Each month we highlight a picture from the Lodge based upon our core values. Here is the May 2020 fun.jouyous.adventuresome team member picture of the month.  It is actually multiple team members, from the food and beverage team.  

Kitchen Crew: Julie Blackstone, Olivia Dyl, Alec Koski, and Widad Mueller
[ May 4, 2020 ]

This picture compiles several pictures of the kitchen crew in early May. It is an indication of how we have been operating in May to ensure health and safety of our staff and guests.  All smiles under the masks.

The golf course isn’t open yet at the Lodge. We continue to prepare the course for this season’s activities, and gearing for a June 1st opening now (depending on course conditions and executive orders).

An interesting setup this year is the contactless aspect of the operations, including putting in measures where golfers do not come in contact with the flag stick or the cup: hence, the possible use of a pool noodle (shown here on #9 green).

Yesterday, the state of Michigan issued several executive orders related to the current health concerns. In these executive orders, restaurants, bars, and retail shops are allowed to open in the upper peninsula of Michigan this Friday, May 22nd. As part of the executive orders. there are guidelines which restaurants and bars are to follow to ensure safety of the staff and customers.

It is wonderful to see things opening up again, and that the state of Michigan is providing its citizens the ability to make decisions that lead to safe and healthy options for citizens of the state.

That said, we are not comfortable in opening up our restaurant and bar to dine-in at this time. We opened dining services this year on April 30th with our take-out operations, and we will continue to offer food take-out at least through May, and possibly longer (no dine-in). This allows us to focus on improving the different aspects of our food and beverage operations, and to staff according to the plan we put in place back in March when executive orders started being implemented. We are staying the course, and working to be stable and safe with our operations — which can be difficult when new executive orders change the rules under which one can operate.

Our lodging is open (cabins), and you can see our lodging policies in order to see how we keep our staff and guests safe and healthy.

The golf course is currently not open, as we pushed the opening date back to June 1st.

We do have guests on property where they are enjoying the outdoors — in the form of hiking, running, disc golf, and mountain biking. For example, this Saturday we will be doing a dry run of our Back 9 Endurance race. Come out and have a take-out box, eat at a picnic table, and enjoy a run, a hike, or a ride. Our take-out menu for this weekend will be posted on Thursday morning (see hours of operations for food take-out and specialty coffees).

We want everyone to continue to be safe and healthy. Please make quality decisions for your life, and be respectful of others and the decisions they make to be safe and healthy.

The opening date for the golf course this season has been pushed back. Initially the date to open for the 2020 season was Tuesday, May 19th. That date has been pushed back to June 1st.

The golf course is not ready for play. We still have areas on the golf course where we want to improve the turf, and areas where we are cleaning up debris caused by winter weather.  In addition, we are still working on how we feel comfortable in operating the golf course for guests during the current health concerns and executive orders that have been issued for the state of Michigan.

Below are pictures of what we are seeing on the golf course as of yesterday (Sunday, May 16th). The grass might look good from a distance; however, we want to see stronger growth in order to provide a better experience on the tees, on the fairways, and on the greens for guests.

The course is looking good in areas:

In other areas, there is a need to allow the grass to grow or we need to work on removing the debris (otherwise it makes it difficult to find one’s ball).

And some snow is still holding on.

Pushing the date back also gives the wildlife more time to enjoy the course on their own terms.

Closed until June 1st (you can see the sign on the webcam):

All the cabins at the Lodge now have new roofs. The golf course-side cabins (12 cabins*) had new roofs put on them in the spring of 2019, and this spring the roofing crew finished the 2nd phase of the project to ensure new roofs on the forest-side cabin (11 cabins).

In 2019 we started working on freshening up the resort, with an initial focus on deferred maintenance projects — projects that had been neglected in the past. One of those projects we started in the Spring of 2019 was replacing the roofs of the 24 cabin structures we have on property. The shingles were deteriorating, cabins were experiencing leaks, and moss was growing on the roofs.

In the Keweenaw, roofs are critical for the sustainability of a structure. Neglected roofs in the Keweenaw will result in both damaged roofs, as well as damaged integrity to the foundation of the structure. In our case, if a roof had fallen in, the logs would be damaged — either by rot or the weight of the fallen roof.

To show how much snow the Keweenaw gets, and how important strong roofs are, we can point to the 2019 winter season. During the 2019 winter season, we had close to 4 feet of snow on the forest-side cabins before we started to remove the snow. 4 feet of fresh snow equates to around 20 pounds per square foot. We had packed snow, which would mean there was probably twice as much weight on those roofs. That is a lot of weight to have on a roof. We were thankful that none of the cabin roofs fell in. It was also a testament to how well built these cabins were and the craftsmanship in the 1930s. [ And we have gotten better at snow removal this past winter. ]

There wasn’t much documentation about the cabin roofs; however, with our research, we deducted that the singles on the roofs hadn’t been replaced for at least 30 years. When we started on the roofs on the golf course side, we found that there were up to 5 layers (a combination of rolled-roofing and asphalt shingles). On the forest-side cabins we worked on this year, we found up to 3 layers of roofing.

In each of the 2 roofing phases, the roofers found interesting artifacts where the roofers in the 1930s left behind their names — carved their names into history at the resort.

Guests won’t notice much of a difference, as they expect cabins to have solid and strong roofs. However, they will notice that there will be less or no leaks when it is raining in the Keweenaw, and they are enjoying a fire in the fireplace of their cabin.

We thank Joe Goulette and his crew at JG General Contracting for the quality work they did on the roofs on the cabins. They respected the history and the significance of the structures they were working on. They took pride in their work.

* There are 13 cabins on the golf course side, but we only did 12 roofs in the spring of 2019. Cabin 4 didn’t need a new roof, as it was replaced in the past 5 years. A tree had fallen on cabin 4 several years back, and the roof was replaced at that time.

Good morning. It is a glorious day, and to top it off, it is Mother’s Day.

We wish a wonderful Mother’s Day to all the mother’s, and thank each of them for all that they have done, and continue to do, in our lives.

Today we would normally be holding a feast at the Lodge, hosting a number of people throughout the day to celebrate Mother’s Day. Last year we had a packed Lodge, with two full-house sittings to celebrate mothers and the opening of the Lodge for the 2019 summer season. 

This year we had planned another Mother’s Day event — a Mother’s Day lunch, with a wonderful, rustic-focused 5-course menu.

However, with the current executive orders in place which don’t allow dine-in, and with stay-home, stay-safe initiatives still in place in the state of Michigan, we canceled the traditional lunch. Even if the executive orders were not in place, we felt that it was best to cancel the traditional event (we made the decision to cancel it March 24th). This decision was to ensure safety of our staff and guests, and to ensure we can offer what we say we can offer.

That said, we opened up last week on Thursday, April 30th, for food take-out. We didn’t know how that would go and if our kitchen would be ready to handle take-out operations. After the first weekend concluded, we looked back on how the operations went and what we learned (and continue to learn) about offering take-out. We felt comfortable to try a take-out option for Mother’s Day — a Mother’s Day Take and Go Box. We offered a limited number of boxes, as we wanted to make sure we cook wonderful rustic comfort food that has soul.

The Mother’s Day Take and Go Box menu consisted of:

• Appetizer: choose one option – Fish dip or hummus, with our housemade bread
• Salad: choose one option – Garden or spinach
• Soup: Vegetarian minestrone
• Main Dish: Chicken roulade, with wine sauce — served with vegetables and rice
• Dessert: Chocolate dipped shortbread cookies, with orange zest

We are happy to say that we sold out of the boxes.

We thank those that purchased boxes, and we look forward to seeing you when you pick up the boxes today.

For those that wanted a box, but we had already sold out, we also thank you for your support and hope you are able to purchase food from our take-out menu or our next special “box” event.

We are open today between 8am and 4pm, for breakfast and lunch (see this week’s take-out menu).

We hope you enjoy the food with your families. Happy Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mothers in the Keweenaw.

We have now made available the ability to order the KML Mother’s Day Take and Go Box.

Today and tomorrow we are accepting orders for the KML Mother’s Day Take and Go Box. The boxes can be bought for the entire family. They are advanced ordered, and can be picked up at the Lodge on Sunday, May 10th, between 8am and 4pm.

The Mother’s Day Take and Go Box menu:

• Appetizer: choose one option – Fish dip or hummus, with our housemade bread
• Salad: choose one option – Garden or spinach
• Soup: Vegetarian minestrone
• Main Dish: Chicken roulade, with wine sauce — served with vegetables and rice
• Dessert: Chocolate dipped shortbread cookies, with orange zest

There is a limited number of boxes available, and we will offer the boxes for as long as we have these boxes. After that we will close the ability to purchase the boxes online.

And yes, we would have loved to celebrate Mother’s Day with everyone at the Lodge this Sunday. The atmosphere at the Lodge is wonderful. The resort provides a historic, rustic environment, where the fire in one of the grandiose fireplace is special and authentic for a wilderness experience.

Until we can open up to the Lodge facility for lingering by the general public, we continue to be provide a safe and healthy environment for our staff, our customers, and supporters of how we are marrying the history with the future to get to a progressive and vibrant present.

As we think about the history, and look to the future, we wish everybody a Happy Mother’s Day.

Reminder: We are now a cashless resort, all payments are made via credit or debit card.

We are now open for the 2020 Summer Season. As of April 30th, we opened our dining services (take-out only). And as of May 1st, lodging is open again to the general public.

Our dining services are available for take-out only, as the state of Michigan is under an executive order that only allows restaurants to operate their take-out operations. This means we are not able to allow customers to eat in our dining room, nor in the bar, or at the cafe. Rather, customers purchase food from our take-out menu and are able to eat outside on the Lodge property, take the food with them on a hike,  or back to their homes.

During the month of May, we plan on having the take-out dining services open Thursday-Sunday (see hours of operations).  We will make modifications to the take-out menu each week in order to keep our menu fresh.  You can see the take-out menu we opened up with for the first weekend: April 30th – May 3rd menu.

You will discover we offer a limited menu, which is our style as we work to provide patrons authentic rustic food at Lodge.

Our lodging services opened up on May 1st again to the general public. We had 6 cabins open during the winter time for a limited group — friends, and friends of friends of the Lodge. This enabled us to test the cabin infrastructure in winter conditions, and help us make a decision to be open year-round with lodging.  On May 1st, we let the general public know they can stay in the cabins at the Lodge.  Over the course of the month we will open up more cabins. 

Both the dining services and lodging services are being operated according to the state’s executive orders, and in a manner that keeps both staff and guests safe and healthy.

The golf course is scheduled to open for play on May 19th. The golf course maintenance crew will be working to get the course playable by that date. The golf services team is setting up the operations that will enable golfers to book their tee times online (or over the phone), and pay their green fees online (or over the phone).  The golf course will be walking only, no carts, during the month of May.

We have made the decision starting in 2020 that we will move to being a cashless operation. This means that starting this month, January, we will not be accepting cash for payments, and will only be accepting credit cards.

This has been a gradual change, and not something that has happened over night.  The first step of becoming a cashless resort was to ensure that customers can easily pay with their credit cards.  This past year we spent time testing our payment and operational technology process to ensure we are able to accept credit cards reliably.  Customers have already been reserving Lodging online, and paying with their credit card (cash was 2% of the lodging transactions).  In addition, 70%+ of our dining and outdoor activities customers paid with some form of a non-cash payment. 

The reason for this decision is that we are spending our efforts to streamline our operations in order to provide better customer service (for lodging, dining, and outdoor activities).  Cash can slow down customer service, with customers searching for cash and employees counting out change (sometimes incorrectly). A credit or debit card transaction requires no counting, and more often than not, can result in a quick and efficient transaction.  Technology being used for electronic payments allows us to improve our customer service by providing faster and more efficient customer service.   By removing cash from the transaction process, we are able to focus more on providing quality service rather than counting and distributing cash to customers and employees.  

In addition, we are in the wilderness, with the nearest bank being 25-30 miles. It does not make operational sense to have cash on-hand and having to drive to the bank to make deposits on a regular basis.

Time spent counting cash and making bank runs can now be spent coaching team members and directly engaging with our customers in a more meaningful manner.

This is a decision that multiple hospitality establishments around the world and locally have made, including Mount Bohemia, Walt Disney World.

As in the past, in 2020 we will accept major credit cards for payment: American Express, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa. In addition, we are looking into accepting Apple-pay.  Over the next 4-5 months we will be getting the word out to customers that the Lodge has moved towards cashless operations.

At the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, we have opened up the Lodge Life Shop (in 2019). The Lodge Life Shop offers merchandise that is associated with the Lodge and the Keweenaw. Purchasing merchandise from the Lodge Life Shop allows you to take a little of the Lodge home with you.   We offer Lodge-branded t-shirts, hoodies, joggers, stickers, magnets, and drinkware, as well as various products made in the Keweenaw.

Those items can now be bought online at http://lodgelifeshop.com, and shipped to you anywhere in the continental United States.