Agassiz Lodge

[iceman]

went out from Agassiz landing this afternoon only to find a 12'' wide crack then headed north to hillmans bridge got turned away because i did't have a road pass from them so we turned back south and fished in 10' of water found eyes right away caught 6 - 16''- 24''  cpr ..
think hillmans just lost a very good costmer i will never go back to them from the way i was treated..i'm Agassiz Lodge all the way now !!
oh by the way i add to the rebuilding pot too theres a exra 10 in the kitty.

[DaveO]

sory to hear that iceman,,,,,,Hillmans are good people to,, its kinda to bad its come to this......Its starting to happen more and more

[Paul Waldowski]

I'm sure that I'm going to get lambasted for this so feel free to take your shots :) , but let me get this straight.

You are upset that you paid Jeff an access fee and found he didn't have a crack bridged.  You then drove up to Hillman's and tried to use there bridge, which costs them time and money to maintain, and you are upset because they turned you away. :(

That is just wrong.  I don't blame Hillman's one bit.  I'll relate another story here from a few years ago.  A certain place plowed a road out onto the lake for about a quarter of a mile and then swerved the road over and joined up with Hillman's road.  Would you still feel the same way if you were in Hillman's shoes???

[Spinach]

I'll chime in on this too.

If a resort on URL is charging an access fee, and allows you to enter the lake thogh there property they should have the necessary roads and bridges maintained and in working order.

If Agassiz didn't have a bridge over this crack and Hillmans did, then Hillmans did nothing wrong in my opinion.

It takes a lot of time and work to maintain a good ice road, especially when their is so much traffic on URL.

So under these circumstsances, I can definitely understand how Hillmans would feel taken advantage of.

Now if all the resorts had equally maintained roads and working bridges, it wouldn't matter as much to another resort if the roads were combined or being shared, they would have to also have the same access fees to make this work.

[Paul Waldowski]

"Now if all the resorts had equally maintained roads and working bridges, it wouldn't matter as much to another resort if the roads were combined or being shared, they would have to also have the same access fees to make this work."

Pat,

My point exactly...In years where that is the case people have had free rein to drive all over the lake and to come and go off of the lake wherever they pleased.  I will agree that it is sad to see that they are having to start to patrol there roads, but I know Buddy and Kelly spend a ton of money on upkeep and repair of there plow trucks, not too mention fuel, bridging material, time and effort.  Hard to begrudge them that. 

[cookie]

My understanding was Hillmens bridge was in bad shape also and they were turning all vehciles away?I helped jeff rebuild his bridge as when she cracked he lost some of the sheet steal down the crack. Westwinds bridge was closed this morning for repair and I had to go over to Jeffs to get across?A couple of guys from Rochester  helped with the chipping and now I need a new ice chipper as it went down the crack  Hillmens were working on there bridge after we got Jeff's done.When a pressure ridge decides to move it takes a little time to round up the man power  to get it safe again.Your still paying to cross the land  once on the ice it is all public lake including any bridges or roads and thats the law so if you were denide maybe you need to check into that further.No one owns the lake? They own the land going on to the lake

[cookie]

I have been on all three roads and as far as I'm concerned they are all in nice shape.All though someone keeps running over jeffs markers?Jeff bridge was in great shape when I left it last and westwinds was in good shape when I went over it.I would assume hillmens was also repaired?The man lost everthing he had you would think there would be a little compassion?Instead he's done lets blow through his road?

[DaveO]

It relay is getting sorta hostile up there how fun is that?

[Benny]

Kind of sounds like a Millie lacs tale to me.

My personal opinion is that if I pay access fee to get on the ice, I will go where ever I want to fish on that ice.

I will use the access I came in one to leave, because I paid to.

And I try to give the resort owners respect for thier time and money spent, but if the fish are over at spot X and it is near such and such resorts houses then I will be there fishing.

The ice roads are not owned by any resort no matter how much time or money they put into maintaining them.

If they try to stop you call the local CO, then they can pay more in fines because they harassed you in your enjoyment of the outdoors.

I also think it is not right to bust through thier snow banks and push snow out into thier plowed road, if your going to travel cross ice and use thier roads don't destroy the road.

They have every right to stop you from crossing thier private land or not to help you if you break down , and I agree with that as well.

Benny

[iceman]

Benny,
you just hit the nail on the head !!
nobody owns the lake thats why we pay for fishing lic. sure "we" pay for a way to get to the lake ..

i'm sorry if i opened a can of worms but think i have a point to make too..

Cookie,
tryed to reach you by phone yesterday morning ended up talkig to your lovley wife agian maybe i'll see yea next trip..

[labs4me]

I guess it just boils down to ethics...

You are correct when you say you have a legal right to use that road and the bridge being it's on public waters... just like you have a legal right to crawl into a guy's deer stand at dark on public land before he gets there, or to go into a guy's duck blind he built the afternoon before for the morning shoot or to hunt on any unposted land in North Dakota without asking permission... it may be legally right but is it ethically or morally right?

Don't kid your self on how much money and time it costs to maintain an ice road... they are protective of their way of livlihood just like you and I are of our businesses.  When a competitor recieves the funds to access the lake but you are trying to use a neighboring road at no charge... I can see their point.   

My two cents... for what they're worth in todays dollars!

Good Luck!

Ken

[cookie]

I personly have not driven my truck over hillmens bridge, but if it was a emergancyI would expect they would let me drive over it?In the past when there was some type of trouble people from other accesses have been escorted or been allowed to access the lake from other resorts. Jeff maintains his own road now and it is a learning experiance for him.It would be nice if we all could get along in a positive way.

Good luck to all

[jack]

Sorry that you're upset iceman but at times Hillman's were telling their own customers not to cross the bridge but to take the loop around the ridge.  As far as Benny's suggestion of calling the local CO, well the CO was there,,,, and told not to cross the bridge.  The CO was turned back just like iceman. Hillman's have never told their customers to go use Agassiz bridge, they keep their own in good shape or repair as fast as they can.  They do have an aggreement with Westwind and Hudec's to send customers back and forth if anyone suddenly had a bad road problem or bridge problem or an emergency.  Agassiz is not interested in any such agreement with Hillman's.
 Â Just the other night Buddy Hillman called me late at night  to see if I was still on the lake. I wasn't but he needed a pull rope.  It seems he was over at Aggasiz bridge trying to pull out one of Aggasiz customers who had missed Agazzis bridge and couldn't find anyone to help him so he called Hillman's.  Isn't it just shocking how mean them Hillman's are?

[labs4me]

Amen!  

In an emergency I doubt if any road would not allow you to access their bridge... barring an emergency - pay the road fee.   With this year's lack of snow, the only thing you need a 'road' for is the bridges... going OUT fishing is not an emergency, coming in the next day / night may or may not be an emergency.  If it is a true emergency, explain what is going on and I will bet your next road pass you will get a by from the resorter... I know the Hillman's and you would have no problem!  I know the owners of Westwinds and you'd have no problem there either. They are great, hard working people!  Then you also have other rental outfits spending their time and money to help keep the road up for their customers renting fish houses..... I think each road has a couple of these outfits that help out, yet they recieve no compensation for the road fees.  If I was acessing multiple areas of the lake, I would have no problem paying each their due if I used their road... it's less than a couple of drinks in town to have 24 hours of road use.

Just trying to point out that legal and ethical are two different buggars!

Why create stress when you are up there... a couple times in years past I got out and offered to help when Westwinds had multiple bridges to get out to the crappie grounds... if they blew we just waited it out till it was fixed or offered them a hand... running over to another road and accessing it will only create stress for you when we should be relaxing! 

Good Luck!

Ken

[lil brit]

Hey Kelly-P,
 welcome aboard,
or is it Jonny P, or is it Jack really typing, woof woof,
any way good to see that you are keeping an eye on the site,
heck join up and all of ya get registered, would be nice to have your insight on URL also, but i think Cookie and Greg are keeping us up to snuff so far, and when PFF gets back online also,so we can get by if you don't come on board. Try and keep them "tall tales" to a minimum,but then i suppose set-ups are ok if the captain keeps holding out.

[iceman]

In a emergency i don't care whos road it is i'm comming off one way or the other.. 
over the years i have come off the lake at ether hillmans or west winds i try to pay the next time around but sunday i was turned away yes the next time i would have used there resort road but not any more i'm sick of all the bull shi* !!

 

[JohnWester]

Okay, I just got back from URL tonight... and I am tired and stinky.  I am going to add more to this tomorrow... but seriously people.  Any of you commenting on the situation that doesn’t know all the details needs to take a step back...  including myself.  Right now it's just a bunch of he said she said and people are either bashing Jeff from Aggassiz or at least siding against him (not all but some).  The man lost everything and doesn't even have a computer to come in here and defend himself.  Not that he should even have to.  Let's kick him some more while he is down.

URL is a very political area; with ALL resorts I am sure working behind each other’s backs at some point.  There might be some bad blood between some, and that's regrettable.  But my god, crap happens.  You might own the metal that a bridge is made out of, and yes all work hard on their own bridges...  but the day might come when the shoe is on the other foot.  Now had Hillman’s been a good neighbor and helped out for a few hours and allowed use of a bridge, help might be there from the nearest person... someone from agassiz... but would anyone blame Jeff for not helping out them?  The man would probably be crap on, but I wouldn't blame him for not helping if Hillman’s ever needed any.  So that's how it continues...  when will someone be the MAN and help someone out when they are down.

And as far as roads... like someone earlier posted... this year there are none.  You can go anywhere.  I cannot speak for what happened years ago... maybe it was a bad call if that happened, but maybe it could have been handled better??  You’ll probably never hear both sides correctly...

But let me just end with this.  If a guy who just completed his dream lost it all the next day... what would you think of a person who just turns away and doesn't offer to help?  Despite what happened in the past... could it really have been that bad to warrant this kind of action?

I don't think so.  IBOT rule on URL should apply to all… help someone out in time of need.  If Hillman’s had allowed these people to use their bridge… maybe these people would go away saying, “Wow, that Hillman’s is a class act.  Maybe I’ll use them next time.”  But instead we have threads on forums like this.  Think about it.

[Spinach]

There has been a lot of good replies to this topic so far. Just a reminder though, before someone comes here and wants to bash someone or a certain resort.

We will not allow any bashing of any kind, if this topic upsets you on a personal level, I would suggest not replying or use your personal emails for the bashing.

[cat eyes]

I was up there on sun when all this was going on.Here is what happened to me.I went out of ag. lodge and when i got to the bridge it was out of order due to the crack opening up.Jeff was out there figuring what he needed to repair it.I was going to use hillmans bridge but he had 2 people guarding it.Very poor decision if you ask me.A hour earlier my brother was chased down by buddy and asked to see his pass from ag. lodge he knew as well as my brother that Jeff is not up there working right now due to the fire.I too was chased down by buddy for crossing his road this  winter he told me i could not cross his road unless i payed him 8 dollars that is just idiotic thinking he does not own the lake he only owns the shore we drive out of.I ended up driving to west winds and used there bridge and when i left i used ag. lodges bridge it is all fixed and better than ever.Hopefully soon we can all get along with each other and get back to what we come up there for FISHING AND FUN.

[iceman]

We will not allow any bashing of any kind, if this topic upsets you on a personal level, I would suggest not replying or use your personal emails for the bashing.

This is not bashing it's the truth..


After i made the first post i thought for a sec am i doing the right thing or not well i'm here to tell you i think i did the right thing and i still won't go out of ------- road

[DaveO]

I believe iceman he is not saying you were bashing,,,,,,,he just wants to keep this on the up and up,,,thats all

[Outdoors Junkie]

There are a lot of good points being made in this thread.  I am enjoying reading all the comments from everyones point of view.  In my mind, no one is bashing yet.  Let's keep it that way.

PS.  Jeff I know you can't read this right now, but we are all thinking of you!  Keep your chin up!

[Spinach]

Iceman,

No I was not singling you out. Like Dave O said, I was giving everyone a fair warning before any major bashing took place.

But, I do believe your posts are borderline bashing Hillmans, I know you are saying it is the truth, but so does everyone else, how does an outsider determine who is being truthful and who is covering up something?

If I were to allow this type of bashing, the only losers are the people being talked about (Hillmans) and the reputation of MNO. There is a whole lot more at stake here than just someone being asked to show there road pass....... I for one do not want any part of giving Hillmans a false reputation (true or not).

I will end this by stating that I have used Hillmans, Westwinds, Hudecs, Morts and Rogers roads for over 8 years now, I have never personally ran into any harrassment or Ice rage at any time. I've heard of a few isolated happenings on the ice, but like I said they were isolated.

How about we chalk this one up to a learning lesson, you had a bad experience at a place of business and are entitled to your opinion, lets not start a war against them on a public fishing forum though.

[Benny]

I have to agree that the thread needs to calm down a little and also that people like my self who have not been involved with that situation should not comment on any resorter as to their intentions.

I did post my opinion as to the legal use of the ice, and I agree with Labs that it is more of an ethics situation rather than if it is legal to do it.

I also said and stand by the fact that you can't expect help from a resorter if you didn't pay them to access their roads and you end up in the snow bank on them.

It is pure compasion on their part to help you if your on their road and break down but paid at another resort.

As to the alleged battle between the resorters, I can't say any thing but I hope they can work it out and not end up acting like "some" resorts on Mille Lacs.

Benny