VERMILION PENGUINS
Staking the Lake
How we do it!
For those who are curious about how we stake Lake Vermilion's east end, we offer a short description.
The jobs: Lead (the trail boss who determines the routes), Shovelor (shovels the snow off the ice where the stake will be placed), Driller (drills holes to accept the stake, this is a most highly skilled position), Setter (places the stake in the hole), Pounder (pounds the stake into the hole with a 3-4 pound mini maul), Cheerleader/Gopher (offers expert advice and runs errands, and most importantly gets pizza (thanks VC) and beer for after work refreshment - this is the only white collar job). All drive their own snowmobiles except the drillers who pilot the Club's Bearcats.
Equipment: Otter sleds to haul stakes, 2 Bearcats mounted with a Honda generator to run the drills, electric drills with a custom made bit a tad smaller than the stakes, shovels, mini mauls and stakes which are rough cut lumber approximately 2' x 2' x 5' painted brown with color coded fluorescent paint on the top end (so you know which trail you are on or to take) and small pieces of reflectors (old hiway signs) screwed to the top for night visibility.
In the days prior to staking, the trail boss (Curly) with helpers sets the intersectional/directional signs at appropriate locations and caches piles of stakes in crucial locations to avoid having to fetch them from distant locations which delays the staking day process.
On staking day, a sled is loaded with stakes of the appropriate color and hooked to Curly’s snowmobile. Curly loads a pile on his lap and heads down the lake dropping a stake every 1/10th mile. He knows where to go from decades of experience - so no maps, electronics etc are needed. It seems the routes are actually imprinted on his brain.
Then a shoveler does his thing and makes a spot of bare ice next to the dropped stake.
Next the driller drills the hole to accept the stake. The hole is about 8 - 10 inches deep - we do not drill to liquid water.
Then the setter puts the stake in the hole as far as she can by hand (in this case a round hole does in fact take a square peg).
Next the pounder, sets the stake fully into the hole with a couple whacks of the hammer.
It takes two sets of shovelers, drillers, setters and pounders to keep up with Curly, they leapfrog each other as each crew does every other stake.
Repeat about 700 times which is about how many stakes it takes to do our 60+ miles of lake trails.
To quote the infamous Biggie Smalls “And if you don’t know, now you know.”
See you on the freshly staked trails.
