John Gariepy, Scott’s General Manager, is already ordering fuel and everything from duct tape to light bulbs for the season ahead. We are now placing orders for a lot of new motors including six new Evinrude E-Tech 30 HP motors for our fly out lakes. New fly out boats are also on the short list this year. After Christmas, John and our new winter watchman Gerry Finacti will head north: it’s time to begin the winter watch. The word is out that the caribou are again moving into the Scott Lake area and a brigade of snowmobiles will not be far behind them. After getting Gerry, who has a lot of experience with winter care taking, settled in, John will outline the winter’s work plan. There are 28 buildings on our island and there is never a shortage of work. Top on the project list this winter is stripping off all the old stain on the log siding of the Main Lodge. Not a small or a fun task at 40 below, but it will get done. We wish Gerry well during his lonely vigil on the 60th parallel.
SPRING WORK CREW
We are planning on bringing a substantial work crew to the island in late April, right at the end of the period where an Otter can land on skis. The team will turn all of our boats into like new condition, removing the floors, replacing the floatation foam, putting new vinyl on the floors and buffing out nicks and scratches. They will also stain all the cabins and cut hundreds of trees to give the island’s walkways a deep coat of spruce chips. Few things are more memorable for our customers than taking that first step out of a cabin every morning and inhaling the pungent and highly pleasant aroma of spruce: it’s like Christmas every day. Well, getting a 45” pike might be a little better. Lots of annual maintenance tasks will be completed as well and some not so annual, like a new deck on Caribou. The group will be busy.