This week the Blue Trail trail head on the Lodge property is being moved.  In conjunction with the Copper Harbor Trails Club and the Lodge, Rock Solid Trail Contracting is working on changing the trail head location to make it flatter and more welcoming to congregate before heading down hill on a trail.  This is part of the initiative to have 2-2.5 miles of mountain biking trails that can be classified as green trails.

As well, the Rock Solid Trails Contracting crew has been working the past several weeks on reroutes for the three Back 9 trails (Chipmunk Run, Moose on the Loose, and Little Loon).  These reroutes of existing cross-country ski trails will make it more enjoyable for riders, runners, and hikers to enjoy trails in the wilderness.

Mike Sweeney has built the wood (brown) signs for the Back 9 trails, and has started putting them around the trails to better direct people where to go. Nathan Miller will be putting up the interpretive signs in the near future.  We are getting closer to having the trails on the Lodge property ready for prime time.

Some of you have noticed that the fairways on our golf course look dry, and have turned yellow. If you haven’t notice in person, you can also see this in the  web cam for hole 1.

The reason is that we are having issues with our lake and well pumps. The lake pump, that pulls water from Lake Superior, is having to be rebuilt to get enough pressure to pump water up a mile up the hill to the course. And the pump in well #3, that is next to the pond on hole 6, is only pumping out 20 gallons per minute (when it should be pumping between 50-60 gallons per minute).

We have ordered parts for the rebuild of the lake pump, and are awaiting for them.  And today we have Siirtola Well Drilling (Eric) working on the pump for well #3. 

We hope to get these pumps back up and running soon so we can manage the watering better on the golf course. Until then, we will just be watering the tees and the greens, and letting the fairways be Scottish fairways (enjoy the British Open this week).

The week of July 15th marks the 5th week of the Men’s and Women’s golf league for the 2019 summer season.

For the Women’s Golf League last week, we saw more players join us, as the the 4th of July brought more people to the Keweenaw — 8-9 individuals. Tomorrow the Women’s Golf League will meet at 10am, tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16th.  We still have not solidified who wants to play in the competitive schedule for matches; we will want to figure that out soon so we can get multiple matches in before the end of August.  So of the individuals want to play competitive matches, some want to have leisure play.

The Men’s Golf League will meet at 5pm, Wednesday, July 17th (see the link to see who you are playing this week).  The overall current results can be found on the league page. 

With the sudden departure of the chef this past week, Chef Widad has agreed to step in to lead the kitchen at the Lodge for the remainder of the 2019 season.

Chef Widad was the first guest chef in the Lodge’s Guest Chef program in June, and will continue on in place of the void that was caused by Chef Patrick leaving.  The dishes Chef Widad prepared during the Guest Chef program week were a success, and we look forward to seeing her lead the kitchen for the rest of the season.

Chef Widad was going to go back to Kalamazoo and work on her gelato business, Rollin’ Gelato. With this decision however, she will put the gelato business on hold, and help the Lodge get through the season with food and beverage operations, and build out the structure accordingly.

We wish Chef Patrick Mixis well, and hope he makes good decisions in his life moving forward. Chef Patrick is strong in using his creative skills to develop new dishes, and we look forward to seeing him improve on how implements those ideas and improve as a leader in the kitchen.

In addition, to Chef Patrick leaving, the kitchen manager has been relived of her duties at the Lodge. After putting in a number of hours in getting the kitchen ready for the 2020 season, and working up to the kitchen manager position, she decided to not show up for work for several days and not letting the kitchen staff know. This took place at the beginning of the busiest part of the season — 4th of July holiday. This, along with making several poor scheduling decisions with the staff, led to management reliving her of her duties.

With these changes, we have put the Guest Chef program on hold this year. We will revisit the program next year, as we received positive feedback with the first guest chef event last month.

For the remainder of the 2019 season, we will focus on providing the core activities for food and beverage, while putting our unique ideas on hold. We will adjust accordingly, and understand that it is difficult to build a quality kitchen team — especially when operating in the wilderness.  We know Chef Widad will be able to provide a stable and positive environment in the kitchen, with the focus on providing a solid and focused menu for the rest of the 2019 season.

We look forward to the rest of the season in the dining room, bar, and Little Cabin Cafe, while also executing on our events in August and September.

Over the past two months (we have been open for the summer season since May 9th), we have been receiving feedback from individuals that have stayed at the Lodge, played golf at the Lodge, and eaten at the Lodge — both tourists and locals. We appreciate the feedback, and try to log it so we can look back at the trends to see how we are doing, and adjust where we should improve and do so in line with our values and vision.

In order for everyone to understand how to provide feedback and truly make the Lodge successful, I would like to explain 3 points that can help. 

1. We make decisions based upon multiple individuals who are in our niche market — not just one person’s feedback or experience, nor everyone’s feedback or experience

We will not make a decision based upon one’s person’s feedback.  And we will be inconsistent in our product and service until we find what works, and then can spend time perfecting that.  As a result, we will not get it right every single time, especially during the early period of this transition.  This means you will have times where you will not have a good experience at the Lodge, and we will be considered a failure in some people’s mind after such experiences.

However, the last time we checked, the best baseball players did not bat 1,000%. Tony Gwynn, who has the highest career batting average, batted 338%. This means he did not hit the ball in fair territory 66% of the time on average.  Thus, we will fail multiple times with our experiments and activities at the Lodge in order to learn and find what works with our target market.

But we will look at the data over time and over multiple visits and visitors.

In addition, we want to make it clear our goal is not trying to appease everyone in this world; otherwise, we will appease no one. Our goal is to make it an awesome experience for those that want an enjoyable wilderness experience within our two niche markets: 1. historical patrons that value the history of the Lodge, but don’t live in the past, and/or 2. outdoor enthusiasts that love the wilderness.

If you do not fit into either one of those niche markets, then it will only be luck that the Lodge is a place for you to spend time. Otherwise, there are a number of other wonderful establishments in the Copper Harbor and Keweenaw area which could possibly be establishments for you and fit your desires.

2. Give feedback while you are the Lodge, not after you have left

If you give feedback after the fact, then we can not make it right during the time of your experience. Rather, we possibly can improve the next time you are at the Lodge — which will be a different time, and a different place in some cases — and that is if you come back.

3. Give feedback to the person that you are interfacing with

People love to give me feedback. However, I receive a ton of email with people telling me what to do with the Lodge, and giving me feedback. I am not the person to handle that feedback, as I will forget or have other items I need to focus on based upon the daily operations of the Lodge (like running a mini-town). It is the staff member that you are interfacing with at the Lodge that can best help you and improve your experience; do not be afraid of having a discussion with Lodge staff when providing feedback — providing feedback should be a discussion, not a one way dialogue. [ Note: Making decisions based upon fear leads to suboptimal results ]

If you are respectful in providing that feedback, individuals will work with you. If you disrespect them, then they will call me in. If I have to be called in, then it is too late for you to give me feedback because that feedback will be put aside based upon you being disrespectful to the staff.  Thus, you and I will lose the focus for the reason you are providing feedback — to improve your experience at the Lodge and improve the Lodge going forward.

I give the staff the authority to make decisions so they can make individuals in our target market happy.  Thus, if I have to be contacted for the situation or you contact me directly, the feedback will not be taken any differently, and will probably not be acted upon as the person that interfaces with the customer won’t make the decision to get better.  The time I should be contacted is when you feel that a Lodge team member is not having a discussion with you regarding your feedback.

If you are really interested in making the Lodge success, you will take notice of this post, as it explains how people in our target market can improve the their experience at the Lodge, and the Lodge overall.

The week of July 8th marks the 4th week of the Men’s and Women’s golf league for the 2019 summer season.

Last week both the golf leagues had off, since it was the 4th of July holiday week. Tomorrow the Women’s Golf League will meet at 10am, tomorrow, Tuesday, July 9th.  We continue to play each Tuesday, and work towards building out the competitive schedule as more players join us for the summer — coming up from the south.

The Men’s Golf League will meet at 5pm, Wednesday, July 10th (see the link to see who you are playing this week).  The overall current results can be found on the league page. 

The Lodge strives to offer excellent service, it’s always been our goal and always will be. We want people who venture up the hill to our facility to be excited to visit and to truly enjoy a meal with us. Throughout this season, we have had some wonderful feedback from our guests, both positive and negative. The overwhelming majority have loved their experience, and those who had a less than awesome time have been very helpful in their explanations of their expectations and how we fell short.

We take our customers’ input very seriously. As a result of this, we assessed our current kitchen operating hours and made some changes. Instead of offering a full breakfast and lunch service, we will have choices available at our brand new Little Cabin Cafe, located in the back by the conference room. From 7 am to 5 pm, we will have drip coffee, espresso, gourmet coffee drinks, pop, water, and more, plus cold sandwiches, pastries, and snacks. People stopping in can still get a delicious, fresh meal, either on the go or on our cozy couches in the library. Our bar will still be open starting at 11 am, where we will have appetizers, burgers, soup, and salad.

For dinner, from 4 pm to 9 pm, we will offer a full menu with a focus on slow dining, where people can relax, enjoy their drinks, and expect a really spectacular meal. The atmosphere we want to provide should not encourage a quick bite to eat, but rather a leisurely, enjoyable experience over the course of an hour or more. We want our guests to order in courses, savor drinks, and to enjoy each moment of their meal. Our goal is not to get food out as quickly as possible, but to allow customers to relax and appreciate the dining experience in the wilderness of the Keweenaw, with all of its has character and history.

We will offer our regular Staples menu on most nights, with a specialty menu that changes. These specialty menus have been designed to showcase different food cultures from around the world. Our website, blog, and social media will be updated with explanations and full menus for each of these exciting new offerings. Also throughout the season, be on the lookout for more food and dining events, like our Guest Chef program, pairing dinners, and tap takeovers.

We will test this setup to see how it will work, gathering data, and doing further adjustments as needed until we dial in the food and beverage operations in order to create a memorable, pleasant experience on our beautiful property in the wilderness of the Keweenaw. Now, if only it were so easy to fix the black fly problem….

If you are coming to the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge to watch TV, then you have probably booked in a resort that isn’t for you.

Since last October, we have worked with DirectTV to try to upgrade our system from analog to digital.  However, they never sent anyone up to make the upgrades; but rather, would push the responsibility on us to do the site survey and tell them what equipment was needed.  This resulted in many of the TVs in the cabins not having access to DirectTV — thus not being usable. 

At the same time, the new owner was disappointed with how technicians had installed 12 satellites on our property in the past, resulting in unsightly wiring between the cabins at the Lodge.

After 9+ months of numerous calls and being told things were going to get fixed, we have become exhausted in working with DirectTV. We have evaluated that it is best for us to focus more on the wilderness experience and building out a Wifi network throughout the cabins and the Lodge. 

Thus, yesterday, after trying to work through the issues and headaches with DirectTV, it was agreed with DirectTV that we would cancel our service with them. The result, DirectTV was completely turned off from the Lodge as of midnight last night. 

This year we have not advertised we had DirectTV, as that was not one of our selling points at the Lodge. Our core selling points at the Lodge are the wilderness and the history of the Lodge.  Thus, our target market are guests that want to enjoy the Keweenaw wilderness, and take in a historical resort that was built as part of a WPA project in 1934.

We understand that it might be an inconvenience to not have a TV available for a program you just cannot miss or just to do something if it’s rainy.  As we build out the WiFi network on the property, it will become more readily available in the cabins.  Plus, our team is happy to provide plenty of information on area activities or board games. If TV is a major deal breaker, there are a number of establishments in Copper Harbor that have TV service.

Thus, if you have already booked with us and require TV to enjoy life, before you check-in you are free to cancel your reservation at any time, free of charge.

For the week of July 1st we will not have league play, due to this week being the week of July 4th. We will resume league play next week.

Last week for the Women’s Golf League, we saw Laura and Clarrisa join us. Suzi, her niece (sub for Nan), Laura, and Clarrisa played. We are still in the mode of fun play in the league, and haven’t started competitive rounds yet.

For the Men’s Golf League, the 2nd competitive matched were played.  Results of the June 26th matches have been posted.   The overall point results have been updated to reflect results the June 26th matches.

The next league play activity will take place on Tuesday, July 9th (Women’s League) and Wednesday, July 10th (Men’s League).

Enjoy the 4th of July holiday.

We are now selling hand crafted birdseye maple in our Lodge Life Shop here at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. These products are made by Keweenaw local Frank Kastelic from Gay, Michigan. Frank is born and raised in the area,  but after a number of years away, he has retired back in the area. Frank and his family have some background with the Lodge, with his grandfather serving as groundskeeper in the 1950s. He remembers coming to visit the Lodge with his family as a child and holds on to the fond memories he has associated with the building and its grounds. 

Frank is a tool maker by trade, so when he retired he decided to combine his love for birdseye maple and making tools into his own business, Great Northern Art. He could have chosen anywhere to establish his business, but Frank decided to return home to the Keweenaw to be in an area that he loves, doing something that he enjoys on a daily basis. 

For the uninitiated, birdseye is a distinctive pattern that resembles small swirling eyes disrupting the smooth lines of grain, usually in maple trees. The cause of this has not been discovered, but Frank believes that it is caused from stress caused by trees that surround a birdseye tree. Birdseye is very uncommon, with only 1 in every 400 maple trees having birdseye patterns. Of those trees, over 70% of all birdseye is grown in the UP, which makes it a very distinct product of the UP. 

There is no way to know whether a maple tree has birdseye until it is cut down and is then separated into a different pile than common maple wood. Frank finds birdseye maple by finding a supplier and biding of the wood. After receiving the wood, he lets it dry for 2 years before ever making anything products. When it’s ready, Frank makes many different tools and products that you can use daily. Here at the Lodge, we sell a few of his products, including an ice cream scoop, butter spreader, wine bottle stopper, candle holders, and a cheese cutting board. 

Frank even goes a step further in his products and incorporates another element the Keweenaw is known for; copper. A souvenir that combines birdseye and copper that can be used as a paperweight, or just be displayed in your home or office to remind you of your trip to the Keweenaw. This product is made of a piece of birdseye that Frank has electrified to make a beautiful design on the wood, with copper on top and a locally made plaque that states it is Keweenaw copper.

Although Frank does not sell his products online or have a website, you can visit him at his shop located at 1490 Gay- Lac La Belle Rd. Gay, Michigan or by calling him at 906-296-9926.