Category Archives: Spring

Maplelag, News, Seasons, Spring, Staff

March 31st Rebuild Update

We know that people are eager to hear what the future plans are on rebuilding a new lodge after a fire destroyed the main lodge on October 10th, 2022. To keep it simple and to the point, we are in a constant state of planning and seeking the best path forward. Still to be determined. We have tossed around a full variety of ideas. Having the energy, desire and passion to do what we feel is best will in the long run be the most successful for Maplelag and ensure the guests have the best experience possible. We are so blessed to be in the deep northwoods surrounded by the beauty of nature, no mater what time of year and we look forward to sharing this special place with our guests.

Maplelag is a large property with many buildings and structures. We may decide to not build a new lodge, but in place, update some cabins and build around a slightly different business model. We find that some buildings were not used to their full potential and nearly all the buildings need improvements, upkeep and changes.

At this time to rebuild a new lodge for the winter season 2023/24 is not possible. One of the biggest restrictions is financial. The hospitality industry along with many other industries were hit hard during the COVID years. We did everything we could and utilized all the resources to keep Maplelag. We are very grateful we were to remain open when so many businesses were forced to close permanently after being shut down during the restrictions.

The past month we’ve been fortunate to visit Nordic centers and trail systems, both locally, and east and west. These visits have been most valuable and inspiring to garner new ideas, rejuvenate and build energy for our future.

Brainstorming ideas for upgrades and improvements in the Candy Store cabin.
Brainstorming ideas in the Brant cabin.
Grooming March 30th past the Switchard and warming house/parilla. Ideas and plans for improvements in these buildings. More details to come as things come to fruition.

Items of discussion in our planning for next season and moving forward:

Ski Rental: We hope to have ski rental available for 2023/24. It would be on a advance reservation system so everyone is fitted proerly.

Website: We are in the process of creating and building a new website. Since we are doing this in house, this will be a lengthly process and a work in progress as the new business model comes to life.

Reservation program: Hard to believe but our old reservation program “GuestTracker” served us very well for nearly three decades. We had a backup we were able to restore but will transfer all the data to a new system. We hope to make the reservation process much more user friendly and easy to make and pay for reservations online.

New Maplelag ceramic mugs recently completed by local craft artist Mary Laabs. Along with the plastic water bottle above, these will be a few of the items available in the new store. It will be a gradual process to build up the store inventory again but we will have many items that were in the previous store available on site for sale and also online hopefully.

Asado: The asasdo or Argentinean bbq was used sparingly and we are looking for ways to use it more in the late summer and fall. This is attached to the warming house which will see some changes in the future as well.

Cabin Rentals We fully intend to have cabin rentals available for the winter season 2023/24. What units and the time frame will be available as soon as we make final decisions.

Cathouse Many of you will remember the cathouse as a meeting point after the first lodge burned in December of 99. We have been cleaning in this building to make it more efficient and safer. We call it the “Cathouse” as it stores man of the “cats” The snow cat, BobCat skid steerer and Arctic Cat snowmobile to name a few.

Thanks again to everyone for their support as we navigate the next steps forward for Maplealg. Love and peace to all.