‘More exciting to stay home:’ Cottage communities expecting uneventful May long weekend

Each May long weekend, lake communities around the province celebrate the unofficial start to summer by welcoming seasonal neighbours that return to the cabin.

While Victoria Day is getting closer, leaders in two popular Saskatchewan summer destinations aren’t expecting much activity at all this weekend.

“It’s probably more exciting to stay at home because you probably have more to do than coming out here unless you’re checking your cottage or raking dead leaves or something like that,” Candle Lake Mayor Borden Wasyluk said.

“I think it’s going to be a lot quieter.”

With a variety of restrictions in place due to COVID-19 and the accompanying health guidelines, a trip to the lake will look different in 2020. Few businesses at Candle Lake are open, and ones that are operating are doing so on a limited basis. Borden said all the restaurants are closed and some of the stores have yet to open for the summer season.

It’s the same story in the District of Lakeland, where popular lakes like Emma Lake, Christopher Lake and Anglin Lake bring out thousands of people for the summer months.

“With the beaches, the parks and the playgrounds closed, it’s not the usual welcoming,” reeve Cheryl Bauer-Hyde said restrictions affecting the long weekend.

“It will be strange.”

Bauer-Hyde is used to kicking off the summer with the annual Friday May long weekend barbecue at the fire hall. That, along with all other planned activities by the District of Lakeland and other community associations have been cancelled.

“Many of us that do live here personally look forward to that time of reconnecting (with neighbours), so that will be a little more difficult. Generally, this is a time you look forward to welcoming people into the community,” Bauer-Hyde said.

It’s not just health concerns that will keep activity at the lake to a minimum. Saskatchewan’s weather is once again doing its part to limit the spread of COVID-19. Cold temperatures towards the end of winter and throughout spring has left plenty of ice on northern lakes.

“Our own beaches are just too cold,” Borden said of beaches at Candle Lake that aren’t restricted, but aren’t exactly welcoming.

“There’s ice up to the shoreline of most of them, so I don’t think you’re going to see too many people heading for the beach to sit in front of an ice floe.”

With ice remaining on Emma Lake, Bauer-Hyde said that limits most remaining activities you’d normally see on the long weekend as boating and fishing will have to wait for warmer waters.

“If there’s ice on the lake, you won’t be doing that,” she said. “The combination of COVID-19 and all of the health rules combined with this cool spring means that it might be a weekend where people come up and do some yard work, but they won’t be out on the water.”

The ice on the water is also helping ease worries of massive gatherings and careless attention to health guidelines from permanent residents.

Wasyluk said he’s heard plenty of concerns about people flocking to Candle Lake to get away from the city and party, but those complaints have since slowly subsided as the weekend approaches.

“What we don’t want is people coming out here and ignoring the guidelines set out by the Saskatchewan Health Authority,” Wasyluk said. “If you’re sick, don’t come out.”

Devon Billo is gearing up to head to his seasonal trailer park at Emma Lake for a summer unlike any other.

“It will be interesting, I’m not sure how things are going to go,” he said ahead of his annual trek to open his trailer up for the summer.

While the Victoria Day long weekend is usually quieter than other holidays at the lake, Billo said COVID-19’s implications will be most noticeable at night.

“Normally what you do is go for a walk and walk into people’s sites and have a visit, sit on their deck or sit by the fire. You’d have four to 10 people sitting around the fire, which is not going to be the same as normal years, that’s for sure,” he said.

Billo’s main concern is what to do about visitors coming in and out of the trailer park. He said neighbours have tossed around the idea of posting signage telling outside visitors to stay away from the park or turning people away altogether so groups can remain small.

“There’s a little bit of anxiety there on how that’s actually going to be handled,” he said. “We’re going to be a lot more antisocial this weekend than any other May long.”

One look at the forecast for promises of sunny skies is all Billo needs to get away from the city for a few days and all the problems COVID-19 has created.

“It’s kind of comforting because it does kind of give you that sense that everything is kind of back to normal,” Billo said.