Used Pontoon Boats - north-american-waterway.com

Hi gang, Rick Ostler here from North American Waterway bringing you Used Pontoon Boats along with news and views from the boating industry. Here is a interesting article and video on pontoon boating on the St. Croix River.

No doubt summer is winding down, but there are some golden days to be had between now and when the first flurries of snow to take advantage of Minnesota’s waterways, even if you don’t own a boat.

“I’m amazed when I hear of somebody I know that live in Stillwater or in the area that have never stepped foot on a boat on the St. Croix,” said Andy Malon, who owns Stillwater Boat Club and Rentals.

His fleet of pontoons makes the freedom to be found on the river accessible to most everyone.

“They don’t go that fast, they’re easy to drive. We do a quick run through with the boats with our renters,” Malon said.

Driving a pontoon is less challenging than driving a ski-boat, which is why Malon says even a novice can take the wheel. It will run you $250 for a half-day on one of Malon’s pontoons, about $350 for all-day.

These boats handle 10 to 12 people, so split it a dozen ways and it’s a relatively inexpensive way to spend a decadent afternoon on the St. Croix River. And you control your destiny. You can decide where you want to go and how long you want to stay.

Head north and you’ll find more wilderness, islands and narrow channels. Think a tame version of Robinson Crusoe and the Boundary Waters. “I still get to points where I’ve never been before. Try the backchannels,” said Malon. “There’s lots of backwaters on the north.”

Head south and you’ll find more homes, marinas and a wake free zone through the Hudson Narrows. Islands offer plenty of beaches and places to sit a spell. “People just hang out, they set up their campsites, fire pits, and they just hang out for the whole weekend,” Malon said.

Dock your rig in Hudson, and you’ll find some great restaurants and some great views. You can explore lots of territory in an afternoon on the St. Croix. “It’s a getaway, it’s probably like having therapy,” Malon said.

A few hours on the river can clear a lot of mental cobwebs, so if you’re mind’s been cluttered by things other than a little escape, now might be the time to book a boat.

“It’s in your own backyard and not to enjoy it is almost kind of a sin,” Malon said. Thanks to Jeanette Trompeter for this; wcco.com - Finding Minnesota: Boating On St. Croix

Check out this video on pontoon boats and the St. Croix River.

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Dara Howell, 14, drives her family’s boat on Peninsula Lake, across from Deerhurst Resort, the site of the 2010 G8 summit. (Roy MacGregor/The Globe and Mail)

Hi gang, Rick Ostler here from North American Waterway bringing you Used Pontoon Boats along with news and views from the boating industry. With an interesting article out of Huntsville, Ontario.

‘Creepy.” That is how just-turned-14-year-old Dara Howell describes her experience earlier this month on a beach directly opposite the Muskoka resort site that will host the 2010 G8 Economic Summit.

The Howell family is into a third generation of running popular Pow Wow Point Lodge, which sits on a small bay on Peninsula Lake across from sprawling Deerhurst Resort, where two years from now the soon-to-be-decided president of the United States will gather with the political heads of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Germany, Japan and, of course, Canada.

If you want a good view of Deerhurst, you can’t do better than Pow Wow.

On Friday, Aug. 8, a vehicle pulled into the Pow Wow parking lot and discharged six men, all dressed in what the locals would call “city clothes” - including dark slacks and leather-soled dress shoes.

Without bothering to check with the office, they went down to the beach and began taking photographs of each other, each time with Deerhurst - including the cupola that rides over the main building - in the background.

“All I can say,” says Doug Howell, Dara’s father and the current lodge owner, “is that it was strange. So out of character for Pow Wow. And believe me, we get a lot here.”

Stereotyping happens easily in Cottage Country, where city slickers are instantly recognized, locals are often patronized and heritage carries its usual, if politically incorrect, clichés. The lodge caters heavily to German tourists, so punctuality and organized activity play large at Pow Wow, as do tales of convoys of Japanese tourists coming in the fall to photograph a single maple that turns a particular shade of red.

These six English-speaking men appeared to be of Middle-Eastern origin. But what really set them apart was their complete unfamiliarity with a beach. It was not only their unlikely dress, but a sense that they were “faking” play in order to pose for photographs.

Told this wasn’t a public beach, the men asked if it was all right if they just “hung out” for a while. Told they’d need to take a room in order to stay, they asked for a single room - one bed - and paid by credit card. The six men - one very young, the others in their 30s and 40s - returned to their “play,” at one point attempting to paddle a towing tube around the docks.

They asked to be taken out on the lodge’s pontoon boat, which is usually used for the evening “Moonlight Cruise.” Dara Howell, who happened to be at the waterfront, checked and was told if they paid for the gas she could. She was caught off guard when only one of the men boarded.

Unsure what to do, she continued on. The man asked that she encircle completely the point on which Deerhurst lies and, at each opening, take a photograph of him, with Deerhurst always in the background. “It was creepy,” she says. “He wanted pictures from all the way around - and always two pictures. It was weird.” At 5 p.m. it began to rain. By 5:30 the men had packed back into their vehicle and left, room and bed untouched.

As the stories poured into the small lodge office, Doug Howell began to wonder what this had been all about: could there be any connection to the G8? One of his staff warned him to beware of “racial profiling” and he decided to let it go. But when he couldn’t sleep for wondering, he finally contacted the local detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police, who immediately called the RCMP, who were very interested in the details.

Unfortunately, there were hardly any. No one had photographed the men. No one had written down the licence plate. All they had was a credit card number, with no idea where it could lead - and no sense, really where this strange tale leads at all, if anywhere.

The Pow Wow tale simply joins dozens of other tales - none, perhaps, quite so “creepy” - that are already spinning about the lakes and back roads of the 2010 G8 Summit site.

A man on adjacent Fairy Lake is telling people he expects to rent out his luxurious property for $100,000 during the summit. Rumour around Pen Lake has a major U.S. network taking over another fancy cottage for $65,000.

According to one published article, as much as $300-million can be expected to flow into the local economy, but in an area almost exclusively indebted to tourism, that would depend rather profoundly on the time of year that has yet to be chosen.

“If it’s in July,” says Doug Howell, “are we talking a $300-million pullout to bring in $300-million?” All of which leads to the current hot debate in Cottage Country: spring or fall?

A fall summit would show off the area in its red-orange-and-yellow best. But a spring summit would mean far fewer protesters and police clogging up the few roads that locals dread being plugged solid.

Compared to the blackfly and mosquito scourge of 2008, pepper spray would seem like deodorant. Thanks to; globeandmail.com: Curious tales emerge about site of lakeside 2010 G8 summit

For more information on Pontoon Boats and Pontoon Enclosures. Check out our newest pontoon enclosure for under $1,000.

Pontoon Boats-North American Waterway

Be sure to check out this weeks latest Pontoon Boat Videos

Used Pontoon Boats, By Rick Ostler

Please visit our sponsors, they help make this possible. Thanks…………Rick

Request your Free FAQ and Pontoon Enclosure Brochure & Newsletter


Pontoon Boats and Pontoon Enclosures, get expert advise.
Check out our newest pontoon enclosure for under $1,000.
http://www.north-american-waterway.com/pontoonboat_8×8_enclosure.htm

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