Jackson has reclaimed Skeleton Lake. The 13-year-old golden retriever’s stiff joints and tired legs were no longer capable of navigating the trek down the 130 steps from owner Todd Smith’s cottage to the Muskoka beachfront. And Smith was pretty sure the 100-pound family pet wouldn’t appreciate the indignity of being carried.

Truth be told, Smith and his wife Peggy rarely made it down to the waterfront themselves anymore due to the difficult climb. Their relationship with the lake had moved from the physical intimacy of swimming and boating to a long-distance love affair, appreciating the beauty of the water from the deck high above.

They’re back on intimate terms with their lakefront now, thanks to the inclined elevator they had installed last summer. Think of it as a private railway whose route starts at the driveway and ends at the lake, with stops at the cottage and deck.

A handful of these lakeshore lifts dot Skeleton Lake, where the terrain is notoriously steep.

The Smiths went to the Markham home show last year on a whim. There they met Bracebridge-based lift builder John Weinstein.

Intrigued by the lift systems, the Smiths did have a couple of concerns.

“These things are pretty expensive, but it has improved the quality of our time at the cottage. Also, it was important to me that we didn’t take out a bunch of trees; we’re forested,” said Smith. “The unit is basically a train on a rail and the way we were configured, I was reluctant. It looked like we would need to take out many trees to provide a straight line from the drive to the water. John was able to find a line that essentially had us take out only one tree.”

“Our track building system begins with prefabricated, prepainted 20-foot track sections. The backbone of the finished track are two, three-inch ‘C’ channels that face each other and run in a straight line from top to bottom. The track is fixed to the ground and has an inherently rigid and stable substructure that provides a safe, and safe feeling, ride,” says Weinstein of the techincal aspects of his lift systems. “The car rides on a dolly, which travels up and down the track on wheels that ride inside the track channel so the dolly can’t ‘fall off the track’. The suspension cable is attached to the dolly through the slack cable emergency braking system. The governor-actuated overspeed emergency braking system is integrated into the dolly. The carriage, with its welded steel frame and cedar wood walls and seats, is welded to the dolly.”

The convenience of getting down the slope via an inclined elevator doesn’t come without a hefty price tag, starting at about $30,000.

The cost can seem a small price to pay for cottagers whose declining mobility has them debating giving up their cherished property. If maintained properly, Weinstein claims the units can last decades. The investment may also increase the resale value of the cottage.

Terry and Susan Knox had a lift installed at their Muskoka cottage last fall and couldn’t be more thrilled.

“I love the damn thing. It’s unbelievable,” says Terry. “We have used the front of our lake more in the last two months than in the previous two years.”

Their Three Mile Lake cottage is located 120 feet from the waterfront they cherish and the 45 degree angle was a beast to climb. When the crumbling steps needed replacing, Knox decided to go the extra mile and install the lift.

“The lift was expensive,” says Knox. “It took me about a year and a half to make the decision, but I think I’m opening up a much bigger market when it comes to reselling.”

The lift has made the Knox cottage a more enjoyable four-season retreat. This past winter they frequently enjoyed the wealth of snow by taking the lift down to the lake to snowshoe.

Knox now takes his morning coffee lakeside, regardless of the season.

Weinstein works hard to ensure his clients have a smooth, safe ride. “It’s very slow moving, travelling about 50 feet a minute. With the safety systems, if someone came and cut the cable with a grinder — that’s what it would take — you’d be in freefall for about an inch. The emergency braking system would have the car stopped by then.”

“It’s almost surreal,” says Smith of the ride to the water from his Skeleton Lake cottage. “I expected it to be noisy and it’s virtually silent. It’s just a big long winch. You push the button and off you go. The lift is very smooth and intentionally slow, so it takes about two and a half minutes to go from top to bottom.”

Inclined elevators are ideal for the elderly and also for those with disabilities and health and mobility issues. The systems are also perfect for moving items down to the waterfront; think gas containers, deck chairs, flower planters, coolers and more.

“The lift has given us back our lakefront,” says Smith. “We had stopped using the waterfront simply because the climb was onerous. This has made life easier for me, my wife and my geriatric golden retriever. Frankly, I don’t know what we would have done once Jackson was unable to climb stairs; going to the cottage wouldn’t have been possible.”