Windows getting boarded up to withstand the Spruce Grouse dive-bombings. Screened-in porches boasting a new poly skin ready for lakeside snow flurries. Lunds stripped of their eyes (sonars), tarped and parked up on the hill facing North ready to take head-on the worst Jack Frost has to offer. Such are the views along the Aikens path during days of late.  The mighty birch sheds its leaves, a golden hue of brown, aware of the age old warning signs of the frost to come. We at the lodge, continue busily buttoning up loose ends and ensuring our prized destination slumbers idly, well kept, awaiting our triumphant return early next May.

The summer of 2009 flew by. Our long list of accomplishments and upgrades include many notable points to consider:

• The path was remade with wood chips from the North Star (Girl’s residence) to the Canot (The Boy’s pad), thus ensuring a lighter job of sweeping up sand.
• The new workshop (a huge one at that) opened its doors to our world-class tradesmen.
• The old Caillebo and The Orion got a beautiful face lift. Sharp paint job folks!
• Our new wood boiler kept the water temps high in all of camp and performed admirably in its first full season of use.  Our wood operations performed well, harvesting a healthy quota of dead-fall trees to supply the boiler for this year and 2010.  It certainly will furnish a green solution to supplying folks here with virtually endless hot water.
• At GGO, a new ice machine and a large walk-in shower were installed to further increase the luxury of said mini-lodge
• Our shuffleboard table was refinished. The rocks slide as if on greased wheels!
• Big Molly’s Bar now has it own dedicated Air conditioning system to offset the imposing amounts of hot air blown off nightly in this one-of-a-kind fishing lodge watering hole.
• In the South end, the shell of a new residence was constructed with a commanding view of our coveted waters.

… That is to name but a few…

From the first plane load of guests on May23rd, through till Canada day, then Independence Day, past Labour Day (Canadian, that is); every guest saw Aikens at its best. Save for the weather. If Aikens staffers are always upbeat and smiling, it is undoubtedly due to the positive vibes that course deep throughout our sandy peninsula. It surely wasn’t due to copious amounts of sunshine! Constant rain, low temperature and high winds combined themselves to try and faze our will to persevere. We pressed on! Not even the biblical high water mark of our second crest in late August made us falter. We stand alone in the experience and level of service we offer our clients, we weren’t about to let a few gray clouds get the best of us.

On that note, we’d like to thank many times over all of our staff for their resilience and their exceptional work. Day in day out, rain or shine, happy with high water…You all showed up each morning with the strong presence of character which make us the proud boasters of the best staff in the business. Also, we take this opportunity to wish you all the greatest success this winter on whichever path you travel.  We hope to see all of you in the not too distant future.

To our dear friends, you, our readership. The guests here at Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge often make a very special connection with us. Be it sitting in a guide boat for a few days enjoying the finer points in life, fishing or catching; be it sharing a brew in Big Molly’s chatting, laughing or plotting; everyone leaves here with a small piece of heaven and we keep a happy memory of those folks bound to return to such an idyllic destination. Thank you for choosing Aikens Lake as your fishing destination. We strive for excellence and our aim is always to exceed expectations. We hope that those of you who have visited us this year retain fond memories of your time at the lake. Thank you.

So, amidst the falling leaves,  your author stares out of his lattice-covered window onto a sunny blue sky and revels at the beauty of this Indian Summer. 2009 left us wanting more. In a few short days our closing crew will bid ”Adieu” to our lodge, lake and season. This winter will hopefully fly by as fast as the summer did. Our days of warm sun are numbered. Oh well, time to un-retire the ice fishing gear!

With our season winding down, our last few groups of the season are enjoying their time at the lake.  Summer-like weather (finally!) provided our anglers with September fishing at its best. People in boats with shorts and t-shirts soaking up the last rays of our short lived warm season. Better late than never, right?

For the last couple seasons our final  group at the Gray Owl has been the Maynards.  This lively bunch hails (for the most part) from St.-Malo, Manitoba. Loud, proud and very happy to be at the lake, the boys held a high stakes tournament during their three day stay. Colorful team names (which will be omitted due to our PG-13 criteria) pitted teams against each other in search of large walleye and pike.

The lures and baits were chucked, the wigs were worn, the nicknames fired out at will. Chirping was heard from South Shore to Slammers, no birds to be seen however. Friendly jabs exchanged in an attempt to rattle the captains and first mates of the next boat over.  Competition was tight, until the final evening their trophy was handed out.

Here are the teams’ final standings:

1st place: “The Dirty Hooks”

2nd place: “The Spooners” & “Hoe Backs”

4th place: Well, you know who you are.

5th place: “The Dutch Rudders” (If you don’t know, don’t ask)

The trophy was given to the “Dirty Hooks” yet, not to be outdone, “The Spooners’ ” Léo Maynard, boated a massive 41″ Northern Pike (seen above) on Pit’s Point. Congrats on the victory and the bragging rights!

To celebrate, Pit & Julie accompanied by Pat, David, Marcel and Jesse went over to GGO on the last evening to chew the fat and spin some yarn. Many laughs and some questionable humor was shared around a beautiful starlit campfire evening.

Thanks guys for sharing the Aikens Experience, best of luck during this fall’s deer season. We’re very pleased to have expanded the Aikens Family by adding such fine characters as yourselves.

We have a tradition at Aikens Lake that goes back for many years.  We mimic the Voyageur Games that are held in Winnipeg every February as part of the Festival Du Voyageur.  This is a series of 5 events that the Voyageurs (fur-trade era) would compete in for supremacy among men!  We always invite our top two finishers to participate in the 64-man tourney in February.  The favorites going into the competition based on previous years were Bruno and Pat, who each have a pair of top-two finishes.

There is also a female competition, and our chef Elise was game to play.  Since none of the other girls were interested in competing this year, she won by default and will represent Aikens this February.  However, the competitive side of her was still raring to go so we added her as a wildcard entry…  Elise was going to compete against a field of 11 boys!  As you’ll see, she certainly held her own!

We held the event on the floor of the new workshop.  Although not yet complete, this structure was the perfect place for the competition.  It gave us some shelter from the rainy evening.  The scaffolding even provided bleacher seating for the staff to watch!  The first event was the leg wrestling.  At first, the competitors were timid when facing Elise.  However, as more and more of them ended up on their backs, the boys started fighting back.  The their dismay, Elise showed incredible strength as she flipped every single challenger over and won the leg wrestling competition!  This included David, the other finalist in the competition.  Elise’s win made Lorraine especially proud, who for years has won a similar competitions in Winnipeg.  She routinely flips the winning contestant from the male division as well - and you could see the pride shine through as Elise emulated her victories!

Next up was the Indian wrestling.  This competition requires balance and agility, as you attempt to bring your opponent to the ground without lifting your feet.  A long and balanced Pat is a tough guy to bring down in this competition, and he proved his worth by winning all his battles and emerging champion of the event.

The third event is often a crowd favorite.  The competitors are balanced on a 4×4 beam, and they swing big pillows to knock the other one off.  Balance is the biggest part of this event, as some rounds end before either person has swung the pillow!  Elise did well in this competition, winning the first few rounds.  However, she was defeated by Pat in the semis.  Pat ended up facing off against David in the finals.  Although similar in height, David does have a much larger frame working for him.  This ended up paying dividends as he was able to out-duel Pat on the beam and claim victory in the pillow fight.

The final head-to-head event is the tug-of-war.  The twist to this event is that the competitors are perched up on a section of log - they are actually about 24″ off the ground!  This event requires not only strength and balance, but also smarts as many events are won by feeding someone rope…. their momentum takes them right off the back of the log!   Tyler, who had been previously matched up against Pat in every event, had a better draw and made the most of it.  He battled through to the finals, where he was able to shake Aaron off the log after a very lengthy game of cat-and-mouse with the rope!

The final event is a timed sawing competition.  Although we had gone out to purchase a special hand saw, it didn’t take long for it to succumb to the stress of heated competition.  We restarted with an old saw that we found tucked in the old workshop.  It wasn’t very sharp, so it made for some hectic sawing to get through the wood!  The top four competitors from the 1st heat advanced to the finals.  The fastest time after the first heat was just over 20 seconds.  Most times varied between 30 seconds and a minute.  However, the finals were much more frantic.  Marcel and Aaron cut in 18-19 seconds each, good enough for 3rd and 4th in the event.  The runner up was Bruno with a time of 16 seconds…. and the surprise winner was Nick!  The little buzzsaw was a blur as he chewed threw the wood in just under 15 seconds!

Congratulations to Pat and David for accumulating the most points and being crowned “Co-Ultimate Voyageurs 2009″!  They will be competing this February in Winnipeg.  If one of them bows out of the competition, our first runner up Bruno will be asked to take their place.  Here are the final standings:

• Pat & David - 400 pts
• Bruno - 375 pts
• Nick - 350 pts
• Aaron - 325 pts
• Elise - 300 pts
• Tyler - 275 pts
• Marcel - 225 pts
• Eric & Luke - 200 pts
• Griffin - 175 pts
• Jesse - 150 pts