Aggressive dirt bike riders, vandals and trespassers are adding up to plenty of headaches for John Chokai.
The southern Ontario man and his wife, who didn't want to be named, are caretakers of the Hiawatha Lodge on Fifth Line. The couple live in the building there.
A "terrible noise" jolted Chokai awake Saturday at 4 a.m. Two windowpanes on the building's lower floor were smashed by someone using a rock and a wooden stake - possibly taken from a nearby election sign.
The vandalism is the latest mischief done to the 30-year old building and surrounding five acres of property since Chokai moved in six months ago. Most problems happen after midnight when "nice people" who enjoy the area are long gone.
Broken glass, discarded beer bottles, garbage and outdoor enthusiasts on snowmobiles and dirt bikes who keep coming on to the property have all made Chokai's move into the north-end site a less than happy one.
He calls the area a "dirt bike playground."
On Thursday night, Chokai said, about a half-dozen bikes were "going very fast" and doing wheelies on Fifth Line. Drivers have also ridden their bikes in the lodge's parking lot "many times."
When a Sault Star reporter was at the lodge, a dirt bike rider drove from Fifth Line, between two pine trees and through the building's parking lot.
Some lumber used to block the entrances to the lodge's parking lot has also been taken. Rocks were pushed away.
Numerous no trespassing and private property signs are posted on the building's exterior - including on one of the windows that was smashed.
While security cameras are to be installed, Chokai doubts a security company will be contracted to help keep troublemakers out.
"They still come in," he said. "What's the difference between a security guard or me? I sleep here."
Hiawatha Lodge is one of several area properties targeted by vandals in recent months.
Suspicious fires destroyed two sheds at the bottom of Landslide Hill in July.
Picnic tables were destroyed and a bridge torn apart during the worst vandalism in four years at Kinsmen Park.
The park was vandalized the same night as the lodge windows were broken.
Two windows were smashed with rocks at the Kinsmen Hall, said park chairman Ed Dawson.
"Isn't that a shame?" he said. "I guess it's just a vicious circle. You have to keep picking up and repairing after people."
The surrounding wilderness is so beautiful that Chokai wants to one day retire in what he describes as a "beautiful tourist area."
"It should be in everybody's interest to keep this area beautiful," he said.
Hiawatha Lodge was purchased by a numbered company in Niagara Falls earlier this year. Chokai declined to give more information, saying the business is owned by family and friends.
In 1998, the city and the Public Utilities Commission sold the lodge to Hiawatha Investment, headed by a pair of Michigan investors, for $140,000.
The Sault Finnish Club closed the lodge in 1995 because of heavy financial debt.
A developer leased the site in 1996, but closed it down after six months.
