Bridgewater Inn Blog

6/24-6/28/2009 PMTT Professional Musky Tournament Trail was a great success. It was so nice to see all those Ranger boats parked in our piers and our boathouse. They like our hotel because they can plug their boats in to our boathouse that is equipped with electricity. It is also nice that we are so close to the boat launches and that it only takes about 10 minutes by boat to get to where they start the tourny. We are right on the edge of the slow no wake so you can basically let that Evinrude Etec 225 go.. None of our guest caught a legal musky (34 inch) but there is always next year;)

7/26-8/1/2009 My mom had a family reunion. It was pretty cool to see relatives from Seattle, WA, OH, and southern WI. We rented 2 jetskiis one day. We also went musky, and walleye fishing in our fishing boats. My uncle even brought up his speed boat for the skiers, tubers, and wakeboarders. Our pontoon boat also was convient to use. There was bicyle rides and kayak rides. We even had a large banquet at The White Spruce Inn.

8/6-8/2009 Had a group of people celebrate a 30th birthday party. They rented the pirate ship from Pirates Hideaway. I did not realize how huge it was. I think they have a 150 HP engine on it.

11/29/2009 My buddy Jerry and his family visited us. We went up and check out the Paulding lights. We used his GPS and tried to track down those mysterious lights. We drove his minivan over some frozen tight muddy roads. We were certainly in the Northwoods. On the way back we drove past the Lac Vieux Desert casino in Watersmeet, MI. It was also nice to see the horse drawn carriages.

11/21-29/2009 Hunting.. We had a few deer hunters this year. With no doe tags available for this unit all the hunters came up empty handed. The hunters did see bear and heard wolves. If I never see a bear or a wolf I will be happy;) I did get out to the woods at the crack of 1:30pm but after it was foggy until 11 I wasn't too late. I did only hunt two days but the weather was so nice I would have rather been in a boat fishing for musky..

1/15/2010 Ice Castle. Last year they didn't have one so this was my first chance to see it. The fire department did a great job.

2/12/2010 Snowmobile to MI. I got to drive my step-father's snowmobile to Houghton MI with the SNO-Eagles snowmobile club. We left at 7am and it was -10. I think there were only 2 days this winter that got to -10 and I was snowmobiling in both of them.. go figure.. By 10am it was already above zero and the temps continued to rise all day. We put 150 miles on that day. My step-father had a rental snowmobile from Shoeder's in Rhinelander. Anyways, my mom drove a car up to Houghton and I drove the car back. The SNO-Eagles put about 100 miles on the next day. The following day they all drove back and put 154 miles on. They did stop at Bon Falls to check that out. Since it was Presidents Day weekend all the rental snowmobiles were rented by all the places that we tried. Shoeder's was great. They found a sled that we could use and they delivered it Tuesday morning at 8am and picked it up the following Monday morning. The snowmobile was an Artic Cat 500 liquid cooled. It had adjustable seats and handle bars. My mom drove it with the SNO-EAGLES on Wednesday and I put 174 miles on Thursday. I started with the seat as high up as it could go and the handle bars as forward as they could go. I ended up lowering the seat and putting the handle bars down and then I was in business. After 174 miles I had a great feel for that sled. I even talked to another snowmobile dealer and they had to compliment Shoeder's for renting such good sleds.

2/13-2/14/2010 Pond Hockey.. I love Pond Hockey. This is probably my most favorite weekend of the year... Sponsered by Labotts an NHL sanctioned event, people from all over the US (Los Angelas, Chicago, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and it goes on and on.. This year there were 220 teams with a minimum of 6 players. We had 24 ice rinks made on Duck Lake. There were guys teams, girls teams, girls/guys teams, different divisions, a big tent to warm up altho it was around 32 degrees. It is so cool to see someone pull up on a snowmobile who is all decked out in hockey gear.. Thats how I remember playing hockey.. Even tho I couldn't skate so I had to use boots.. We had a group from New Jersey that used their breakfast coupons we gave out for Fayes Dinky Diner. That was the perfect fit for those boys.. One nice thing about the Northwoods, you will find your fit, just have to look for it..

3/1/2010 Went Ice fishing on ???? Lake ha ha.. We weren't allowed to drive vehicles on the ice because of an airater.. Instead people would drive snowmobiles and ATVs. I could only fish for a couple hours and didn't really catch much but the 5 other people that I was fishing all caught their limit of panfish. I think most were perch but they did catch some bluegill and crappies.

3/1/2010 Snowmbiling was great this year. I put 1200 miles on my snowmobile and about 500 on other people's snowmobiles. I went all over vilas county, even hit areas of forest, iron, oneida, and went into the UP Michigan. For the mostpart I went alone and since I am new to the area I stayed on the main trails. I basically wanted to memorize the main trails. My route would start out in Eagle River and go to Land O Lakes, Boulder Junction, Presque Isle, Mercer, then I would go Minoqua then Lac Du Flambeau, then Lake Tomahawk, the McNaughton, then Three Lakes, and the back up to Eagle River. Other areas that I have explored this past year are Star Lake, St. Germain, Arbor Vitae, Houghton, Watersmeat, Conover, Sugar Camp, Woodruff, and I almost made it to Hurley (where Whitecap ski hill is).

3/5-3/6/2010 We had a group of bird watchers that rented 10 rooms with 2 beds. They were looking for Ruffed and Sharp-Tailed Grouse. They were also looking for bald eagles. They had beautiful weather and since it is so dry up here it makes for good hiking conditions with no bugs. It is also good for fly fishing for trout and walleye.

4/2010 Fishing is great. 40 perch caught by me and frank. then another 30 caught by my parents and frank. muskies surfacing. otters eating fish faster than we can catch the fish. walleyes are even biting.. to bad we can't keep em. Love is in the air for the muskrats and the ducks and it is driving my dog crazy;)

5/8/2010 Journey's Marathon. A lil snow didn't stop em from coming. A record 1027 people entered to walk, speed walk, jog and even glimpses of running a full marathon, or half marathon. I think there was even a 5k which I am metric conversions challenged. Legend George did a great job of DJ the event and we are working with him to DJ other events.

6/7/2010 Fishing has No Boundries. This past weekend we donated our pontoon boat to Muskies Incorporated so that some less fortunate people get to go fishing with some guides. My stepfather went with and he had the time of his life. We definately want to donate our boat next year. If anyone is interested in donating their boat, the gas is all paid for, you get fed, and best of all you get to fish with the guides. They will show you were the fish are and how to catch them.

6/7/2010 Work Exchange. Right now we have some Russian Students staying at our hotel. I am not exactly sure where they are from. I do know that they are not all from the same area of Russia. My mom thinks they are from the Ukraine. A couple of them told me that they are from the southern part of Russia and that their weather is a lot warmer than ours. But that isn't too much different than any other part of the world;)

6/12-13/2010 RWT. Rohr's Wilderness Tour is doing a canoe race on the Wisconsin River. It is a 2 day event with a barbeque. This is the 6th annual year. It starts in Conover and ends in Eagle River. There are also some bike trails up in Conover. They also have cross country ski trails.

8/28-29/2010 Festival of Flavors. 2009 was the first year and they sold tickets for the whole event. This year they are going tickets in $1 increments. You can use those tickets for samples from various restaraunts. This year it will include places from all over the Northwoods. They got something like a 30,000 or 40,000 grant to promote. So PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE;) I am very proud of this event because I am very proud of the good food represented by the various business of the Northwoods.