One opening weekend posed a dilemma

 As the opening weekend for fishing season approaches, Brenda and I can't help but think back to all the ones we went through as owners -- and before that -- workers, at Bow Narrows Camp. It was always a thrilling, exhausting, but totally memorable time.

The timing of ice-out with the season opener was what set the stage. The opener is a moveable feast. It is the third Saturday in May. So, it can be as early as May 15 and as late as May 21. Early openers always meant we were flirting with being still iced-in when the guests arrived. 

Sometimes we needed to fly from the Chukuni River in town over the lake ice to the open narrows in front of camp. Even in those situations we could usually get the staff into camp a few days ahead of the guests to get things prepared but at least once we all went on the same day. Dad, Brenda and I were the staff at that time.

You can imagine the chaos: water is not yet running to the cabins, boats are not in the water, motors are still in the storage shed, etc. The first priority was to get everybody out fishing. The next was to connect propane tanks so they could use their kitchen stoves. By that point it was dark. We gave everybody plastic pails to get water from the lake. 

The next day we slowly started getting the water system going. The problem was the main underground water line was still frozen in many places. This meant jury-rigging over-the top lines that would suffice until the ground thawed,  something that might not happen for weeks. It took days but eventually everyone had running water.

We had immediately tried to schedule a supply flight but were told all the fly-in camps were in a pickle. The lakes were opening up day by day and as soon as they did, all the planes were booked to fly-in those guests who had been stuck in hotels. Our supply trip would just have to wait.

Days went by and we were almost totally out of gas for the outboards. And worse, lots of the guests were forced to leave most of their beer supply in their vehicles when they had flown in. There just had been no room. The situation was becoming critical.

Finally, about mid-week we got a call from the airlines that they could get one Cessna 185 into our place. It was the smallest of the aircraft and could carry about 900 pounds. What did we want them to bring? 

We held a general meeting of the guests. Gas or beer or some of both? After a lot of discussion about the merits, they agreed -- fill the plane with beer. They could fish off the dock.

And that is what happened.