Celebrating 40 Years of Old Post Lodge

40 years ago my mother and father had the absurdly wonderful idea of starting a fish camp on an abandoned and derelict site, in truly, the middle of nowhere. Lucky for them the lake was teeming with fish and people seemed to like the idea of driving all that way to spend a week on the lake, in search of the big one. Slowly but surely the camp grew from one guest cabin to many, with fit and eager fishing guides at the ready, cedar strip boats, twenty-horse power motors, bright and shiny, camp staff and of course my young self with my younger brothers tagging along soon after... This season marks the 40th anniversary of the dream my parents turned into a reality, all those years ago. Forty years on and we now have twenty-some-odd out buildings,we have graduated to a fleet of aluminium, Kingfishers and this year we have committed to 20 new Suzuki outboard motors. Over the years we have had 100s of remarkable guides and staff, many of whom have become extended members of the family & cherished friends. Old Post has had the great honour of hosting weddings, reunions, celebrations of life, and even a forest fire fighting squid on the front beach! We have had countless fire bans, evacuation warnings, near misses, torrential rain, extreme heat, hail the size of baseballs and snow. We’ve had generators fail in the midst of dinner service, swamped boats, lightning strikes, medi-vacs, and a particularly memorable summer waiting out the arrival of our little boy, Finn.

It has been a long term relationship of some incredibly high highs and some difficult and even devastating lows. In that regard, I know I am not alone in wishing my dad was still with us, yelling at the guides to get a move on, through the bar window, while pouring a refill on your coffee. With his passing, I worried that Old Post had lost its heart. That without him at the helm, things would unravel, and folks would lose interest. Four years on and I have come to the realization that the dream he shared with my mom still very much lives on, not in spite of, but because of what it is he created on a sacred piece of land, in the middle of nowhere and I have all your wonderful souls to thank for allowing us to ‘carry on’ as the old man used to say.

Yes, some things absolutely have changed, the invoices are no longer written in Dad’s scrawl, the linens have had a refresh, we now have cloth napkins with dinner with a more refined drinks menu, graduating beyond Wayne Gretzky's “Oak-aged” chardonnay, the wifi signal has definitely improved, and each year Becca’s garden beds seem to multiply….But some things still remain the same. Old Post is still a place you can come to, when you want to shut out the noise and find yourself some quiet. You are guaranteed a warm welcome and a week full of hardy meals to fill your belly. The fishing is almost always excellent, the company is kind and the memories plentiful. Old Post holds a certain kind of magic. A magic that is undefinable, undeniable and unforgettable, much like my old man. It leaves you with a lasting yearning to return, which says so much about a little, old, fish camp.

If I have not said it enough, I would like to reiterate just how lucky we all feel to have you as our guests. Every season I am taken aback by your kindness, your generosity and the fact that so many of you wish to share this place with your friends and family, recruiting more and more Old Post ‘Lifers’ with each season. This tells me Old Post still carries a beating heart that you all feel a connection with and perhaps in that way my old man’s spirit still very much lives on.

In just under two months time we will be opening for our 40th season! Feels rather remarkable if I am honest, as this place has, for better or worse, been the anchor I have marked my life by. I am so very grateful for each and every one of our long-term customers that have buoyed us through the hardships, that have time and again, generously offered a kind word, a serving or two of unforgettable, peach cobbler, bottles of home-grown-honey, cases of delicious american beer, but most of all their friendship and trust. To all the new customers who have taken a chance on a family- run, fish camp in the middle of nowhere, I thank you and look forward to making your visit an unforgettable one.

I am so looking forward to this upcoming season and to spending some time with all of you. Cheers to forty years of Old Post Lodge! May we be lucky enough to see forty more & then some!

All my best,

Your Friend,

Jon