Name: Stokely Creek Lodge
Address: 194 Pickard Rd Goulais River, Unorganized North Algoma, Unorganized North Algoma, Unorganized North Algoma, P0S 1E0, Canada
Rating: 9

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Chippewa County Airport

Sault Ste. Marie Airport

Stokely Creek Lodge

Unorganized North Algoma

Stokely Creek is XC ski heaven. During our one week stay the trails were groomed daily.  There are over 100km of trails, so that is a lot!  What makes skiing at Stokely Creek so amazing? We love skiing all day with no road crossings, and scenic terrain through forests, along lakeshores, and up & down hills. Thanks to Lake Superior, there is a ton of snow. 
The lodge is right on the trails, so you can relax, ski, eat, sleep without getting in your car.  I highly recommend!

XC Ski Heaven

I wish we were allowed half stars because two stars is a bit harsher than I prefer, but to rate our visit with three would be inaccurate. We have been meaning to visit Stokely for years having heard and read that it is a novel ski vacation experience in a rare and beautiful setting. First the good ...

The staff here is exceptionally great. Helpful, willing to take time to assist, and consistently "sunny side up" in every way. The food was also great. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were always tasty and filling, and the menu never repeated itself. The terrain and natural setting are exceptional. The lodging is spartan but a cosy, communal "Youth Hostel" kind of experience, especially in the lodge itself. The communal dining really lended itself to easy conversations with other visitors. 

Given that, why a two star rating?

Because the skiing, due to the lack of trail grooming, was a huge disappointment. It led to a ski experience far from what we had expected given that Stokely bills itself as a "Premier XC Ski Resort." We are skaters, not classic skiers, and had hoped to ski 20-25 km a day during our five day stay, and cover as much of the 100+ miles in their trail system. During our first four days the trails were soft and not sufficiently packed, usually covered with drift snow. We saw minimal evidence of grooming. It made for a slow, dreary skiing experience. It appeared to us that Stokely puts most of the grooming effort into preparing for the weekend crowd, as on Friday (our last day of attendance) it was proudly announced to the breakfast crowd that the entire trail system had been prepped and groomed. That was great but it did nothing to atone for the four days of neglect we experienced Monday through Thursday.  Other skiers were also grumbling about the lack of trail grooming at mealtime, most of whom were classic skiers. There is no way that skiers paying $275 per person, per night should be presented with trail grooming like that.

I hate to be so sour sounding here because I hope Stokely thrives. We need places like this to be successful. But I have to warn (especially skate) skiers who might believe that there will be immaculately groomed trails seven days a week may find a really disappointing ski experiences. The skiing experience we were presented did not come close to matching the price charged.

Great Staff, Lovely Food, Disappointing Skiing

I lead Photography Adventures dot Net workshops all over North America and our fall theme for the Algoma Ontario Canada trip was Conservation Photography. Stokely was the perfect setting and base for our 5 days’ exploring the Lake Superior wilderness, parks, city of Sault Ste. Marie and local residents of this North Country. Hosting non-winter activities was new to this famous xc ski centre and a transition is taking place in ownership so we tolerated a few glitches, power and water fails, but with the improvement that Bruce and Treena have in mind, this is going to remain a popular destination year-round. Meals were great, even the bag lunches for our outings—Kim and Daniela as chefs!

Photographers’ haven

Stokely Creek Lodge is amazing. Delicious food, excellent skiing adventures and friendly staff. We recently visited with a group of friends and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and fun at the lodge. Highly recommend a stay at Stokely!

Hidden winter gem in Algoma Country

A quick ski getaway to our favourite winter destination, Stokely Creek Lodge. From the instant we arrived we were greeted with fast friendly service from our porter as he arrived to usher our gear in for our 2 night stay at the Cedar Tree Chalet. Made the short walk to the main lodge for our easy checkin, even with old school REAL KEYS for our chalet! Kim and Jamie at the Front Desk went above and beyond service wise with our check in, asking our plans for the weekend, showing us the best routes that had been freshly groomed by their all star staff earlier that day. We got settled in to our room and went for dinner to fuel up for the long day ahead as we were going to attempt to get to one of Ontario's tallest peaks, King Mountain in the morning. Food was great, amazing local craft beer on tap and in tall cans as well. We were ready to check our emails quick on the free wifi and even rocked the chess board we brought to enjoy without any distractions from a television this weekend. In the morning we had a fantastic breakfast, again great service as we chatted with some of the other lodge guests and were surprised to find how many of our new friends were from the USA who knew about this hidden gem years ago. The skiing was world class this weekend. Not from us of course, as we are still very much novices to the sport but we were able to make our way up to THE King and down safely with no injuries. More great food and drink that evening lead to another great day exploring some of the pristine back country lakes on the Stokely system. If you try, you actually can find some flat routes to enjoy the beauty of this place LOL. Not at all difficult to find and bomb down some of the most heart pumping downhills I’ve ever been on though. Experienced skiers will love the challenge for sure!

All in all, we can't say enough about how great our experience was with Stokely and are super happy we chose to get away from it all fro a couple days.

Looking forward to coming back again and again to explore more of this hidden gem in the Algoma Highlands!

Kudos to Richard, Alex and Jon for their amazing dedication to grooming over 100 kms off trail out there. Well done gents! We even got to meet the owners who stay on property all winter to ensure all of their guests are treated like family. Thanks again Sue and Gaylen for hosting us!

See you soon

NY Times got it wrong. Stokely should be #1 XC Ski Resort in North America, not #4

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Stokely Lodge!  The trail grooming was top notch and way above average.  The staff were friendly and very accommodating, meeting all of our needs during our 7 day stay.   We enjoyed hearty breakfasts and lunches which were nutritious and tasty - the perfect fuel for full days of skiing and snowshoeing.  At the end of each day, the hot sauna was a relaxing treat, followed by appetizers and a delicious gourmet dinner.  The views from King Mountain, Sam’s Cabin and Norm’s Cabin are spectacular.  We would not hesitate to recommend this resort to people who enjoy cross country skiing and snowshoeing on perfectly groomed trails.

Cross Country Skiing Paradise

Guests should realize that that the killer feature of Stokely is the extensive and challenging trail system.   The grooming is quite good but the 120k trail system (no road crossings) is the real draw.  In my opinion it’s one of the very best in North America.    The snow here is better, the terrain is hilly and rolls along.  The terrain keeps the wind down.  It’s a place where you can ski all day on a long loop and then do a totally different loop the next day.    It is very expensive and resource intensive to maintain that trail system.    
  The  service and food are good.   They serve veggies and whole grains.   Personally, I like my cooking better, as I am a good cook, but that is not why I come here.   I come here to be in a winter paradise being active and improving my fitness and health.    
   Secondly there is the opportunity to met other active people.   I have many skiing friends over the years, that come back year after year.   Lots of Canadians and Americans make for a lively social scene.  Many strong athletes visit as well as families.  The small children really enjoy the sledding hill.

Winter paradise for active folks, endurance athletes, and nature lovers.

This is a beautiful area but under the present ownership I would not recommend staying, eating nor skiing there, When we arrived we were moved out of our room without asking us, the room assigned had a dirty carpet and was not sealed properly so that the adjoining rooms' residences could not see into our room, we didn't have a key to our room that worked and we were told to simply leave it unlocked, the trails that were announced groomed, we discovered when we reached them, were not cleared, the food was unacceptable as it was overcooked and dry, our bill had items on it that belonged to other people.

Accommodations, Food, Service, Trail grooming

I love Stokely Creek and so does my family.  We’ve been here before and will come back as often as possible.  125 km of groomed trails through picturesque valleys, beside babbling Brooks and up some challenging hills.  Stokely has nice warming huts for those long cross country outings, comfortable rooms, friendly local staff and absolutely delicious food, all at the foot of some of the highest and prettiest peaks in central North America.  This is really a super place for a romantic get away, a challenging adventure with friends or a family retreat with the kids like we just enjoyed.  We highly recommend Stokely Creek Resort for cross-country or snow-shoeing adventures.

XC Paradise

This is our second trip to Stokely and we enjoyed it as much if not more the first time around.  Ski trails are extensive , scenic and impeccably groomed and maintained.    Accommodation was clean and comfortable.  The food was good and plentiful but not as good as it should or could be. We would definitely consider visiting again

Stokely Creek Lodge

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