Humber River House (The House)
Until the 2015 snowmobile season, I didn’t even know the Humber River House (The House), located on the northern shore of Deer Lake existed. Through the referral of Carl Reid, Jonathan Stirling, the new owner of The House reached out to us (Sledworthy Magazine) because he wanted to communicate to the winter snowmobile enthusiast that this facility was open to snowmobile groups that wanted affordable luxury for their west coast trips.
Over the past ten years, I’ve stayed at some pretty awesome spots. In my opinion The House takes the cake. The indoor pool, hot tub, downstairs games room, gourmet kitchen and media room set new standards. The open concept and massive windows allow the morning sun to greet you as you look across Deer Lake. The snow conditions of Western Newfoundland will easily fill your day schedule and you can rest assured, The House will take care of your evening.
On our particular trip, we had planned to ride three days. Day one and two saw us keeping the sleds loaded on the trailers and sled deck and simply trucking over to Cormack to use White River Road as our staging area. We could have easily left from The House, accessed the Humber River and traveled east to the groomed trail system which would have brought us to Cormack. We opted to remove that from our trip because we desired to spend more time (gas) in the backcountry. Those two days were actually minus 20 days, so all hands agreed this was a good plan.
On day three, we decided to visit the Lomond Sink Hole and pick our way around that terrain. In this country, you’ll find tons of sloped cut-overs with ample powder areas to lay down first tracks. Once again, we departed The House and drove 15 minutes north and utilized the parking lot of The Jackladder as our staging area. This allowed some of our riding party to gas up at The Jackladder. We could have departed from The House, but we opted to reduce our trail time for more time ploughing through untouched powder, which we found lots. If we left from The House, we would have simply taken the shoreline of Deer Lake over toward the Rod and Gun Club and accessed the trail network to take us towards White Wash Road and the Sink Hole. It was March when we had done this ride and the ice levels were quite good. However, it’s always advisable to chat with locals about ice conditions and tricky spots on Deer Lake. If you’re ever in doubt, don’t go out.
The House, which I’ve come to start calling it and it just stuck with me, has five large bedrooms. Four of the bedrooms are equipped with large/comfy beds and their own en suite. The other, main floor bedroom has two twin beds. The pool and hot tub are found in an adjacent building connected via a mudroom. In the pool section, you’ll find another full bathroom. Upstairs are two large bedrooms that are met with a sitting-area that actually worked out great for us because one of the guys had brought an inflatable mattress and he set-up there and had tons of room. For this winter season, that area will be converted into a room with two sets of bunk beds, great idea. Downstairs are two large bedrooms with a great pool table/dart board area. The downstairs area also has a small kitchenette to keep your cold things cold and even warm up some snacks. On the main floor, the media room can easily seat 12 plus people comfortably and was great for watching video clips post ride or simply watching Netflix on the Apple TV and the large screen TV.
At the beginning of this article I mentioned the phrase “Affordable Luxury”. The House is well over 6000 square feet and can accommodate/sleep up to 16 people. The dining-room table can sit 12 bodies (plus the breakfast bar)and for the Chef in your group, the kitchen is well appointed with a massive BBQ located outside but always within view through the massive windows. You and your group can have this for about $50 per person per night, that’s affordable because we all have spend that kind of money per night and have gotten a lot less. The night rate at The House is $790, go ahead this winter and treat yourself, call it a Bucket-List stay. Based upon our visit and how we enjoyed it, you’ll probably be looking to book again for your annual trip. With the right group size, you have found Affordable Luxury in The House…the Humber River House.
