2024 Year in Review

How do we describe the past season at Aikens? We think “A Return to Normal” would be a fair way to frame the year. It felt in so many ways like a “normal” year… the kind we used to enjoy with regularity in the 2010’s before the world started throwing curveballs! In 2024, we didn’t face any pandemics, any forest fire closures (or fire threats), or historically low or high water. No, indeed it was a perfectly “normal” season!

It was a year where we greeted hundreds of familiar faces and hundreds of new faces, and we were able to get back to our bread and butter of customer service.

We also were able to return to our usual schedule of upgrades/construction/renovations that keep Aikens at the forefront of the lodge industry.

As you all know, in 2020 the world flipped upside down. No need to rehash that part of history! The 2020 and 2021 seasons were both very challenging, with relatively few guests able to get on a float plane and experience Aikens amid all the border closures, health restrictions, and we even had to close for nearly 4 weeks due to forest fires in 2021 (the first time that has ever happened).

The next two seasons, 2022 and 2023, were wide open! You have heard the term “revenge travel” … we experienced that firsthand at Aikens so we can attest that it was a real phenomenon! We saw record visitation in those two seasons… we are talking 15-20% higher guest rates than we had ever seen in our best years before that.

The most incredible part was that commercial air travel to Winnipeg was not yet back to normal. From the start of the pandemic until May 2024 there was only one US city to connect to once a day… Minneapolis. People had to embrace the proverbial “planes, trains, and automobiles” motto to find their way up to Aikens in those years. And so many did. With “revenge travel” at its peak, the planes were landing multiple times daily and people were cycling in and out of Aikens at an incredible rate.

It was a fun time at the lake for sure and the boon in business helped us dig out of the previous two years very quickly. That said, it was a pace that required constant attention to detail, and we wanted to maintain that top-level customer service for our guests. At times, the pace felt unsustainable because of the constant strain on our human resources (we were flying in extra help on a near-weekly basis).

It also tested our travel logistics like float plane schedules and boats, as well as our natural resources both in and around the lake. But in the end people always left Aikens with a smile and we were able to survive those wild seasons and come out on the other side better for it!

Enter 2024. A great year for occupancy and business, but without that extra 15-20% bump in revenge travel. So overall the season was more manageable, more peaceful, more relaxed. We were able to focus on our customers with more attention, more fine details, and more top-notch experiences.

And to make things easier for travel to and from Winnipeg, there were once again commercial flights available from major hubs like Denver and Chicago, plus new routes from Atlanta and Los Angeles! Note: things will continue to improve on that front as next year there will be a direct flight available from Nashville in 2025. Those air logistics were another improvement to help with overall satisfaction with the experience people have during a trip to Aikens.

On the lake, a lot of fun was found out on the open water and on the shorelines of Aikens, Lost Lake, and Bonaventure Lake… we can assure you! But we will save that for another newsletter soon, so stay tuned…

In terms of our guests, we continued to see a large emphasis on family and friend groups. This trend ticked up significantly during 2021-2023 and continued this year. It would also appear that the corporate groups are also enjoying a resurgence. Anecdotally, we believe that we continue to lead the industry in having couples and ladies coming off the float planes. The Aikens Experience is a universal experience suitable for any age demographic, gender, ability, ethnicity, etc. And once you experience it, you usually find people within your circle that you would love to bring up here for the same experience you enjoyed.

As you know our guests are sent surveys after their trips, and another part of the experience that was very well received was the quality of the meals this year. On that note, we welcomed a new face in the kitchen this spring.

Chef Colin joined us in early June, and his youthful energy immediately made an impact that was felt everywhere in camp. Guests and staff alike enjoyed his modern approach to putting out delicious fare for all.

Chef Colin quickly became known for his post-meal dining-room visits to ensure that people were enjoying the recipes and to make sure that he was aware of all dietary restrictions and favorite dishes.

2024 also marked the official full-time return for a veteran face in Justin Chamberland. Justin started working at Aikens in 2014 and had become a trusted hand in maintenance and construction as he worked towards his engineering degree in 2021.

After graduating, he took a full-time job in Winnipeg that he loves, but that heart-tug towards Aikens in the summer months led him to a bold proposition in the summer of 2023... He approached both companies and worked out an agreement that sees him travel north to Aikens in the summer months while having a good job to return to in Winnipeg each fall. That is a testament to the type of employee Justin is – people just love having him as part of the team! He is always ready to help in any way, and he is incredibly skilled in many areas – a true “jack of all trades”.

On top of helping Pat keep the lodge and outpost camps humming along, Justin also helped us accomplish some fun projects (as you will see soon). Thank you for being an essential part of the team Justin!

Speaking of projects, we were able to complete a few major ones in 2024.

With the low water in 2023, we were forced to land all the planes on the floating dock for the entire season because our permanent dock was too far out of the water. We learned that it is not easy to load and unload planes, along with all the bodies needed to do so, on an 8-foot-wide floating dock. We needed something wider and sturdier. So, this spring we set out to build a brand-new floating dock to attach to our main dock. The new 64’ x 10’ floating structure came in very handy. The extra width stabilized things and proved important to ease the transfer of luggage and freight in and out of the planes. A huge thank you to our Molly Week volunteers who put this project together.

This past summer, we demolished the final few original cabins in camp. These buildings were erected in the 40’s and they didn’t owe us anything more… they had served incredibly well for decades but unfortunately had deteriorated to a point they had become hazards. In 2023 we started by taking down the original fileting shack and the Whitehouse.

This year, the work continued as we removed the original lodge (aka: Le Portage) and the old Workshop. The Portage was not only the main lodge dining room for decades, but it was also the guide residence throughout much of the 80’s, 90’s, and early 00’s. Elsie Carlson, the first owner of Aikens and the ghost that lived in the Portage along with the guides, didn’t want to go easily and she put up a fight as the tractor was pulling on the walls!

Despite her resistance, eventually, the logs and debris were all removed, and the basement was backfilled. The area now sits bare but is located on prime real estate so surely, we will put that to good use in future years. We’re sorry to have removed your house Elsie… it had to be done! We are not sure where Elsie is resting this winter, but I am sure she will let us know soon enough once we are back in camp next spring.

For those guests that stay at GGO across the lake, a new renovation will be awaiting you on your next visit. For most of July last summer, the crews drove across the lake each morning to work on changing out the plumbing and other mechanical systems, and to renovate the washrooms. Gone are the sometimes popular (and mostly unpopular) Clivus compostable toilets, in their place regular flush toilets now sit. We also have an unlimited hot-water-on-demand system so even groups of 12 can all enjoy scorching host showers at any time (there is no race back to camp after fishing to get that hot water shower LOL!). On the outside of the building, you will now notice a new mechanical room that replaces the crumbling basement, which is now all filled in. So, while there aren’t many superficial changes to the cabin outside of the washrooms, the functionality overall is much improved.

Finally, back at camp, we were able to mostly complete a new staff cabin on the south side of camp to add to our capacity. The expansion of the staff over the years has made the existing infrastructure inadequate to properly house everyone and the cabin will help relieve that pressure.

On the equipment side, we expanded our Lund Alaskan fleet with the purchase of two new 18’ boats, which can each take a guide plus 3 guests. This adds to the existing fleet. We also purchased new customized boat seats for the guide boats. (editor’s note: Patrick and Justin have done an amazing job of keeping all the Lunds in our fleet pristine and running like a top!)

That about sums up our 2024 season. If you visited us, you were able to see many of these aspects first-hand. If you weren’t there last summer, hopefully we have given you a good impression of what awaits you on your next visit to the lodge. Thanks for being part of the Aikens community and we are all looking forward to the spring melt and opening for another great season in May 2025!