2005 Echo Lake Lodge Newsletter
P.O.
Box 1137
P.O. Box 124
Red
Lake, Ontario P0V 2M0
Amherst, WI 54406
807-727-2543
715-824-5876
(summer)
(winter)
www.echolakelodge.com
tehr@echolakelodge.com
Finally!
After six years, renovation of the main lodge is completed!
Once the chinking was done, the fireplace was cleaned with acid and the
concrete patched. Wow! Does it
look nice! Electrical work was
finished in late September. The
kitchen has all new appliances and plenty of cabinets and counter space. In the past, large groups prepared and ate all of their meals
in the lodge. Now this tradition
can continue. Other improvements to
camp include new wood stoves in all of the houses and new cook stoves in Black
Bear and Caribou.
Again
this summer, Mother Nature raised havoc. The
road to camp did not escape her wrath. The
south access from Ear Falls has many washouts and is no longer the recommended
route. The north access from Red
Lake should be used and you will need a high clearance vehicle. When referring to the adventure of getting to camp on the
rough gravel road, Jackie Jaques said this was the most ‘unique vacation’
she has ever been on. Near record
rainfalls brought water levels to the highest Tom can recall. Our boat dock was lifted off the log cribs and broke apart.
Rather than repair it, the decision was made to replace it.
Two trips to town, 9 boatloads across the lake and three weeks later, the
floating boat dock was launched and anchored into place.
Special thanks to our son, Dan, and his friend, Steve Kubisiak, for
spending a few days in the cold water removing the old log cribs.
The high water covered many rocks that are usually visible making it very
difficult for even repeat guests to avoid hitting them.
On Detour alone, we replaced 3 lower units, 1 tilt assembly and 11 motor
propellers. High winds knocked down
many trees again this year. Why do
they always seem to fall on the portages? Speaking
of portages. You will be happy to
know that the first two swamps on the Detour portage have been repaired.
A big thank you to Mark Ipson, Doug Eggers, Mike Schneck, and my brother,
Harry. All of the rotten logs have
been removed, so you can now feel comfortable walking on it.
We have good intentions of completing that project next summer. Check out some of the photos on the website.
Despite
the high winds and almost constant rain, most of our guests managed to catch
their limit of fish. Most of the
50+ “Book Fish” registered this year were released.
They included several northern from 36-42”, walleyes from 24-29” and
lake trout from 25-30”. Our
guests who practice catch and release are definitely making a noticeable
difference each year.
The
fishing was good, but the berry picking was poor!
We only had blueberry pancakes twice and for the first time ever, we did
not have any blueberries to take home. We
saw a merlin (falcon-like hawk) in camp this summer.
The gray jays stopped in camp earlier this year and were still there when
Tom left. They sure like bread with
bacon fat and bear tallow.
A
first at Echo Lake this year! Jim
Jones returned for a record “third week” in one season!
Gary Pribyl, you might have to retire to match (or beat) Jim’s record!
(Rumor has it that Gary and Jim might even book a trip together.)
Thanks to our new friends, Eric and Ellie Kern, from Ohio for introducing
us to malt vinegar as an alternative to tartar sauce with many less calories.
Thanks, also, to Gene Dubin for the “safe walk home” and the
“Kraemer” group for the Texas Hold’em lessons.
The chips are stacked…… J Jack
Dupal and his dad, John, weren’t even in camp 5 hours when they brought in a 9½#,
30-inch trout and commented, “We didn’t even use our good baits
yet.” Josh Staggs, Florida,
felt so at home he could smell watermelons while sitting on the porch.
Comments
heard around camp this summer: These
Honda motors are really nice. How
much did it rain last night? Sure
is windy. Nice fish. How
come there aren’t any berries this year?
Wow! What a nice dock!
The
bear season started out with a bang. Tom
had to shoot a hungry bear after it tried to get into the Loon’s Nest and then
went to visit newlyweds, Curt and Jane Strasburg,
in
Caribou. The bear spent about four
hours in camp. The first week of
season was a great success with both Jack Dudley and Joe Beyers harvesting nice
blacks. After that, the bear
started roaming due to the lack of berries and natural food.
They managed to elude the next four hunters despite the hard work and
unique strategies they used in their pursuit.
Oh, well, it is the hunt, not the kill that produces memories.
The bear will be larger next year.
Another
first at Echo this year was a moose hunt. Bill
Paryniuk, former owner of Medicine Stone Lodge, was looking for a place for his
family group to hunt and chose Echo. The
season opened on October 8 with several inches of snow and cold weather.
The weather warmed up and the moose stayed in the bush, but according to
Bruce Berglin, “Our success was in the adventure and the hunt, not the
kill.” They did bag one moose compliments of Petro's 300 Weatherby and
Robert's expert guiding! The camp
chores and the fellowship in the main lodge were 75% of the fun for this group.
A special thank you to Myron for all the planning.
As
always, our mailing list guests have first priority to make reservations for
Summer 2006. We encourage you to
reserve your trip to Echo Lake Lodge as soon as your group has finalized their
plans. We require that
you put 50% down within 2 weeks of making your reservation and send the balance
by May 1, 2006.
We
hope all of our guests took home fond memories of their 2005 adventure that will
last until they are able to return to the Canadian bush.
Thank you for choosing Echo Lake Lodge.
Send
us your favorite pictures so we can post some of them on our web site.
Wishing all of you a healthy and safe holiday season.
From
the Wisconsin Loon’s Nest,
Tom
& Mitzi
