…but first a bit of history

More than 60 years ago an avid outdoorsman from central Ohio named Lloyd Brake visited Willisville and fell in love with this area. He bought a cottage on Frood Lake and named it Twin Pine Lodge. Lloyd brought friends and family year after year to share the unspoiled beauty of the lakes and the magic of the La Cloche Mountains. Today, his grand-kids and their kids still spend summers here, fishing, exploring, and making memories.

Lloyd’s grand-daughter Lori spent all her childhood summers at Twin Pine Lodge – “from the day after school ended to the day before school started”. She earned some local celebrity when, at age six, she landed a 15-pound pike; she and her grandpa spent the afternoon visiting friends on the lakes while Lori posed for photos with a fish almost as long as she was tall! After the original cottage burned on New Year’s Eve of ’77, she and her parents built a new one on the same site, with the help of friends from Willisville and the nearby lakes.

Charlton Lake Camp is just a stone’s throw from Lori’s beloved family cottage on Frood Lake. In fact, Lori worked at CLC as a teenager, hiking through the woods to help owners Jim and Susan Bailey with housekeeping chores. The camp has changed a bit from those days – there’s now a bathroom in every cottage, imagine! – but the area remains peaceful and grand as always.

Well, that’s “the connection”, part of the reason we made the big leap from corporate jobs to camp-owners in the spring of 2009. We traded cubicles and staff meetings for a chance to enjoy this special part of Ontario on more intimate terms and to share our love of this place with others.

We met several years ago in Cadillac, Michigan and got married in 2007. We spent our honeymoon in Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, where Mark showed Lori his favorite spots from summers worked there 25 years earlier. We even got to view the sunrise from the “employees only” rooftop catwalk on Old Faithful Inn and fly over Mount Moran in a single-engine plane – very cool!

When not taking care of things in the office, Lori does what she’s always loved to do Up North: picking and eating wild blueberries, hiking to Grace Lake and Fire Tower Mountain, and just getting out on the water.

Water is in Mark’s blood too, so to speak, and kayaking is a favorite pastime. He’s a Michigan boy who’s spent time hiking and skiing Out West, sailing the Great Lakes and British Virgins, and paddling Lake Huron shoreline near his family’s cabin in the U.P. Working outside every day with the opportunity to experience La Cloche up close suits him just fine.

Lori has three grown children – Andy, Kyle, and Caity. They visit every summer, splitting time between chores and acey-deucy at Twin Pine Lodge and, lately, helping us at CLC.

Our philosophy at CLC is simple: Have Fun, Be Safe, Respect Each Other, and Respect the Environment.

As new owners we've been entrusted with maintaining the traditions of the Camp and protecting the character of the environment that our guests come to enjoy. We take pride in our clean and comfortable cottages and our well-maintained camp and rental fleet. We can't make the fish bite or control the weather, but we promise to do our best to make your vacation relaxing and enjoyable!