Newsletter
The phone is ringing, are you listening? And next summer, is ‘a booking. A wonderful time to get things in line, walking in an Aikens Wonderland.
Please call us (1-800-565-2595) or email (fishing@aikenslake.com) to start planning you 2012 Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge adventure at last year’s prices! Have a great day!
With the Aikens offseason upon us, two members of the Aikens family have been rehearsing their lines and projecting their voices in preparation for opening night! Pat is playing a double-role these days… sales manager supreme during the day as he is busy rebooking our 2011 guests into their 2012 time slots, then changing in a phone booth and going to the Cercle Moliere at night where he is a big part of a new play called Boeing Boeing.
For those of you that book spring or mid-summer trips, you will notice much of Gabs’ handiwork on your next trip up to Aikens. He is a roofer by trade and has spent many weeks at the lodge over the years. He came up in late August/September this year to help convert 4 roofs from shingle to green tin (Master Angler’s Row, Park Place, Orion, OCC Storage) .
Opening night was this past Friday, and the review in this weekend’s Winnipeg Free Press was 4 stars! Congratulations guys.
In 2010, we introduced a new goal at Aikens Lake. It is a very fun goal to chase, much like the Master Angler program from Travel Manitoba has been fun for us over the years. The premise of our Century Club is to catch 4 walleyes in a guided day that total 100″ (average 25″ each). This is an individual award and it has created a lot of excitement on the lake for the past few summers. Those that achieve this prestigious designation can be proud of their great achievement.
In 2010, we were in the infancy stage of this program so we only introduced the Century Club concept to our guests and guides without pushing too much. The reaction to it was incredible though! We received some excellent and positive feedback all season long… even from those anglers who would be stuck at 99″ and hoping for that last lunker to show up! This past summer, we decided to spice things up with our Century Club and put some larger stakes on it. We decided to draw for a free trip for one lucky angler out of all those who managed the Century Club feat in 2011! The trip would match the length of stay, accommodations, etc from this past summer’s booking. One person would have some really jealous friends!
Well, the draw happened this afternoon in Winnipeg. After putting all of the names in an official blaze-orange hunting tuque (that’s how they pick powerball, right?!?!) Julie and Janelle pulled one lucky name out of the hat. The winner is Mr. Murray Bruce from Saskatchewan! Murray has been coming up with his close friends, and sometimes their sons, since 2008. A joker, he wasn’t sure if we were pulling his leg when we called, but he is very happy now! Murray landed 101″ on June 10 of last year, with the biggest walleye being 27″. He told us on the phone that his buddies were going to be “all twisted up over this” because they ribbed him a lot while at the lodge - although those other guys never did get the Century Club designation! Congratulations Murray - we look forward to hosting you and the rest of the guys back up here next June!
Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge is quickly becoming a household name in both local and national tourism circles. Having already won a Manitoba Tourism Award back in April in the “Service Excellence” category, a CDEM Lauréat de la PME award in June for small business, and a prestigious nomination by SKAL International for “Sustainable Development in Tourism”, it has been quite a banner year for the lodge. Well, we are very proud to announce two more feathers in our cap as we have just been named one of three finalists for the “Traveller Experience” award at the Canadian Tourism Awards, and are also a finalist for a Manitoba Business Award.
The Manitoba Business Awards will be presented on October 26th at the Delta Hotel in Winnipeg. We are one of three finalists in the category of “Long Term Achievement by a Business - Rural Category”. The strength of the nomination was based on how Aikens has transformed in the past 60 years, and especially in the past decade as we have redesigned our guest experience completely! http://mcc.olasoft.com/uploaded/26/web/PDFs/MBA%20Announcement%20finalists%202011.pdf
The Canadian Tourism Congress will take place from November 22-24, with the awards ceremony representing the culmination of Canada’s premier tourism conference. This conference is attended by more than 400 industry leaders and execs, MPs, Senators, and members of the federal Cabinet! The Congress is organized by TIAC (Tourism Industry Association of Canada). We are very happy to be recognized under the Traveller Experience category, as we have been priding ourselves on giving our guests the best “Aikens Experience” we can deliver for many years now. Although we cannot control the weather or the fishing, we do make sure that everything else about someone’s experience is handled professionally. Hopefully TIAC agrees! We will let you know if we end up winning either of these pretigious awards!
A forest fire that started south of Bissett on October 5th quickly got out of control when South winds gusted to 90 km/h (about 55mph). The blaze started on Wednesday morning and was being held for the first 24 hours, but the winds kicked up and started moving it a an astounding speed. It moved the fire across the last highway in Eastern MB and proceeded to rip through pristine wilderness overnight, at some points jumping over 1/2 mile lakes and rivers! Friday was a very hectic day as the southern part of the fire was threatening the gold-mining town of Bissett, attracting all the attention of the crews to save the town, while the northern wall continued it’s barage through the dozens of miles wilderness inching ever closer to Aikens. It was a very unsettling feeling on Friday, with knowledge that this 18,000 hectare wall of flame was moving so quickly towards us. Reports had the flames as high as 400 feet in the air! Smoke filled Aikens as the first 3,000 feet of airspace was unnavigable.
More than 110 firefighters from MB, ON, and even BC were brought in to help fight the blaze over the weekend. Thankfully, Saturday brought cooler temperatures and some drizzle which stagnated the growth of the fire. Mother Nature continued to lend a helping hand to the crew and finally the blaze was contained earlier this week. If you search the link below, you can find a Google Map of the exact location of the fire. It is still burning today, but has not grown in size since Saturday and is now just burning itself out in the already affected area. The wall of flame ends just North of Aikens on the Gammon River, and the fire’s closest boundary lies about 10km (6.5miles) West of Aikens.
We have not had any real fire threat like this since the last big fire of 1980 which burned the North, East, and South sides of the lake. Although the previous ownership (the Lavergnes) were there at the time, Gerry Lavergne told us stories about how the tops of the trees were exploding just on the other side of the Back Bay, and that although they had waterbombed the lodge, they feared that one of these fireballs would jump the Back Bay and burn down the cabins from the backside. The lodge had of course been evacuated but it was being used as a staging area for the firefighters that year. You can still see some fire damage as you walk through that thick 30-year old forest. A few tall fire-burned trees still tower over the rest of the forest, and make ideal spots for the Bald Eagles to perch (maybe that’s why we see so many at Aikens!)
With this previous story in mind, we are actually quite lucky with our location. In reality, our main camp sits on a perfectly located peninsula that would be really hard for a forest fire to access. Forest fires move quickly and dangerously with hot south winds, and we have the entire lake to the south of our camp so that is not an issue. Our only mainland access to the North is cutoff by a huge swamp (fun fact: on really high water you can actually navigate a canoe from the Back Bay to the main lake through that swamp - only having to get out on the shore of the main lake to cross a small rocky beach). Also, we have quite a water and hydrant system that would help soak down the cabins in no time if needed. So, even though we are in the wilderness, we are very well protected from a fire catastrophe.
A big thankyou to Manitoba Conservation and Bluewater Aviation for their quick and efficient response to this threat that had us all very concerned! Bluewater had many moose hunters strewn about the affected area but was able to pull them all out safely before the threat was close. We appreciate all the work the fire crews put in 24 hours a day to make sure that no one was hurt (or worse), that the last outpost of civilization Bissett was saved, and that no one lost any property. There were several private camps and cottages that were much closer to this blaze than we were, and amazingly they are all untouched. They say that a healthy forest needs to regenerate itself through fire every 60 years, hopefully it’s that long again before we see something like this! Next year as you fly up to Aikens, be sure to look out of the left-side windows of the otter and you will see just how big of an area this fire took down this fall!
Top to bottom, front to back, the place is getting a breath of fresh air. Gone are curled shingles. Away with drab older siding. Chipped paint? I don’t think so Tim. There’s a new look in town.
This fall has been a whirlwind of renos, roofing and siding. From the Old Caillebo (the ex shower facilities) to the Big Molly’s porch nary a tar shingle can be found. Expert installation of green tin roofs complete with new fascia, soffit and gutters was handled by Gabs Gosselin. The metal topsides were added to OCC (Old Caillebo), Park Place (which also had its logs refinished this year), Orion and Master Angler’s Row (which is, at press time, being gutted and renovated into luxury two-person suites). Our renovations spearheaded by FGBuilders owner/operators Dan Garand and Andre Fontaine, as previously mentioned, are an interior transformation of MAR; new windows and doors, tongue and groove white pine vaulted ceilings, a new bathroom layout and brand-new hand crafted beds built right here in our shop with the able and quality craftsmanship of the Captain. The exteriors of MAR and the lodge then got a wrap around finish of half log with green trim. Very sharpish!
Meanwhile on the other side of the lake… GGO had it’s huge overhaul earlier this season. This time we wrapped up some unfinished business. Low water and a few free days equaled three new footings for the final phase of the Grey Owl’s dock. Flown in was our welding visionary Leo Nolette whom, with our maintenance manager Marcel Bedard, boomed out the final sections of this imposing structure. With the deck installed the dock now has 75ft of frontage and is able the tether our entire guide boat fleet during high water for those large (and delicious) shore lunches!
Elbow grease and vision have paid dividends at Aikens once again. The place is constantly re-inventing and improving its ability to offer you, our distinguished guests, staff and readership, a unique and unforgettable adventure. Out with the old, in with the new. We look forward to hearing your feedback towards these recent efforts.
We would like to congratulate Samantha and Paul Turenne on their recent wedding! During the September long weekend, Aikens was closed down as Pit & Julie, Pat & Janelle, and Gerry & Lorraine were all invited to be a part of Paul and Sam’s wedding. The wedding took place over the entire long weekend, with the bulk of the participants there on Saturday for the Hindu ceremony and again on Sunday evening for the traditional reception. Friday and Monday were days reserved for family members only with gatherings.
For our longtime guests, you will remember Paul as dockhand and laborer at Aikens for many years in the 90’s. He was a big part of the effort to get all those logs for the Great Gray Owl among other contributions. His father Bernie is forever remembered as “Big Molly” at Aikens, and his name now graces our bar. Even though Paul hasn’t been a fulltime employee for the past decade, he has still had a part in every Aikens season since 1989. Although he is not here often during our main season anymore when the guests are here, he does help us out a lot for the opening and closing of the lodge each season. It was very special for all of us all to be able to share in his special day.
The Aikens gang was quite involved during the ceremonies. Pat was his usually witty self as MC for the reception on Sunday night. Pit was asked to be the “Protector of the Bride” during the wedding ceremony on Saturday. And, although Pit was not officially scheduled to speak on Sunday, he was able to overtake the podium in a bloodless coup with 20 of Paul’s closest buddies and deliver a stinging roast to the groom.
Congratulations to the newlyweds! Hope you enjoy that Spanish honeymoon 
It is with deep sadness that we share with the Aikens Community that one of our own has passed away. Marc Turenne, Gerry’s 2nd youngest brother in a family of 10 siblings, died suddenly while fishing at Albert Beach on Sept 2nd. His funeral was held yesterday in Winnipeg. He was 54.
Marc spent most of his adult life out west in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Having recently moved back to Manitoba in 2008, he first came up to Aikens Lake that summer and immediately fell in love with it. Marc became in integral part of the Aikens Family of staff and volunteers that summer as he spent several months at the lodge helping us out with various projects. His carpentry skills were fantastic, and over the course of that summer and the following one, his handiwork started popping up all over camp. Most notably, he put in a lot of signature touches in our new workshop, our welding shop, and the shorelunch canopy on Arrowhead Beach. He was also initiated into our annual Molly Week tradition in 2008 and made it up for that special week in May each year whenever possible.
His return to Manitoba, combined with his time spent at Aikens, rekindled a childhood passion of his for the great outdoors. He loved every aspect of Mother Nature. Over the past few years, he was able to re-immerse himself fully into the splendor of nature. He was particularly keen on taking long canoe trips and spending time on any lake trying to catch his favorite fish… walleye. He had recently purchased a cabin at Albert Beach with his love Anne-Marie. He died doing what he loved. You are gone too soon Marc. We will miss you dearly.
Sorry about the delay in posting these results… it’s been a hectic past few weeks up here! We held our annual Olympics at the end of August, just before most staff members would return home to begin another year of schooling. This year’s Olympics did not disappoint. Last year, the winning team of the “Peuple Du Village” consisted of Marcel, Alex, Dave, and Elliot. Who would win it this year?
The opening ceremonies of the Olympics once again featured the pageantry of individual entrances by the teams. Team costumes and themes are always kept secret from everyone so it is really a show to watch the teams arrive at the Bait & Tackle to show off this year’s costumes. There were two groups of guests in camp who did not know what they were in for while waiting on the porch of the B&T! As you will see, they were able to participate in the games quite a bit and have requested to have this happen during their trip again next year! The four teams were as follows:
Aikens Lake All-Stars: Kik, Alex D, E2, Danica, and Tyler Read the rest of this entry »
If you are reading this post, you have surely noticed our website’s new look and feel. We hope you like it as much as we do! The wood panels give the site a very “lodgy” feel. We our brand new brochure available for download. This new brochure has all of our many upgrades and renovations included in it, and our latest information. One of the most exciting parts of this new site is that we have also updated all the new staff bios, and all of the pictures of our fantastic 2011 staff are on there as well (note we also posted them last week on our Facebook page). We are very excited to have these updates included on the site - and there are more on the way!
This is just the first of many upgrades to the site. In this initial round, we updated the look of the site and added those couple of features described above. Over the course of the fall, we will be updating the content with new pictures, expanded descriptions, and more pages. Keep an eye out for all these great updates!
