Trivia Challenge: How Well Do You Know Aikens?

Are you ready for a challenge? Test your Aikens knowledge by taking our ultimate Aikens trivia quiz below. Julie and Pit brainstormed a variety of questions to test your knowledge and to share interesting and fun factoids about the lodge you love.

To avoid showing you the answer before you have the chance to think of your response, this first section below is a list of all the questions.

Below that, one by one, we list the question and corresponding answer.

Good luck!

Trivia Questions

1. How many tubs of minnows does Aikens go through in a year?
2. How many pounds of potatoes are purchased for a summer at Aikens?
3. Who is Chris' Corner named after?
4. How did Pit get his name?
5. Who named Gibson?
6. How many times did Pit move every log to build GGO?
7. What size is the lake record walleye?
8. Who on the management team types the fastest?
9. How many Century Clubs have been awarded in a single year at Aikens?
10. What is Pit's biggest pet peeve?
11. How many years did it take for Julie to get the permit to build the Lost Lake cabin?
12. How many flights dock at Aikens each year?
13. Name the past and current camp dogs.
14. How many flight were needed to bring in material flights were needed to build Lost Lake Outpost?
15. Other than management, which staff member was at Aikens the longest?

Questions & Answers

Q. How many tubs of minnows does Aikens go through in a year?

A. We go through about 2,500 tubs of minnows per year, and about 1,000 dozen crawlers.

Q. How many pounds of potatoes are purchased for a summer at Aikens?

A. We went through 2,600 pounds of potatoes last year.

Q. Who is Chris' Corner named after?

A. It was named after Chris Lavergne (ex-head guide who’s father Gerry was the was guy who sold Aikens to my family). He still comes up to contract guide every year or two. It was originally found to be a great walleye spot, as Chris located a boulder pile in 31 feet out of the depths. We eventually found that lake trout liked to hang out there too! Here’s the fish that got the spot named.

Q. How did Pit get his name?

A. It is a shortened version of the French nickname “Pitou”, that is common to call your young son.

Q. Who named Gibson?

A. Julie named Gibson after Pit’s favorite brand of whiskey. After we lost Kodiak as a dog, I thought we would have a period of a year or two without a dog, but Julie pressed to get one more quickly, and the name was part of a bribe!

Q. How many times did Pit move every log to build GGO?

A. Every log was moved 37 times. From first cutting it in the forest, moving it to the barge, getting it to the lodge, moving it to the sawmill, then the woodyard to build “phase 1”, taken apart and brought back on the barge to get to GGO, and then eventually on the building. Then, after seeing that the floor at GGO was more level than the ground in the woodyard, moved back to the lodge for more tweaking and back to GGO for final install!

Q. What size is the lake record walleye?

Lake record walleye (since we started keeping records in 1989) is 33.5 inches.

Bonus: The lake record pike is 49 inches and lake trout is 44.25 inches.

Q. Who on the management team types the fastest?

A. Pit types the fastest, for sure. Julie and Janelle are great too. Pat has a hard time typing with his work gloves on.

Q. How many Century Clubs have been awarded in a single year at Aikens?

A. We have kept stats for 8 years and have recorded over 600 Century Clubs. We broke 100 in a year twice (106 in 2013, 104 in 2016).

Q. What is Pit's biggest pet peeve?

A. Pit’s biggest pet peeve is finding cigarette butts on the ground, especially at the lodge!

Q. How many years did it take for Julie to get the permit to build the Lost Lake cabin?

A. 4 years. We applied for the permit in 2009, and got clearance in 2012. We then put up the concrete and dock that fall (2012), and crushed out the rest of the build in 2013. We were actually ready to host the first group on August 19, 2013!

Q. How many flights dock at Aikens each year?

A. Each year, we have between 260 and 300 flights per year – depending on the amount of renovations/materials we bring in. So we average over 2 flights per day over the course of our season.

Q. Name the past and current camp dogs.

A. Enzo 2011, Gibson 2013, Kodiak 2000-2014. Sampson 1990-2000. Jig 1989-1990.

Q. How many flights were needed to bring in material flights were needed to build Lost Lake Outpost?

A. Lost Lake took 41 flights of materials for the cabin. Plus an extra 11 for boats, equipment, docks. So 52 in all (x 2,600 lbs = 135,000 lbs of stuff!).

Q. Other than management, which staff member was at Aikens the longest?

A. JB is now our longest tenured staff member. He will be going into his 9th season in 2018.