A Behind the Scenes Look at Two Moon Lodge

Sure, we run a fishing and wilderness vacation resort. We are tourist outfitters and we are fortunate to live out here in the wilds and share this paradise with our wonderful guests. Heck, we even get to throw a line in the lake every once in a while.

But the glitz and glamour of the outfitter lifestyle has its dark underbelly—the seldom seen, the grimy and the dirty. It’s called “Getting The Camp Open”—and it ain’t pretty.

We plan on having a few weeks prior to the arrival of our first guests to get the bugs out of the place (literally), fight back the encroaching forest, and slow the decay of a fifty-year-old bush camp. We use this time to add any new structures and essentially make a lot of noise while there are no guests here. Part of the peace of Two Moon Lodge is not having the noise of construction and machinery interrupt a restful stay, so we try to get this out of the way during the pre-season work weeks.IMG_6027

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Dave, demonstrating proper PPE and propane handling.

Aside from the annual improvements, additions, and repairs, there is the regular prep work. Julie, who is now retired from teaching, got to experience first-hand the work involved in getting the place up and running: giving each cabin a thorough cleaning, stacking firewood, removing the winter’s deadfall, clearing the hiking trail, organizing the boathouse, making sure I work safely, and writing lists of the things I need to do. She is really good at that. (I have the feeling that we’ll have a neater boathouse from now on!)

IMG_6037 It’s great to have Julie’s help this Spring, and I think it’s good for her to see that I do more than fish and drink beer when I’ve been up here every May. Now that our guests are beginning to arrive, we just need to invest time in the Research and Development portion of our business: finding the fish.

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Dave, making sure Julie’s draft beer is ready.