Bowstring Lake cabin rental in Deer River, Minnesota listed on http://www.greatrentals.com/MN/14085.html and http://www.vrbo.com/68238

The owners of this cabin didn't mention anything about the huge, almost football field sized bog that floated into the shoreline two years ago and is directly in front of the cabin. The dock is unusable because the water and shoreline are so disgusting with smelly, black, muddy, quicksand like dirt everywhere. There was no way we could keep our boat in the water. It would have been black with the black muddy water. The shoreline also reaked with thousands of dead snails everywhere. We had to keep our dog from going in to the water which was extremely difficult.

If we wanted to go fishing, we had to pull the boat out and drive either to a different boat launch on the same lake or to a different lake. Even if you did find a place to swim on this lake, which is called Bowstring, the locals tell you it's not a swimming lake. They warn that if you do happen to get into the water, to make sure you take a shower as it is not good for your skin.

We were charged a $65 cleaning fee. When we arrived to the cabin we found it to be filthy. My daughter and I had to vacuum, clean the dishes, bathtub, sinks, everything. The people who were supposed to clean it came by an hour after we arrived at the cabin. They said they washed the linens but didn't have time to do anything else.

The description of the cabin said 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. There are (legally) 2 bedrooms. The third bedroom is in the basement, which is mildew, filthy and smelly. The main bathroom upstairs was a nice, spacey bathroom. It had a tub/shower. However, the 2nd bathroom (in the basement) which was claimed to have a tub/shower, was only a shower and a very disgusting dirty one at that with mildew on the shower curtain and up the walls.

We felt our vacation was ruined because of the way we were misled. If we had been told that we'd have to lug our boat everywhere, clean our own cabin, and pack up and leave the property every time we wanted to go to a beach or fishing, we would never have stayed there. Anyone interested in this place because of the pictures online, be aware. The pictures on the site were taken when the place was kept up nice. The flowers are overgrown with weeds now, the deck is rotting, wobbly and falling apart. The bog is a big smelly mess. The area around the campfire pit has broken glass and rusty nails strewn everywhere.

I took pictures of the so called beach/dock area if anyone is interested in seeing them. My email: Reen.ahmann AT integra.net

I spoke to Mr. Engebredtsen, the owner of the cabin. He said he wasn't responsible for the low water level. As if the low water level was the reason for the disgusting lakeshore and cabin. I asked that we be compensated for at least some of the money but to no avail. He said he spoke to his buddies up north that live in the area of the cabin and they assured him the fishing was great. Somehow Mr. Engebredtsen doesn't get the point that the fishing is irrelevant to what my family and I had to put up with for a whole week.

The local people know all about this place and were very sympathetic to what we were going through. It was a general consensus that there was a scam going on with this place and more and more people are getting dragged into it because of the false way it is advertised on greatrentals.com and vrbo.com.