Fishing At Clearwater Lodge

One of Gene's favorite things to do was go fishing at Clearwater Lodge near Emo, Ontario. For many years he made that trip with fishing buddies and often with family. The camp is rustic in nature and accessible only by boat or float plane. Many friends and family have special memories of a trip or two (maybe even several) - first that long ride from Kentucky to someplace in Wisconsin to spend the night (sometimes) then on up to cross the border at International Falls for the night and shopping in Fort Frances for supplies to take in to the camp, then the last leg of the journey, leaving civilization behind and arriving at Sportsman's Landing where they would radio George and he would arrive in his boat to pack everything up (including Gene's big cast iron skillets) and roar up the lake for a week without phones, indoor bathrooms, and running water. Days were fishing, always a picnic on the bank somewhere, picking blueberries, cleaning fish.....  Nights were playing scrabble, telling stories, out looking for the Aurora Borealis, and celebrations of one sort or another.

Daniel Judge, Gene's nephew, shares a memory of his trip on a Canadian Adventure with Uncle Gene.

I was 10 and Timothy Edwards was 11 or 12 and the two of us were in a boat with Uncle Gene in Canada. Tim and I had these goofy (but adorable) white hats a la Gilligan and Uncle Gene had on a safari style hat that was apparently harder than ours. It started to HAIL LIKE BLAZES and as Tim and I said "Ouch, ouch, ouch", Uncle Gene just sat there and laughed at us. Well, I lost my hat on the water (!!!) and rather quickly resigned myself to never seeing it again. When we got back to the dock, Uncle Gene took it out of the water!!!!!!!!!  Apparently it was stuck to the bottom of the boat, but his version was always that a fish swam up wearing that hat.