Minnesota vacation – Wildwood Resort

Minnesota Golf Discounts

With our western-facing shoreline we are regularly treated to amazing sunsets!

Jay and I are a little sick of winter. So let’s talk about summer vacation in Minnesota instead! I’m thinking about MN family vacation with sandy beaches, walleye fishing, relaxation and Minnesota GOLF! We are pleased to partner with two local golf courses offering golf discounts to all of our guests this summer!

Pokegama Golf Course and Eagle Ridge Golf Course have extended an offer to our guests for significantly reduced green fee/golf cart rates. This season all of our guests can take advantage of a $35.00 rate that applies to all rounds at either golf course regardless of the day of the week played. That is a savings of up to $20+ per round! (We do love discounts!!) Simply decide what day and what course you want to play, verify availability for tee times and we’ll give you a voucher to be presented when you check in at the course. Your charges will be added to your Wildwood invoice. It’s so simple! Give us a call or email us if you have questions.

Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Coleraine, MN is a short 15 minutes from Wildwood. Eagle Ridge golf course is cut out of Minnesota’s northwoods overlooking scenic Trout Lake. Open for play in 1996, this 18-hole par 72 championship course laout was designed by Garrett Gill of Williams, Gill & Associates. Eagle Ridge offers an enjoyable round of golf for all players while challenging the serious golfer with many great holes. Breathtaking views, wide fairways and large greens enhance the course which is beautifully tree-lined and sits 100 feet above Trout Lake. There are lake views from several holes that will make you want to play again and again! When you are done playing sit on the large deck overlooking Trout Lake and have a nice lunch or enjoy a beverage. Also enjoy their practice range, pro shop, and clubhouse with full bar and restaurant. Call 1-888-307-3245 or 218-245-2217 for tee-times or information.

Pokegama Golf Course in Grand Rapids, MN is also a quick 15 minute trip from Wildwood. Pokegama Golf Course of Grand Rapids is a Northland favorite. Guests enjoy their 18 hole layout on the shores of beautiful Pokegama Lake. Men’s, Women’s, Senior’s and Junior golf associations as well as the Minnesota PGA have chosen Pokegama as a host site for many local, regional, and state golf events. Golfers of all abilities enjoy the well-manicured course which is user-friendly to men, women, boys, and girls of all ages. The very walkable layout can also be enjoyed in a quiet electric power cart with GPS yardage. After play the Pokegama Grill features favorite food and beverages. Enjoy the spectacular lake and golf course views from the front veranda. Contact Pokegama Golf Course via email:golf@pokegamagolf.com; phone: 218-326-3444; web: www.PokegamaGolf.com or Facebook: www.facebook.com/PokegamaGolf.

MN family resort — Minnesota family vacation at Wildwood means cute kids having fun together!

Minnesota Fishing Opener is a short 12 weeks away so summer will return to Minnesota. The sun is getting stronger every day so just keep believing! 🙂
Kim & Jay

Groomed Snowmobile Trails, Fresh Snow and Perfect Weather!

snowmobile trails x-ski trails — Fresh snow has made the landscape beautiful and the groomed snowmobile trails and x-ski trails excellent!

I think all of us can agree that winter has been pretty long so far. And the fact that it is only mid-February might make some folks head for the nearest airport to escape the cold. However, Mother Nature has finally given us a break this week with perfect snowmobile and x-ski trail conditions, fresh snow for grooming and “warm” temperatures to enjoy it!

Guests staying at Wildwood over the last few weeks are reporting near-perfect snowmobile trail conditions with all local trails being groomed regularly. It has been a busy winter for us and that hasn’t left a lot of time for riding our own snowmobiles. But on Friday night we finally got out on the trails ourselves and although it was not a long ride it was an amazing one! We picked the kids up from school and headed up to Marcell with plans to ride with friends. We hit the trails around 4:30 with clear skies and sunshine. We rode west on the Bowstring trail into the setting sun and as it dipped below the horizon it turned the sky pink and purple. Trail conditions were really good and were made better when we met the groomer out on the trail! The temperature dropped pretty quickly after the sun went down so we didn’t ride too long before we decided to turn around and head back the way we came. We had the kids along and wanted to eat steak at the Timberwolf Inn so the increasing cold and hunger pangs drove us back toward Marcell. Shortly after heading east again I was catching light out of the corner of my eye. I kept thinking I was seeing headlights of oncoming sleds. However, it didn’t take long to realize that the light was coming from the rising moon. It looked like it was playing peek-a-boo through the trees. With the clear sky the light from the full, yellow moon was amazing. It was so beautiful that it was hard to concentrate on the trail! With warmer temperatures forecasted for the coming week we look forward to getting more time on the snowmobiles. We hope you do, too!

Ice fishing on Bass Lake has been a little slow this winter. We can only guess that the crazy, cold temperatures impacted the fish as much as the rest of us! We had ice fishermen in over President’s Day weekend who reported the the fishing wasn’t red-hot but they caught enough sunfish throught he ice to limit out. While we only maintain our access for ATV and snowomobile traffic the ice conditions are great for travel by truck as well. Last we knew there were no plowed roads on the south end of Bass Lake.

Minnesota family resort — Finally all the windows and the front door are in!

Our project is going well and it has been fun to start thinking of the winter of 2015 when we will have nine cabins open for winter business. Of course, we have to get them built first so that’s still our main focus right now. Our contractors and Jay have been making great progress and all four cabins are coming along nicely. We ordered kitchen cabinets last week and have finalized our flooring decisions. Those feel like two big milestones right now. After this week we will be ready for the painting contractor to come in and seal up the walls, windows, doors and trim. Although we are trying not to get our hopes up it’s hard not to imagine getting Aspen Lodge, Oak Lodge and Cedar Lodge done before May so we can concentrate on getting the rest of the resort ready for summer! I included some updated photos in this blog but you can also check out our Facebook page for the latest photos on our new cabins.

minnesota lake vacation — Here is a little Minnesota “summer vacation” to get you through another winter day!

While our time and energy is focused now on winter business and building new cabins it’s always nice to hear from people who have started to think about taking a Minnesota family vacation to Wildwood this year. I appreciate talking about walleye fishing (on open water) and discussing the merits of renting a pontoon for large family reunion groups. As I answer “Mom” questions about our safe, sandy beach and our supervised kid’s activities it makes me anticipate warm, summer days on the lake and the sun on my face. It’s certainly been a long winter but let’s all remember that it won’t last forever and summer WILL return. In 12 short weeks it will be Minnesota Fishing Opener followed immediately by the kick-off of the summer vacation season. As hard as it is to believe we will be digging out our summer clothes soon so just tuck those warm thoughts under your stocking cap as you enjoy the last month of winter!

Cheers!
Kim & Jay

Minnesota cabin rental — We installed a sound-deadening insulation on both sides of the adjoining wall in the duplex.

Minnesota vacation cabin — There will be a nice closet for storage and an extra fridge under the stairs in the entry of Red and White Oak Lodges.

Mn family vacations — The addition of the above the door really finish the look of Aspen Lodge.

Minnesota resort cabins — The windows and door let a ton of natural light into Cedar Lodge

Can We Snowmobile Yet?

mn snowmobiling — Snow this time of year means poor outdoor working conditions but it also means we’ll be hitting the snowmobile trails in a few months!

We awoke to temps in the 20s this morning. The chill in the air has the bite of winter and I couldn’t help but think about snow. And do you know what snow makes me think of?? Minnesota snowmobile season! We’re getting ready to pull docks out of the lake and put our boats in storage. When that happens we move our snowmobiles to the FRONT of the storage shed for easy access. It’s a seasonal right of passage and the thought of that always makes us a little giddy. Now I’m not saying I’m ready for snow quite yet but I am saying that it’s time to start thinking about hitting the snowmobile trails. Maybe we should also make sure we have enough wax on hand for the coming x-ski season. And now that I think of it perhaps Jay should ramp up his Craig’s List search for ice fishing related items we want like an ice auger and a portable ice house.

northern mn cabin — Jay spent yesterday putting down the foam on top of the pads in preparation for installing the in-floor heat tubing.

Jay won’t be happy when he reads this post because he absolutely is not ready for it to snow. Why? Because he is focused entirely on getting concrete poured this week. It cannot snow this week or the next week or even the week after that if you ask my husband. The man is a little stressed out by the fact that we’ve got four new cabins under construction. And, yes, I did say “four” new cabins. After a month of work on the cabin formerly known as Cabin 1, we determined that there wasn’t enough viable structure to support the changes we needed to make. So last weekend Cabin 1 was demolished and we began frantic efforts to add another pad to the pour-concrete-this-week plan. Our contractors have been great so far and everyone has worked really hard to make sure we can pour concrete before it snows. The weather has NOT been helpful and there were many days when Jay and our plumber were digging in waste lines in driving rain and sleet. We are assuming that as soon as these buildings are enclosed and no one has to work outside the weather will turn unseasonably warm. That’s about how our luck runs. 😉 So the plan for this week is to finish site prep on Cedar Lodge, get foam down on top of all of the sites in order to get infloor heat tubing attached and then it’s time to pour concrete. Think we can get all that done before it rains on Wednesday!? Stay tuned….

mn quilting retreats, minnesota scrapbooking cabins — Plan your next scrapbooking weekend or quilting retreat with us!

With all the talk of construction on this blog you might think that we don’t have anyone staying in our other cabins this fall. Fortunately, that isn’t true! Fall fishing and color tours are finished for the year. However, we still have groups on the book with plans for quilting weekends, girlfriend weekends and relaxing Northwoods get-aways! The fall bazaar season is upon us so each weekend there are many craft sales, church bazaars and fun events planned in and around the Grand Rapids, MN area. For instance this coming weekend is the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Grand Rapids. The Good Lovelies are performing at The Reif on Friday night then on Saturday the Christmas UpNorth Craft Show is being held from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Timberlake Lodge. Saturday night the Harlem Abassadors are in town at the high school and the Itasca Symphony Orchestra is performing at the Reif. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Maybe you should plan a quick November get-away to Wildwood Resort with your special someone or your crafting friends! Winter rates are now in effect so give us a call today.

Our new website debuted last week. It is an updated version of our old site design and we are very happy with it! Thanks to Art Unlimited for their hard work on our new site!! We are still doing some cleanup work on it this week so if you find any errors please email them to me. Thanks!!

Have a great week –
Kim & Jay

northwoods cabin — The site is prepped and ready for the in-floor heat tubing to be installed.

mn cabins — Cabin 1 could not be salvaged so it was removed and the site prepped for the new slab.

Growing Pains

Jay and I have done a lot of talking about our current renovation plans. It started with talks between us about what we need to do and what we want for Wildwood in the long run. Then came lots of discussions with bankers and builders about whether or not our plans are wise and/or feasible. Those discussions often meant more soul-searching and discussions between us about how much OLDER we are than the last time we did a large project and, therefore, how much can we really take on?! Finally, when our minds were settled and the bank on board we spent the summer discussing our plans with our guests.

minnesota resort — Here is the future site of our new 6 bedroom duplex, the Oak Lodge.

Many of our repeat customers were not surprised by our plans and were even happy to hear about the upgrades planned for Cabins 1 through 4. However, most feel really conflicted because while they look forward to level floors and larger bathrooms they mourn the loss of what the cabins signify to each of them. Jay and I have only been at Wildwood for 15 years. Many of the guests that we inherited in 1999 had already been coming to Wildwood for decades. They have witnessed the different resort owners come and go through the years and can tell us history about our property that never got transferred with the purchase. More importantly, they have lived many of their most precious memories in and around the cabins at Wildwood – memories of grandparents and parents who are now gone and memories of their grown children as toddlers and teens playing “Capture the Flag” after dark.

After all that talk and all the planning you would think we would be more than ready to see the old cabins gone. However, on Labor Day as I climbed the steps of Cabin 3 my eye caught an offering made by the guests who had departed that morning. Like so many of our people they have strong ties to Wildwood made more precious by the recent passing of their wonderful dad and husband. I was overwhelmed by the loss they have suffered and touched by the tribute. It was a reminder of the precious job we have of preserving Wildwood for future generations. Realizing that loss is part of change (they aren’t called growing “pains” for nothing) we vow to remember and continue with the long-established tradition of providing the backdrop for memories yet-to-be-made. We hope you will come along for the journey.

With all that said….I should tell you where we’re at as of today. Lots has been happening this week. It started with the demo of Cabins 2, 3 & 4. Our excavator spent the rest of the week hauling in fill and preparting the pad for Aspen Lodge. We’re looking forward to our concrete contractor coming in next week to start putting down forms for the slab. We’re very excited about the AMAZING view that our guests will have from the patio of that lovely new cabin!

minnesota cabins — Our contractor came out yesterday and sited the location of the Oak Lodge duplex.

Yesterday our contractor came out and sited the locations of both Aspen Lodge and the duplex. (Oak Lodge) We were pleased with the way both cabins will fit in the space we planned. Today there is lots of activity as we have someone here who is doing directional boring to take water and utilities down to the new cabins. What cool technology! He has a machine that drills underground while communicating with equipment above ground to come up exactly where we want the utilities.

northern mn resort — The utilities were pulled underground and that saved having to tear up the resort with trenches. It’s a very cool process!!

Then all the cable, wires, water lines, etc. are pulled back through the drilled hole. It saves a ton of time and prevents a huge mess since it keeps us from having to tear up the resort when we trench in all the utilites. Next week we plan for our concrete contractor to come and set the forms for the slabs. After the forms are set we’ll wait for the plumber to lay his plumbing and the tubing for the in-floor heat. We are hoping to be able to have the concrete slabs poured before the end of the month.

That’s it! You’re up-to-date on our project. Keep checking our Facebook page for videos and pictures.
Kim & Jay

mn fall color tours — The fall colors have been breathtaking this week!

mn fall colors — Even with construction underway the shoreline is gorgeous!

Minnesota Fall Colors and Demolition

The Minnesota fall color season is upon us and while it isn’t as spectacular as some other years it’s pretty darn beautiful! We were very dry coming into the fall so lots of the trees have dropped their leaves already. However, there is still plenty of beautiful fall scenery to take in. The DNR estimates that we are at 50-75% in our area while northern Itasca County is at 75-100%. A drive up the Highway 38 Scenic Byway or Scenic 7 will take you through some breathtaking fall color tours!

We’ve had some fall fishermen in over the last few weeks. We’ve seen a lot of bass and had reports of nice sunfish. I’m thinking that Jay and I aren’t going to get to fish at all this fall so I guess I’ll just have to tell you about all the fish that OTHER PEOPLE are catching. 😉

Our project is progressing well but we really are going to need a late freeze this year. This coming week the cabins will be demo’d and the site prepared for our concrete contractor to come and set his forms. If all goes as we hope we will be ready to pour concrete for Aspen and Oak Lodges by the end of the month.

MN resorts — Jay started removing the floor from Cabin 1 this week preparing for the structural work that needs to be done.

The transformation of Cabin 1 into Cedar Lodge is also going well. We have gutted the inside of the cabin and will pull up the flooring this week. In the next few weeks Jay will be working on finishing demolition, leveling the building and working on the roof structure. It already looks like a completely different cabin!

Just a quick update this week…thanks for taking the time to catch up on the happenings at Wildwood Resort!
Kim & Jay

northern minnesota resort — Decking material is green-treated so it cannot go to the dump with the rest of the cabin “demo” material. The decks from Cabin 3 and Cabin 4 were moved to our friends’ resort and will live on to enhance the MN vacation experience of more visitors for years to come!

Looking Forward

wildwood resort mn — Tree removal has begun in preparation for the demo of the cabins.

This week we have started the demo of our older cabins. From past experience we knew that seeing the cabins with doors and windows torn out is painful. However, past experience still doesn’t lessen the shock of seeing the cabins torn up. We’ve emptied Cabins 2, 3 & 4 and started the “gutting” of Cabin 1. We’ve packed up and stored what we’ll reuse and we are in the process of selling or donating the rest.

minnesota family resorts — My cousin and her family came to help us with the demo week. They even took vacation time to do it!

Right now the building are scheduled to be razed the week of October 7th. I included some pictures of the demo but just a word or warning: some photos may be distrubing to long-time Wildwood guests. :'( You can see more photos of our project as it progresses on the Wildwood Resort Facebook page. (You don’t need a Facebook account to see the photos on our page!)

mn fishing — Kevin caught this big nothern pike over Labor Day weekend!

We’ve had a really nice September with warm temps and lots of guests to enjoy the weather. Fishing has been really good which is a bit of a relief after the wierd summer. The late spring seemed to throw everything off this year…from the vegetation to the spawn so some weeks were ok and others were not so hot. Most guests this fall, however, have gotten into the fish that’s good!

Minnesota fall color tours — The foliage is just beginning to turn. The sunset last night really lit up the fall colors!

The fall colors are just beginning to show themselves so the season of fall color tours is just starting. Around us I’d say we aren’t quite to 25% yet but some of the trees on our property are absolutely gorgeous already. Check here for updated information from the DNR about fall colors in Minnesota!

That’s it for now. Hope you are having a great week!
Kim & Jay

P.S. We’ll be debuting our new website SOON! Stay tuned….

The Wolfhounds at Wildwood Resort

For the last week or so we’ve been overwhelmed with running the resort and planning for our big project. As we prepared over last weekend for our the final week of a “full” resort we were feeling tired and wishing we could just close up shop and get on with construction. The group we were preparing for are members of the Wolfhounds – men who served in the 2/27 Wolfhounds C Company 2nd platoon. They are Vietnam veterans who come together every other year in our area for a week of Minnesota fishing, fellowship, a lot of laughs and a ton of tears. They spent several days this last week at Wildwood and I can’t tell you what a loss that would have been for us to not have had the chance to welcome them…they are amazing men full of courage and our acquaintence with them is a gift.

Yesterday Jay and I sat with this group of gentlemen as they took several hours to discuss the history of their reunions with our local newspaper. We were struck by the great tragedy that the Vietnam war was for the men and women who served. The atrocities they saw and the ones they perpetrated during an act of war have scarred them. They all described coming home not as heros but as enemies of America. They were spit on in the airports on their travels home and treated as pariah on the airplanes. One described being in a fire-fight in the jungle one day and then just 48 hours later he found himself home in the states at a family party in his honor. There was no debriefing and no one to understand the horrors in his head. They had spent a year or more in the jungle fighting as ordered by the American military with no idea that sentiment toward them at home had changed for the worse. They were ill-prepared for re-entry into “normal” life and learned quickly that their service was to be hidden – a disgraceful part of their lives never to be discussed. So they lived with the images of the dead and the dying their heads for decades. Many have had multiple marriages and struggles with addiction. Most say that their wives and children had no idea what they had been through and sometimes not even that they had served at all. But for these Wolfhounds that changed when one member of this group began to seek them out. What began as a mission by one man to find the men with whom he fought has grown into source of healing for them all. Since 2004 they have reunited regularly and to a man they discuss the healing power present in the acknowledgement of demons long buried and in the bond of their brotherhood.

They told us they aren’t heros – that their only goal was to save the man to their left and to their right. But we know differently. These men (and all who have served in our military) are heros in every sense of the word and I won’t forget that fact as long as I live.

Here is the article our local paper did on The Wolfhounds visit to Grand Rapids last week. And For more information on this amazing group of men visit their website at: http://www.wolfhounds2nd27th.org/. You can also find a two-part story about these men told by John Quintell to a Helena newspaper earlier this year.

Have a great week!
Kim & Jay

The Changing Face of our Minnesota Family Resort

Jay and I purchased Wildwood Resort in 1999. At that time we had eight “classic” cabins and one moldy 70s era single-wide mobile home. After an unexpected visit in 2002 by the State Fire Marshall (he wasn’t too impressed by the mobile home) it was pulled off the resort in 2003 and now it lives on another piece of property somewhere in Itasca County. While we had no fondness for the mobile home, its loss made us really start looking at our business and asking ourselves if our current efforts would ever result in the resort we saw in our dreams. We probably owe that Fire Marshall a debt of gratitude for pulling the blinders off because in 2005 we added Red Pine Lodge and White Pine Lodge. Then in 2007 after tearing down four of the original cabins we built Basswood Lodge, Tamarack Lodge and Riverbirch Lodge. That brings us to the present day and very exciting news about our changes planned for 2014!

This coming winter we have planned the demolition of Cabins 2, 3 & 4 and the complete renovation of Cabin 1. The new cabins will be ready for the 2014 season beginning Memorial Weekend and will be winterized for year round use:

Cabin 4 will be replaced by Aspen Lodge which will be a two bedroom cabin located on the same beautiful spot it inhabits today.

Cabins 1 & 2 will become the Red Oak and White Oak Lodges. They will be located where Cabins 2 & 3 are today and built as a duplex with three bedrooms on each side of the unit. Building a duplex gives us the flexibility to rent the cabin as a 6 bedroom unit and makes the best use of the available land. There will be a sound barrier between the units and the outdoor space for each cabin will be private. Each side will be two-stories with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and covered patios. The unique floor plan of the duplex will allow groups to turn the two individual units into the 6 bedroom “Oak Lodge” by renting both sides of the unit and opening the adjoining doors. It will be perfect for family reunions!

Cabin 3 will become Cedar Lodge and will be located where Cabin 1 is today. We will gut and completely renovate the current cabin and remake it into a 2 bedroom, winterized unit with a full bathroom. The footprint and deck will remain the same but the interior will be totally new.

We will continue to book Cabins 1, 2, 3 & 4 through mid-September of this year so remember that there is still time to plan a fall stay at Wildwood! 🙂

We will be sharing photos of our progress throughout the winter so check back to this blog and our Facebook page often!

Kim & Jay

Here are some more photos of our guests enjoying their family vacations!

minnesota fishing resort — Nice crappie!

family vacations — Yep…we have it all at Wildwood – even fire-jugglers! This week we were treated to a show by one of our very talented guests!

family vacation — “Can we eat yet?!!?” (Waiting for potuck to start!!)

Snapshots of a Minnesota Vacation

Since a picture speaks 1,000 words I’m going to let these photos tell the story of the last week or so at Wildwood. (Hint: there was a lot of fishing, family time and fun at the lake!) We also have had some fabulous FOOD so I included a recipe, too. Enjoy!

Bass Lake bluegill — He is smiling for good reason…his 15oz. bluegill tops our Fishing Contest entries so far this year!

minnesota family vacation — Just like most of our guests, we’ve enjoyed lots of family time this July!

minnesota sunsets — Coming in for the night…

A neighbor on the lake shared her very fabulous rhubarb recipe with us. I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve made it in our house this summer!

Rhubarb Meringue Dessert

2 Cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Cup cold butter or margarine

Filling:
2 Cups sugar
1/3 Cup all-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon salt
6 egg yolks, beaten
1 Cup Whipping Cream
5 Cups sliced, fresh or frozen(thawed) rhubarb

Meringue:
6 egg whites
1/2 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
3/4 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

In a bowl, combine the flour and suar; cut in butter until crumbly. Press into a greased 13×9 in. baking dish. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack while preparing filling. In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour and salt. Stir in egg yolks and cream. Add rhubar. Pour over crust. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until set.

In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar, a tablespoon at a time until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla. Spread over hot filling. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving. Refrigrate leftovers. Yield: 12-15 servings.

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There are lots of fun events going on in and around Grand Rapids this coming weekend! Check out the Visit Grand Rapids Events Calendar for a listing.

Jay & Kim

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