Black Bear Lodge

stayed one week. First day 2nd bathroom toilet was broken. said they would take care of it BUT never did during our stay. For entire wee maintenance were washing buildings all around us and one day could not use our patio. Noise from washing continued throughout our entire stay. One day had no electricity for several hours and had to find someone to turn it on after they turned it off to fix something. The whole week seemed like we were in a construction zone. Not peaceful. These were the lodge condos we were in. We paid a huge premium price for room just to put up with this construction. PLEASE do not stay there. The owners do not care about there rental people ONLY the money. Their attitude was....so sad, to bad.

We rented the Eagle's Nest for a week. This is a two bedroom, one bath cabin.  One bedroom has a queen bed, the other has two twin beds. This was perfect for our young family as the kids each got their own bed. The living room is roomy and has a gas fireplace, a kitchen table with six chairs, two recliners, and a pull out couch. It has a 40" LCD TV with basic cable, and a DVD player. WiFi was pretty weak in the cabin (I found the antenna and it seemed like they had it aimed more toward other cabins.) The kitchen had almost everything we needed. There was a can opener, but it was almost unusable, but everything else from pots and pans, knives, plates, glasses, and silverware were good.  The cabin does have ceiling fans in the bedrooms and plenty of box fans, unfortunately there is no AC so on hot or rainy days it can get a little stuffy. The only real challenge we had was the size of the bathroom. It has a bath/shower, a toilet, and a sink. The bathroom is very tight with barely enough room to turn around, there is very little counter space so we kept our toiletries in our room and brought them into the bathroom when needed, and my 5 year old daughter had a little difficulty with the sink since it's on the high side. We rented a pontoon boat on two different days, which was excellent. The boats are brand new and work well.  We rented a Montego Bay one day and a Bennington the other. We felt the Montego Bay had a better layout but the Bennington had better handling. Both were excellent boats and you can't go wrong either way. Lake Little St. Germain is very ****y, especially late in the summer, so watch out for the shallow spots. We tried our hand at fishing and while the lake is known for northern pike, musky, and walleye, we managed to find a spot on west bay that was loaded with voracious bluegill. The second we dropped a hook with a worm on it into the water it was immediately swarmed with a school of bluegills. Between my two kids they must have caught almost a dozen within a hour as well as lost quite a few worms to sneaky little fish who are very skilled at removing worms from the hook without getting hooked.  Little St. Germain is not a huge lake and we were easily able to cover the entire lake twice in one day. While out on the lake, there were lots of boats fishing and quite a few other boats tubing and water skiing. Black Bear Lodge has multiple docks including ones right in front of the cabins, so we were able to come back to the cabin a few times throughout the day and dock just steps from our cabin. They have the boats set up for novice boaters. The docks have rings and the boats have clips on snuffers so there's no need to know how to tie a cleat knot, you just clip on to the ring. Fenders are just hung on the rails so they pop on and off easily. Just remember to remove them before going high speed. We forgot and lost one and despite retracing out path were unable to find it, so we ended up having to pay for a fender. If you have y

Stayed in a Bear Trap Suites the first week of August and the "suites" turned out to be 3 small connected units with very thin walls. We had the middle unit and since the decks were connected like adjoining fenced stalls in front of each unit, we couldn't enjoy any privacy whatsoever when sitting out on our own unit's deck without being right next to a neighbor who frequently hosted a large group on his. Didn't realize from the resort website's picture that all three units were connected in this way so there was no privacy to just sit peacefully out on your deck undisturbed. Very dirty Weber-like grills were provided outside, but the underside of the lids turned out to be deteriorating so the first time we put the cover on, our burgers got small flecks of the material coating the inside of the top which came off onto our food. We had planned to do a lot of fishing and we sincerely recommend going elsewhere if you have a boat and like to fish. First thing we learned was how horribly long and steep the onsite boat launch is. It runs down a long narrow embankment on the end of one of the lodge buildings and is very steep. Dock space was first come first serve and none of the docks have boat bumpers or poles. Small metal rings at each end are the only securement. The docks closest to the Bear Trap suites were all occupied by unused resort rental pontoons, so we ended up at a dock further down from us with only a long, steep wooden staircase down to our boat. You also have no guarantee the same space will be available for you when you get back from a day of fishing. It didn't really even matter because we could never stay out longer than a few hours in the morning or evening due to the inconsiderate jet ski traffic which is horrendous. Most of the jet skiers we encountered had no sense of courtesy for people fishing. Unfortunately, we did not realize ahead of time that the resort and a neighboring one right nearby (Sunset Bay) rent Jet Skis or we would not have booked the property. The suite itself was nice inside and up to date. Nice shower and kitchen area. No dishwasher. Bed was ok. Reliable heat and AC. Few available outlets - bring power *****s for your phone chargers or if you have a CPap machine you will need an extension cord. Very small TV and inconsistent WiFi which repeatedly disconnected us spontaneously. Nowhere to have a campfire outdoors anywhere near our suite. The property outside was very pretty and we enjoyed the resident deer and fawns that showed up at times alongside the road into and out of the property. There were many eagles. Only saw a loon once - probably due to the jet ski traffic. Bottom line is if you are looking for a quiet time sitting outside, enjoying nature, or fishing in peace - go elsewhere. If you want to party, and race your jetski around the lake without regard for anyone else, this is the place for you!