered to it by the gas line.
(21:04):
I'm pretty sure what happenedwas they may have seen that this
was a brand new engine, cookedup a story and took it off and
hid it in the bush and then comeback in a recon mission later
on and got themselves a brandnew engine Because, like I say,
(21:27):
there was no sign of an engineanywhere in the vicinity where
they and they took me back andshowed me where this happened.
They took me back and they, theyshowed me where this happened.
So I don't know, I don't know,maybe not.
You know I should give peoplethe benefit of the doubt, but
(21:51):
that was a hard lesson.
That was a real hard lesson,you know, and it's again.
There's so many differentthings that happened with the
rental boats, in particular onthe French River.
It's a treacherous body ofwater if you're not paying
(22:13):
attention.
It's very well mapped, theNavionics app and mapping is
excellent.
I can honestly say I don'tthink that there is a place, if
you're paying attention to yourmap, that you can get yourself
in trouble these days.
But if you're not payingattention, you will eventually
(22:39):
hit something and you knowthere's so many.
I remember there was a groupfrom Buffalo and, well, new York
area, new York Buffalo area,and there they had a bunch of
(23:03):
and they would come big group.
They would come and bring theirBoston whalers, beautiful boats
, and we were back in Marshy Bayand when you're going into
Marshy Bay, right at the right,at the mouth of Marshy Bay,
you've got to stay to the left.
And everybody knew, knew thatyou had to stay to the left.
And, um, on the way out, um,you know, um, the, the, the, the
(23:29):
guys and they, and they weren'tyoung Like I mean, and they
weren't young Like I mean, theyweren't old, you know, like
45-year-old men got playing andone of the guys decided that
they wanted to get out in frontand lead or race or whatever was
going on, and decided to pullout on when they were heading
(23:50):
out, pull out on the left side.
And I'll never forget the soundthat that bottom end made when
it come into contact with thatrock and the boat.
It lifted the ass end of theboat three feet up out of the
water.
Like, I mean, nobody was hurt,but it's lucky that that nobody,
(24:12):
nobody was, nobody was hurt orthrown out of the boat, for that
matter.
You know, and I just happenedto be right there and uh and
watching it unfold and and Iknew, as soon as he pulled out
onto the left, I was yelling.
But you know, a hundred yardsaway, with those engines going,
he, it's a.
You might as well not, but um,yeah, like it's.
(24:36):
Uh, it's one of those thingswhere rocks jump out in front of
boats on the French river andum, and you gotta be mindful of
it, um, but uh, you know, andand when things like that happen
, you've got to try and and uhand um do your best to make sure
(25:00):
that the experience is stillgood or it's not tainted to the
point where they don't.
My worry was always they wouldnever come back.
You know, and a lot of times Iwas able to make it so that they
(25:21):
would come back.
You know, they're just toughlessons learned.
And also, you know, I wouldhaving said that the experience
wasn't always because ofcollisions on the water or
things like that In the diningroom I would be very cognizant
(25:43):
of how people were feeling andmaking sure that every person
was having an outstanding time.
And you know there's justsometimes you don't.
I hate it when people say youcan't please them all, because I
(26:05):
think that's bullshit.
I truly try to please them all,um, but you know there was
another.
There was an instance where, uh, a fella brought his um, his um
wife, and they were actuallylocal, they were fairly from
(26:26):
around, uh, I don't know,Sudbury, north Bay, maybe a
little north, but they were fromOntario and they brought their
family from Dubai over andeverything that could go wrong
went wrong.
And you know, I think, thatthey were expecting, their
(26:49):
expectations of the place wereskewed.
And that was tough sometimesbecause you know, we advertised
as a five-star northern resortand a five-star northern resort
(27:12):
is not a five-star New Yorkresort, you know what I mean.
And right off the bat I thinkthat they just assumed that this
was going or Ritz-Carlton andit's not.
But anyway, they complainedabout the cleanliness of the
(27:38):
cottages and when I went to lookthe girls did the bathroom had
not been cleaned properly in oneof the cottages and there was a
little bit of mud in the well.
It wasn't even mud, it was likea little bit of dirt in the
bathtub and we cleaned that up.
(28:00):
And then there was anotherissue and I felt bad.
So I took the family from Dubaiout on a guide.
Actually I took them out twiceto try to ease the
dissatisfaction of the localfella and he was just the family
(28:31):
from Dubai.
They were, they were wonderful,they were, they were, they were
beautiful people.
Um, uh, two young kids, a youngcouple.
We went to the beach.
I took them out to um Frank'sBay.
We went to the free flowingchannel, we went fishing Like I
spent a lot of time with themand they were, they were
wonderful.
We went fishing like I spent alot of time with them and they
(28:52):
were, they were wonderful.
The um, the older couple fromthe local couple, there was just
no pleasing them.
Um, it's, it's a, it's a wonderthat, like I mean, he, he did
pay, he paid for the for thetrip, didn't pay for any of the
guides, that was all free.
Um, but then, um, when he left,right after he paid, he said
(29:19):
that um, um, he was verydisappointed with everything
that happened and you'll hearfrom me and, uh, I didn't know
what that meant, but what thatmeant was, he took me to the
Better Business Bureau and I hadno idea what the Better
(29:39):
Business Bureau even was, and wegot a letter.
This is when Cole was there.
We got a letter from the BetterBusiness Bureau and they were
saying that we needed to refundthis guy for his trip because of
all of the stuff that happenedand everything else.
(30:03):
And Cole and I said to Cole Isaid, well, I guess we better
just get rid of this problem.
Like I was of the mindset thatyou know, just get rid of the
problem, pay, give him his moneyback.
And that was early in my tenurewhen every dollar counted and
(30:25):
Cole said you got to be kiddingme, you're not giving them a
cent back.
Said you gotta be kidding me,you're not giving them a cent
back.
Those, this, that guy.
There was no possible way thathe would ever have been
satisfied anywhere.
And Cole said in my opinion, hedoes this all the time and he
does it to get free trips and heain't getting a free trip from
(30:48):
us.
You leave it with me.
Wow, I'm so thankful for ColeBecause he had it looked after
in I don't know three or fouremails it was.
He didn't even I said how'sthings going?
(31:09):
He said don't worry about it,it's been taken care of right
from the start.
And he took care of it andthere was no bad review.
They had to remove the reviewoff of Better Business Bureau or
whatever it was, and theyobviously sided with us.
(31:31):
So it was something that I wasvery appreciative with Cole and
he was a very, very importantpiece and still is by the way,
he's still up at Chaudière buthe was a very important piece in
(31:52):
the business for me because,for lack of a better term, he
was the bad cop.
He looked after all of the um,uh, the, the, the billing people
and collecting um, um oninvoices at the end of the week
and all of that stuff which I,and admittedly so, am not good
(32:17):
at.
I am not good at taking moneyfrom friends and when you come
as a guest you left as friends.
That was our mantra.
Come as guests, leave as familymantra, come as guests, leave
(32:37):
as family.
And I needed coal to collectthe money so that we could be
there year after year and thatwas that's.
You know, that whole BetterBusiness Bureau thing really,
really stressed me out.
It was something that I had ahard time thinking, that
somebody come and had such a badtime that they wanted to tell
(32:58):
the world that we were badpeople.
And that gave me so muchanxiety that I couldn't sleep at
night thinking about it.
And thanks, cole, I'll neverforget how you handled that for
(33:18):
me and for us.
And it was important.
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As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(34:33):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal use by
Indigenous peoples all over theglobe.
With centuries of medicinal useby Indigenous peoples all over
the globe.
After nearly a decade of harvestuse, testimonials and research,
(34:55):
my skepticism has faded toobsession and I now spend my
life dedicated to improving thelives of others through natural
means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
(35:20):
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people.
That will help you find youroutdoor passion and help you
live a life close to nature andunder the canopy.
Find Under the Canopy now onSpotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
You know other things that would go wrong.
You know you get these, themother nature, right in a couple
of different ways.
Mother Nature comes in storms,comes in fires, comes in
wildlife getting too close.
(36:01):
Speaking of fires, I mentionedoff the top I'm just freshly
back from the French for thegirls' second annual fishing
trip and when we were out Iforget what day it was, maybe
three, four days ago we werecoming back from the lake and it
(36:27):
was rough and really, reallywindy.
So we took the back channel andwe were coming through just
past Allison Island and I was,for whatever reason, debating in
my mind do I go main channel?
And I knew, because of the wind, the main channel was going to
be a nightmare.
So I took the back channel andas soon as I turned right to go
(36:50):
on the inside of Allison Island,I saw smoke and one of the
campsites there was asignificant amount of smoke that
it wasn't a campfire.
So the girls and I drove overand, sure enough, somebody had
had a fire in the fire pit andleft it without completely
(37:16):
putting it out and like it was,40 kilometer an hour, sustained
winds with gusts of more thanthat, and by the time we got
there, there was probably by thetime we got there there was
probably, I'm going to say, a200-foot radius that was on fire
on the shoreline.
(37:38):
And I looked in the boat andthere was a big cooler, you know
, a cooler the size that you gotto lift with two hands on each
end.
And I told the girls I saidempty that cooler real quick,
because I thought that I couldpull up on the shoreline and use
(37:59):
the cooler to get it undercontrol.
But as we were pulling up tothe shoreline, the fire had
gotten so hot that one of the 60to 80 foot pine trees that were
right there exploded intoflames.
Like it was.
It was, it was and and as soonas that happened like I mean,
(38:22):
you've got a 80 foot torchthat's burning from bottom to
top and it's the pine needlesand the wind I knew right away I
said to the girls okay, we'renot going to get this one with a
cooler.
So we pulled out and there weretwo cottages that were in the
(38:48):
line of fire and probably abouta kilometer, maybe not even half
a kilometer, away from the site, and I didn't have cell service
to call anybody.
I tried to use that textingoption now that Apple has where
you can point your phone atsatellites.
(39:10):
But I couldn't figure it out.
So we pulled out and saw a boatwith a couple of younger people
in it, a guy and a girl, and itwas over towards the two
cottages that were kind of inthat line of fire and I asked
them.
I said hey, is that yourcottage?
And they said yeah.
(39:31):
I said do is that your cottage?
And they said yeah.
I said do you have a phone?
And they said yeah.
I said you need to go and youneed to call 911 right now and
tell them that there's a forestfire and you've got less than an
hour before your cottage goesup with it.
And they said okay, okay, okay.
And they pointed to the cottageon the other side of the point
(39:52):
and they said go and talk tothem.
And I think they were trying touse their cell phone, but
anyway.
So I drove to the other side andtalked to the people there.
They were out on their dock andI said listen, there is a
forest fire right over there.
And by that time now the smokeis billowing.
You need to call 911, callRiverview Marina and call Bud at
(40:20):
Doquese Marina, and I give themthe phone numbers, and took off
to get our fire pump and runinto Corey, one of the guys at
Chaudière, and I turned aroundand we drove over to Corey and
Corey's like hey, what's goingon?
What should we do?
I said, corey, go back toChaudière, get the fire pump now
(40:44):
.
And by the time I got back to myplace and I got, and I actually
I phoned Bud because my firepump was plumbed into the island
.
I borrowed Bud's fire pump wasprobably I'm going to say, 10 or
(41:11):
12 boats from people on theriver that brought their
firefighting equipment, allfighting this fire.
I jumped off and startedfighting the fire as well and
they were dropping firefightersvia helicopter at the site.
(41:32):
We got it, we got it undercontrol, but in the 45 minutes
that I was gone that fire wentfrom you know a couple hundred
feet in diameter.
I bet you, by the time we gotit under control, which was
(41:54):
about four hours later, it hadburnt 10 acres, 15 acres.
It was a serious fire and thatright there is the most
(42:15):
dangerous thing that cottagersface and lodge owners face up
there is fire.
I've seen tornadoes, we had astorm that tore up, I don't know
(42:36):
, 150 trees in Doakies Bay.
I don't know 150 trees inDoquese Bay, but to watch how
quickly that fire spread in thatwind was scary, man, it was
truly scary.
And you know storms and that,like I mean storms are a concern
(43:00):
as well, like there's been snowin beginning of June and when
you're at the lodge and peopleare coming in and you know it's
snowing, and there's been snowin beginning of September too,
you know so those are.
(43:22):
But again, there's a bigdifference between a forest fire
and a little bit of snow.
You know what I mean.
But I, uh, I remember, um, Ilearned a real, um tough lesson.
Well, I was lucky and, and I'lltell you the story, um, there
(43:43):
was a time, a period for acouple of years, where we
experienced some thunderstormsup at the lodge that were
magnanimous, like these thingswere were were really, really
violent storms.
And this one evening there was astorm coming in and everybody
(44:09):
had packed in for the night.
So it was like 10, 11 o'clock,I don't remember what time of
year it was, but it was dark andall of the boats, the docks,
face south, southwest, and whenthe wind is right, sometimes
(44:30):
even in our small little part ofthe river, the waves can get
big and the way we park theboats, you just drive the boat
straight into the dock with thetransom exposed to the, to the,
to the water, and when you get areal big storm, if you're not
(44:52):
careful, the water will washover the back of the transom and
and the and the boat will sink.
So I saw this storm coming inand it was.
The waves down on the dock werebig enough that they were
washing over the backs of thetransoms and I didn't want to
get anybody like.
I mean, the staff worked hardand I didn't want to, at 11
(45:18):
o'clock, go and wake everybodyup, to go and turn the boats
around, bow into the wind, right, so that you don't have to
worry about water coming in,because with the bow into the
wind it takes the waves right,right, right, right.
(45:39):
So that meant I had to go downto the dock and spin every boat
around so that they were facingnose out, and you could do that
from the dock, like I didn'thave to jump into all of the
boats and drive them and backthem in.
I just, you know, untied theboats pushed the boat out, the
(46:01):
ass end would swing around.
I'd pull the ass, end in andthen put the, put the um, tie
the boat up with the bow facingout.
No big deal, I figured I'll,I'll just do it myself.
So I went down and got them alldone on the uh, on the floating
docks, and then there were acouple on the main dock and I
(46:24):
remember well, I don't know whatI was doing I went onto the
main dock and then I jumped offof the main dock onto the bow of
one of the cedar strips, forwhatever reason, and honestly I
don't remember why, but Islipped on that um, I slipped on
(46:46):
that that bow of that boat andmy feet come right out from
underneath me and I ended upfalling and landing just about
mid of my, the middle of my back, not quite far enough onto the
(47:09):
end of the dock and with myshoulders and my head hanging in
the water and my legs and myass and the small of my back on
the dock.
So I just hit that spot where Ididn't go head over heels into
the lake and I'm going to tellyou it hurt, it hurt bad.
(47:33):
And in that moment, moment, Imanaged to squirm my way back
onto the dock in the lightningand in the thunder and
torrential rain.
And I thought to myself, and,and you know, when I come down,
(47:53):
the gunwale of that boat wasright there, like it was right
there, and I don't know howclose my head come to that
gunnel when I was in full flight.
And I was in full flight, um,and I thought to myself, you
know what, if I had have hit myhead and I had have landed one
(48:17):
inch differently, I would haveslipped into that water and
nobody would have ever knownuntil they found my body.
And that is when I realized howdangerous things can be down on
the dock, with not just myselflike this is me we're talking
(48:41):
about, this is me, and I'm theperson that is instructing all
of my staff on how to do things.
And I nearly knocked myself outand drowned myself in the
middle of a storm, and it was atthat point that I started.
Well, first thing I did was um,uh, I made it mandatory, uh,
(49:05):
for all uh dock staff to buySperry's, which are like um, um,
a, uh, a shoe that um, umpeople use on yachts, because of
the grip that you get, um,because I didn't, you can't slip
right and half the time, youknow, I, it was always closed
(49:30):
toe, but I would, uh, you know,there would be times when people
were down there, um, not somuch working, but in their
crocks, or you know, it's justsafety was one of those things
that that night become crystalclear how paramount um safety
(49:51):
had to be down there, because itum, it, it, it, it, things
happen quick, things happenquick.
And when you're in the momentand you're trying to to do the
things that need to be done,like spin the boats around so
they don't sink, you still haveto be mindful of safety.
(50:16):
And that was a very lucky andand I'm I'm very thankful for
the way things turned out andthe lesson I learned that night.
The other memory I have of thatnight is, just before I jumped
onto the bow of that boat, therewas a crack of lightning that,
(50:39):
like I mean, the lightning andthunder were simultaneous.
And, uh, that lightning bolt,man, it was above the, the main
lodge, and it was one of thoseones that bounces through the
cloud about four times and it itbacklit the lodge and the image
of, of seeing the lodge and thetrees backlit by this massive
(51:07):
bolt of lightning, um, it burnedinto my, my, my eyes and my
mind.
I wish I had a picture of thatUm, because it was that?
Because it was a violent storm.
It was a violent storm and I'llnever forget that.
(51:30):
And you know the other thing too, with Mother Nature you've got
your fires, you've got storms,but you also have nature and
animals and wildlife that gettoo close.
And I've told the story aboutEarl the bear, you know, and he
(51:52):
turned into an issue.
He turned into an issue.
But as far as other problem andnuisance animals, you know, the
only animal that were nuisanceon the island were the raccoons
and they, well, the raccoons forsure, and to a certain extent
(52:16):
we had otters.
And if you left the gut bucketfrom the fish cleaning shack um
on the ground and left itovernight, cause a lot of times
you'd clean, you'd clean out theum, clean the fish in the
evening when people come in andum, I didn't like uh going and
(52:37):
dumping the uh, the guts um atnight just because you know it
would sit on the shorelineovernight and that would attract
four-legged fur-bearing animalswhen, if you put it out in the
morning, in the daylight, all ofthe birds had everything
(52:57):
cleaned up, that was.
And our slop buckets were thesame right and a slop bucket is
just all of the birds hadeverything cleaned up, that was,
and our slop buckets were thesame right, and a slop bucket is
just all of the food that comeoff of the plates from the
dining room after guests hadeaten all of the waste.
We'd keep that separate fromour garbage, because if you put
food waste in your garbage bagsand we only took the garbage
(53:20):
once a week sometimes it couldgo a little longer than that
shit got real quick with theamount of food waste that we had
, so we just separated it out,put it into slot buckets and
then in the morning we wouldtake the gut bucket and the slot
buckets and we would take itaround the backside of the
(53:42):
island and there was a big flatrock and we'd throw it up on
that big flat rock and theturkey vultures, seagulls, all
the birds they would have thatthey would have everything
cleaned up within, you know,three, four hours and they were
(54:03):
waiting.
They were waiting every morningSome of the best employees I
ever had, you know, always atwork early and never left until
the job was done, believe me, um.
(54:24):
So you know, but in the uh, inthe, in the um, uh, situation
where you would forget to hangthat gut bucket in the cleaning
fish cleaning station up four orfive, six feet off the ground.
We had otters and the otterswould come up, they take the,
the carcasses in the gut bucketand they would stash them under
(54:44):
the dock house, which was afreaking nightmare, because you
can't, we could not get in underthe dock house, like it was
impossible.
And well, you could startpulling up floorboards, I guess,
but they would stash thosecarcasses under there and then
they would begin to rot and whata stink.
(55:05):
You would get inside the dockhouse and that was where we had
our store, like our dock storewith tackle, and you'd buy your
bait and all of that stuff downthere and people would meet in
the morning for coffee and youknow what a nightmare those
(55:26):
little otters could be.
Having said that, one of theotters had a nest up under the
main lodge and the mother wouldrun back and forth from
underneath the corner of themain lodge down to the dock and
people loved seeing her.
She'd slide right down therocks and into the water.
And then, you know, for a coupleof years we had a little pet
(55:50):
mink who found his way to thedock and that little fella man,
he was money cute and he wouldjust run right around.
You could never pet him, likehe wasn't that tame, but he
would run around your feet andhis main goal in life was to eat
(56:11):
all of the dead minnows in thebottoms of the boats, the cedar
strips especially.
Because when you'd go out andyou'd be fishing with live bait,
you know a minnow would fallinto the bottom of the boat and
they all leak, so there would bejust enough water in the bottom
there to keep them alive.
And this little mink he'd jumpin there and he'd catch all them
(56:33):
minnows that are either dead oralive in the bottom of the
cedar strips.
And he'd go every morning, boatto boat to boat to boat to boat
, no matter if there was 50people down there or if there
was nobody down there.
He was cleaning out my boatsfor me and, uh, he was another.
Is that I, if I could have hada, a wee army of of little minks
(56:56):
down there?
I, I would have if they werethey and a beautiful little
little animal.
But um, you know, you got tokind of manage the wildlife
because it can get a little outof hand and, like in the case of
(57:19):
Earl the bear you know he was Idon't think that he would have
ever hurt anybody intentionally.
I know that he could have hurtsomebody unintentionally, and
what I mean by that is he wasstarting to venture into the
(57:42):
laundry room and there was oneway in and one way out.
And if he had have gone intothe laundry room and there was
one way in and one way out, andif he had have gone into the
laundry room and one of thegirls or guests or guys walked
in while Earl was in there, earlwould have run them down just
to get out and, um, you know, wehad to deal with, uh, we had to
deal with Earl.
(58:03):
But you gotta, you gotta manageyour, your wildlife.
And then the last thing that Iwant to talk about when things
go wrong at the lodge and thishappened a couple of times the
first was by far the worst andthat's power outages.
(58:28):
It is a nightmare when you'reat the lodge and the first time
that I ever that it happened, Iwas totally unprepared, never
thought about it.
I didn't have a generator, itwas just, it was.
(58:51):
It was not good.
Now, that power outage lastedfor four days, four or five days
, it was, it was.
It was one of the longest.
Well, I think to this day it'sit's been the longest power
outage at the lodge that I wasinvolved with and we managed to
(59:15):
feed all of the guests becausethat was all on propane.
Now, let me think I did have onegenerator.
I had one generator and I thinkthat I ended up mom and dad may
have brought it up, but I hadone generator going because we
(59:37):
had lights in the main lodge.
We had the fridge was on, thefreezer was not the freezer, we
had to just keep the door closed.
It was toward the end of theyear, so there wasn't a whole
(59:59):
lot of food left in the mainfreezer.
But the worst, and so all ofthe kitchen other than the
convection oven runs on propane.
So we were good that way.
We were good with propane inthe kitchen.
So we had our stove, we had theability to still cook and we
(01:00:22):
had lights in the main lodge.
Our biggest problem was ourwater system.
I didn't have, I didn't haveany water, so we we were.
We had a big, a large stockpileof bottled water, which was
(01:00:43):
which was fine as far as cookingand drinking went, but things
got awful shitty awful quickbecause there was no power to
run the septic system and, um,the way that that septic system
worked is there were like 40gallon drums outside the cottage
(01:01:07):
and, um, and once those fill toa certain point, then hydro
turns a pump on and that pumppumps all of that waste up into
the, the main septic tanks.
For, you know, without gettingtoo deep in the weeds there, we
(01:01:31):
had no ability to deal with that.
And after a couple of days,when those tanks fill, shit
starts backing up into thecottage and overflowing out onto
the ground and, um and um stinkand there was no way to to deal
(01:01:56):
with with that.
And it ended up that afterthree days, um, most people left
, most people went home because,um, um, it was just, uh, it was
.
It was not a very pleasantsituation.
There were people that stayedbecause they didn't like I mean,
hardcore outdoor enthusiaststhat are used to camping know
(01:02:17):
how to deal with situations likethat but most people just
decided that yeah, no, this isnot what I signed up for and I
ended up having to refund all ofthose people or give them a
rain check to come back thefollowing year.
There wasn't enough time thatseason to get them back that
(01:02:38):
year and that's what happened.
I either refunded people orgave them a rain check and I
lost on all of that late seasonrevenue, which was a kick in the
nuts really.
But it is what it is right.
I learned a valuable lessonthere.
After that I went out and Ibought two 7,500 watt generators
(01:03:03):
and Uncle Barry, myself andAndy, my brother, or Dave, my
other brother they both areelectricians.
Anyway, we had one generatordedicated to the water system
and septic system so that Icould plug the generator in and
(01:03:26):
run the water and septic, whichwas perfect.
It didn't run any of the lightsor anything in the cottages,
but the water system and septicsystem was good Lights.
You know what we can deal withlights out in the cottages.
I had another generator thatrun the fridge, freezer and main
(01:03:53):
lodge and that did a good jobfor quite a few years.
Well, that did a good job forany power outages that we had
since.
But again, another tough lessonto learn.
Yeah, I would never want to dothat again.
(01:04:15):
That was.
That was one of the worst.
One of the worst and mostill-prepared situations that I
was in as a lodge owner andtrying to explain to guests who
were there and had expectationsand paid good money to come,
(01:04:35):
even though it was, I'll call it, an act of nature or out of my
control.
Not really, I could have hadgenerators there before.
It was just a part of thelearning curve that uh, that I
uh, that I went through.
But, um, on that shitty note, wehave come to the conclusion of
(01:05:01):
uh of today's episode and, asusual, I'd like to thank all of
you for getting to this point.
I really appreciate it and it'syou that makes this possible.
If you like what we're talkingabout here and love diaries,
reach out, let us know, leavecomments on whatever app you're
(01:05:23):
listening to us at.
If you have any questions, youknow how to get me steven at
fishincanadacom.
And thank you to LakesideMarine in Red Lake Wonderful,
wonderful people up there.
If you're ever in the area,give them a call.
They've got what you need andthey'll look after you, to you.
(01:05:53):
And thank you to the producers,anthony mancini and uh, dino
taylor.
Um, we uh, I really appreciateeverything you guys do and uh,
and also head on over to thefish and canadacom and get your
name in and watch for thesegiveaways.
I have been told that there issome big stuff coming along.
I've mentioned it in the pastCould be boat, could be motor,
(01:06:13):
you know some big stuff.
So get on over there have alook, and not only that, look at
all of the new SKUs that we'vegot going on at fishincanadacom.
There's a bunch of really coolthings that you can, that you
can dress your family in forsure.
(01:06:34):
Anyway, thank you folks.
And thus brings us to theconclusion of another episode of
Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Stories of the North.
Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
I'll be making my way .
Someday I might own a lodge,and that'd be fine.
I'll be making my way, the onlyway I know how.
Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Working hard and sharing the north with all of my
pals.
Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Well, I'm a good old boy.
Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
I'll buy the lodge and live my dream.
Oh boy, I bought a lodge andlived my dream, and now I'm here
talking about how life can beas good as it seems.
Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
Yeah, back in 2016,.
Frank and I had a vision Toamass the single largest
database of muskie anglingeducation material anywhere in
the world.
Our dream was to harness theknowledge of this amazing
community and share it withpassionate anglers just like you
thus the ugly pike podcast wasborn and quickly grew to become
(01:08:00):
one of the top fishing podcastsin north america step into the
world of angling adventures andembrace the thrill of the catch
with the Ugly Pike Podcast.
Speaker 5 (01:08:09):
Join us on our quest to understand what makes us
different as anglers and touncover what it takes to go
after the infamous fish of10,000 casts.
Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
The Ugly Pike Podcast isn't just about fishing.
It's about creating atight-knit community of
passionate anglers who share thesame love for the sport.
Through laughter, throughcamaraderie and an unwavering
spirit of adventure, thispodcast will bring people
together.
Speaker 5 (01:08:32):
Subscribe now and never miss a moment of our
angling adventures.
Tight lines everyone.
Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Find Ugly Pike now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or
wherever else you get yourpodcasts.
Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's Favorite
Fishing Show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Now, what are we going to talkabout for two hours every week?
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.
Speaker 4 (01:09:08):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
From athletes.
All the other guys would gogolfing Me and Garton Turk and
all the Russians would gofishing To scientists Now that
we're reforesting and lettingthings freeze.
It's the perfect transmissionenvironment for limestone.
Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
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