Bluffy Lake Lodge Reflections
Ed Johnson 09.07.11
Sometimes in life there is an experience that bonds itself to your soul and you want to share it with the rest of the world, perhaps motivating others to step out on a new journey or outdoor experience in their own lives. That was the case with me several years ago. I have traveled to many places across several continents, but I had never had an experience that affected me as much as my first trip to Bluffy Lake Lodge in Northwest Ontario.
It’s not just the camp, but the people who run the camp. Bluffy Lake stands on its own as a mystical and sacred place, graced with the beauty of the pristine north woods, where the trees touch the sky, the clouds dip into the mirrored lake and the bald eagles want an up close and personal relationship with you. The beaver send you a welcome message with the slapping of their broad tails, and the loons call you quietly with their hypnotic cry to gaze upon their waters.
Just as welcoming are the owners Keith and Ms. Debbie. I have never met two people who are so in tune with accommodating you any way they can without crowding you. Both of Canadian ancestry, they are ambassadors of the great northern outdoors. Their lives are virtually focused on the protection of the environment and respect for its inhabitants. Calling them true woodsmen is an understatement. They live and breathe Bluffy Lake. Treating the environment like a young child, protecting it from mistreatment by any intruding adult. Giving back more than you take is daily routine and second nature to them. Their awareness of the animal and fish movement is uncanny, unlike anything you’ve ever read about. Watching Keith in the bear woods is like watching a weathered artisan at work. Knowing and feeling air movement, wind, wet moss that has been disturbed just moments before, fresh bark and claw marks, territorial signs of a monarch’s presence before human appearance. Keith transforms himself into the “bear mode”, knowing full well what he will most likely do next or what he will react to.
Traveling up and down the lake with either of them is like looking through a looking glass: you see things that you might never notice otherwise. While in camp, they are watching you without you knowing , ensuring that you are getting the full value of your experience, treating you like old friends that you would have over on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps feasting on a fresh game harvest, or just to talk about what you need to talk about. Part of the Bluffy Lake experience…you bet!
They allow you to feel as though your discoveries are on your own, but if they feel you are running short, they will help you along, after all, you are in their front yard, their space, and they welcome you, and they learn from you, as you do from them. Guardians of Bluffy Lake, perhaps, but also guardians of that wealth of experience that the great outdoors has to offer: keepers of the natural instincts of man. He sometimes does not realize from where he came. Bluffy Lake brings him home!
Hunting, fishing, and the outdoors, is no stranger to Ed Johnson. Groomed in the outdoors by a grandfather and two uncles, since he was a small child, with a fly rod in one hand, and a bow in the other, Ed has 50 years of bow hunting experience behind him. He has record bow kills in the Safari Club International record books with a collection of some 60 mounts and has taken 17 species with bow in Africa. He has received awards for North America's Top Ten and Goats of the World and Wild Sheep of the World.
He is a member of Safari Club International, Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), North American Hunting Club, NWTF, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, ICAST, and retired co-founder and owner of the Bass Pro Crappie Masters All American Tour. Ed still maintains his status as a professional photographer and is an avid freelance writer for numerous outdoor publications. He was featured in several hunting videos with Roger Raglin, and On The Water and In the Woods, with Cody and Cody. He serves on the pro staff and pro staff review board for Commando Hunting Products and is senior adviser and consultant and Trusted Expert Pro Staffer for Trusted Outdoor Gear and OutdoorHub.com
His love for the Ozark whitetail and old tom turkey is still his passion. Ed is quite active in promoting the outdoors and enjoys sharing hunts with others, especially first timers! His mission in life is to expose people, young and old, to this great pastime of hunting and fishing. Each year he takes a group into Ontario for bear hunting and fishing. In a time when it is getting more difficult to get kids exposed to nature, Ed believes all outdoors men and women, can and will play an important role in helping to expose more children to the outdoors. The bottom line….our hunting industry future. Ed has coined the phrase "teach a child to hunt and fish and you will never have to hunt the child"!
