I used to dread winter. The cold. The shovelling. The snow. More shovelling. Winter always seemed to be something to suffer through – to escape if possible. But not something I would ever really enjoy.
I grew up out west, in Calgary – a place known for its brutal winters, punctuated with brief respites in the form of warm Chinook winds that would blow over the Rockies. But these were few and far between.
I used to ski regularly – one of the few benefits of the Calgary winter. Then one day I stopped. I’m not really sure why. Perhaps because it’s difficult to manage all the gear when you’re a transient student. Then one day I found myself living in a condo with storage to spare, but I didn’t bother starting again. It wasn’t a conscious choice. Just something that happened. Like no longer listening to Dave Matthews.
Then the fateful day came – our kids were finally old enough to start skiing. Or snowboarding, in our son’s case. We found a tiny hill nearby and signed him up for lessons. And it was great – when the lessons lasted 30 minutes. Just enough time for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich.
But then the lessons stretched to an hour, and it all became so boring.
Somewhere in there, I realized I needed to start skiing again.
So I went down to the local ski store and went through the extremely expensive process of buying all new gear. And… it was fantastic. The best way to spend a winter.
Our ski-based travels have since taken us to Tremblant, Blue Mountain and Le Massif – but as enjoyable as those hills can be, they are undeniably corporate. The Blue Mountain trip in particular was terrible. (In-depth scathing review to come in the next few weeks and we’ll add the link to this post once it’s up.)
So it’s time for something new – Sir Sam’s.
If you’ve never heard of Sir Sam’s, you’re in good company. It’s perhaps Ontario’s least-known ski resort – named after Sir Samuel Hughes, a Canadian soldier and politician. Sir Sam constructed a 10 bedroom mansion on the shores of Eagle Lake in 1919. He only lived on the property for 2 years before dying in 1921.
The lodge was then used as a hunting and fishing lodge in the 1930s, and a ski hill was established in 1965 – with all of 3 ski hills and a T-bar. It was then purchased by the Wilkinson family in 2021, who has continued to expand the hill with a view of transforming it into a year-round destination.
And have they succeeded? Well, we shall find out soon enough. But it was recommended by the local ski store guy who sold me the extremely expensive equipment – so our hopes are high.
But first, we needed to load the car to the gills once more:
Two sets of skis and poles, two snowboards, along with four sets of boots and helmets – not bad for a little roof box
And then begin the drive along these… snowy?… roads.
Ironically, just as we’ve adopted winters sports as a way of shortening winter, winter has been getting shorter and shorter. This year is no different. And today, we’re driving past fields, many a vibrant green after two solid days of rain.
But as we went further north, we finally saw signs of snow:
And eventually, winter arrived:
We pulled up to our Airbnb, and found the cleaning crew in mid-clean. But that was our fault – we had showed up 20 minutes early. This meant that the moment of truth would have to wait a few moments longer.
You see, we still weren’t sure whether we were going to have blankets.
I’m not making this up – a week before we were due to arrive, we received a very detailed e-mail from the property manager outlining all the wonderful features contained within our temporary residence – a games room, a hot tub, a sauna, multiple barbeques, and even a pizza oven!
But tucked amidst that laundry list was the innocuous note: “We do not provide blankets – please be sure to bring you own.”
We were gobsmacked. What kind of place doesn’t provide blankets? In Canada? In winter?
A caveat was included that blankets were available for guests who were flying in, and so we noted that we were not going to have room to bring blankets with us. So would they be able to provide some for us?
The response: “Blankets shouldn’t be an issue.”
Far from definitive, but we’ll take what we can get. So we made arrangements to tuck in some sleeping bags and firmly crossed our fingers that they wouldn’t be necessary.
In the mean time, we wandered the property and took in some of the lovely details – like the play ground, the woods, and the ninja slackline.
The cleaning crew had wrapped up at that point, so we were able to unload and explore the property – and… blankets!
The kids disappeared into the games room, and the adults were left to put together a delicious meal of barbequed kebabs, couscous and green beans.
Then it was time for the kids to head off to bed, perchance to dream of snow-drenched hills and proper winters.
Continue reading Sir Sam’s Ski Resort – Day 2.