Dear Stokely Family,
We are writing to you in uncertain times. As you may have heard, the Ontario Government has decided to temporarily move to close indoor dining until January 26th. Our staff is beyond sad to have to close our lodge for three weeks. As you can imagine we are concerned for our guests, our staff and our suppliers. Yesterday we had to cancel our food order and the supplier told us that thousands of dollars worth of food had been canceled in a single day.
We had been looking forward to a year of semi-normalcy at Stokely, and during our first week of operation, we took many precautions to keep our guests and staff safe. Our opening week was wonderful--despite the challenges for staff and guests alike in serving meals in a variety of locations and ensuring social distancing and masking. And everyone pulled together to make it work, and we thought we were off and running.
Most of our guests who were to arrive in the next couple weeks have pushed their reservations to later in the season. We ask our February guests to patiently wait in hopes of the season resuming after the 26th. At this point we plan to keep grooming our trails anticipating the arrival of our overnight guests who will arrive after the 26th.
Because of uncertain times we will work with you to reschedule and if all else fails to cancel.
The good news is that we have some of the best early season conditions in memory. There is abundant snow, so the bulk of the system is open. The office will be open for those who live near, and want to ski and snow shoe.
We need your help and support to traverse these most difficult times.
We will keep the fire burning in anticipation of seeing you all soon.
With great sadness and hope,
Susan, Gaylen and Kim
Dear Susan, Gaylen, and Kim;
Writing to echo Dieter's thoughts - I am sending all best wishes to you and the Stokely team. While I and my friends had not yet booked our time there for this year, we've been working on determining joint availability and are still hopeful that it works out. In the meantime, sending gratitude for all of your hard work to preserve and share a most beautiful and fun place. I have fond memories of losing (and finding, thanks to Bill Brinkerhoff and Gaylen) my iPhone on a backcountry trail there in February 2019.😉 Looking forward to getting up there again with my phone! Warmly, Andrea Bare
Dear Susan, Gaylen, and Kim and Staff:
We just received your latest news and want you to know that our thoughts, hopes, and best wishes are with you at this very difficult time. We will do a daily snow-dance in the fervent hope that it helps Stokely to recover from covid! Soon! We WILL see you soon.
Dieter and Carol