The Unhotel I N Paradise They Wanted to Invest in a Fishing Lodge
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By Jim Sutherland Photography Kamil Bialous The Unhotel i n Paradise They wanted to invest in a fishing lodge. What they built was a dream cabin for 16 that, for 25 years, has brought their families together 60 cottagelife.com Early Summer 2018 Early Summer 2018 cottagelife.com 61 Visitors to this Kyu- quot Sound retreat can choose between the lodge’s two boats, the Mary B and the Phoebe Gaye, It’s not quite dinner time on Sonny’s Island, whether they’re keen on sport fishing for and with wineglasses in hand, several accordingly. A few early risers jump into ones to slap their tails and fins,” specu- Just another typically atypical day in chinook or they pre- members of the extended Osburn and one of two identical 26-foot aluminum- lates Kristin Dobbin, the girlfriend of Kyuquot Sound, complete with a cabin- fer to hit one of Johnson families consider tomorrow’s hulled Lifetimer boats and, within an hour Mark Osburn’s son, Max. cum-lodge base station that puts the the nearby beaches options. Weather forecasts are notori- or so, limit out on 12 to 15 lb chinook. On the island, there’s a hike through “treat” in retreat. Want somewhere that (opposite), only a 20-minute boat ride ously sketchy up near Vancouver Island’s Later, as the soup begins to thin, the the dense salal and underbrush, up a sleeps 16? With ensuites for all? In high from the lodge. stormy northwestern tip, but the official entire multi-generational assembly of steep cliff, and by a long-abandoned style? On its own private island? In an guess is for something half-decent, 14 trundles down the steep ramp—it’s scientific outpost to an overlook above incredibly beautiful and astonishingly suggesting the possibility of a day-long low tide—to fill both boats. The amended the rookery. Meanwhile, Max has remote location? And even more incredi- expedition to the Brooks Peninsula, with excursion will be to a wave-battered brought along his wetsuit and speargun, ble and astonishing—for a respectably its never-glaciated refugia, faux-tropical barrier island, where rugged cliffs con- and he snags a rockfish to augment the affordable cost? Tall orders indeed. For- white sand beaches, and surfable breaks. ceal a seabird rookery on one shore while sausages grilling over the flames and tunately, the place enabling fun of this “Of course,” says Brian Johnson, laugh- on another there’s a sheltered lagoon. embers of a bonfire tucked in among the quantity and quality is also something ing at the probable futility of it all, “this Along the way there’s an entirely driftwood. The fire is topped with a nifty of a laboratory, where, for 25 years, Mark conversation is purely theoretical.” welcome interruption, caused by some portable grill that Mark made after Osburn, Brian Johnson, and their part- Sure enough, by morning the half- humpback whales who appear to be being inspired by the ones he spotted on ners, in both life and business, have been decency has been supplanted by a thick auditioning for an episode of The Nature a trip to Argentina and that is now mak- quietly perfecting the art and science of bank of fog, and plans must be adjusted of Things. “It’s a mom teaching the young ing its island debut. cottaging as a group. ›› 62 cottagelife.com Early Summer 2018 Early Summer 2018 cottagelife.com 63 four to six days. Within minutes of a group’s departure, How they a battalion of hired share helpers who live nearby arrives to The The planning clean, change linens, In January and Feb- and restock the ruary, a booking pantry, while also calendar goes out, dealing with any the story begins waves and everyone picks In truth, maintenance issues. not 25 years ago, but more like 40, way their preferred When the next set back in the 1970s, when Mark, having dates. Then, every of guests arrives just finished architecture school, was are March, Mark, Brian, (sometimes only deckhanding on fishing boats and ulti- and the lodge’s three or four hours two other managing later), the work mately skippering one. More often than partners convene will have been com- not, he was based in Ucluelet, then a taller an annual meeting. pleted, with only rough and ready forestry town and fish- They spend the next the caretaker there ing port, from which he trolled up and couple of months to greet them. down Vancouver Island’s wild west coast. working through here A similar system “It was in the pub in Ukee that I first operational issues. ensures that the heard about this place,” says Mark. “The In late May or early boats are fuelled up guy who lived here was looking to sell it.” June, they gather and maintained. than for a partners’ Along the hundreds of kilometres weekend to check The funding of coastline stretching northwestward over the place and Everybody pays from Ucluelet and Tofino, there are fewer help open it up, an annual fee of than a dozen settlements of any size. any working alongside about $2,100, to Many are First Nations communities, the hired caretaker. cover maintenance and most others are logging towns, with and improvements. the requisite clearcuts, gravel roads, The sharing Stays cost about most and sheltered locations far up fjord-like The property is $900 a day, plus inlets. Kyuquot Village is home to the occupied virtually roughly $600 for every day from the use of the boats. Kyuquot/Checleseht First Nation, but of us beginning of June “It’s a pretty sweet lacks both roads and logging operations. till the end of Sep- deal,” says Mark. Isolated about 40 minutes by boat from tember, by up to 25 “You have to do road’s end at Fair Harbour, and more different groups on your own cooking. than 200 km by boat from Ucluelet, habi- will stays ranging from But per person it’s tations there are divided roughly equally about a quarter between the mainland and a jumble of of what a commer- islands that speckle the open sea. Jok- ever cial fishing lodge ingly, the 300 or so people who call the would charge.” area home have been known to refer to it as the Venice of the North. “In the early see 1970s, it was home to a commercial fish- ery,” says Mark. “You’d see a hundred Beachcombers boats tied up there at night.” can find a bounty almost anywhere By the end of the decade, however, the they search, then commercial fishery was dying. “After we catch a few zzzs sold our troller, I was looking for a place on the beach, like you couldn’t drive to,” Mark explains. He Mark Osburn (in bought the island he’d first heard about foreground, oppo- site, bottom right). in the bar and for the next decade or Back on Sonny’s so tried to make proper use of it, which Island (named for wasn’t easy. He was living back in Van- the former owner), couver by then, starting a family and the dining table building an architectural practice. It was seats 16 or more for big meals. bad enough that the truck, ferry, and boat trip from Vancouver took most of a day and required the schlepping along 64 cottagelife.com Early Summer 2018 Early Summer 2018 cottagelife.com 65 Max, Mark Osburn’s son, is a spearfisher- man. “I’m still an amateur, as you can tell by the size of the catch,” he says. Meanwhile, Mark’s daughter, Chessa Osburn, and her hus- band, Steve Sims, prefer to tackle the scramble up the outer barrier islands (opposite). 66 cottagelife.com Early Summer 2018 Early Summer 2018 cottagelife.com 67 The kitchen is designed for big groups, with a com- mercial oven and range (above, with Brian Johnson at the helm), labelled cabinets, and a of all provisions. Worse, the old cabin another one-time captain who had aban- only one place to build—exactly where the luxury fishing lodge the place was large industrial sink. was slowly, and then quickly, becoming doned the floundering fishing industry the old shack stood. “The most damag- originally intended to be, every bedroom “I believe it was downright uninhabitable. in favour of greener pastures, in his case, ing winds here are from the southeast,” got an ensuite, and the kitchen was sourced from an old By the turn of the 1990s, it was clear construction. Ultimately Brian would Mark explains, and the original place spec’d to commercial standards. morgue,” says Max. “Maybe that’s too that the tumbledown cabin had to be help turn the company that he co- had wisely been set on the island’s north- Mark, Brian, and their original small much information.” replaced, but it hardly seemed practical founded, called Weatherhaven, into one western tip, with the bulk of the island group of investors didn’t have the kind to build a new one when Mark and his of the world’s leading providers of tem- and its tall forest as a wind buffer. By of money it would take to complete and family could only visit for a few days a porary shelters for remote locations and placing the bedroom wing of the new then staff such a place, so they began year. Instead, how about a deluxe com- harsh climates, but back then his main lodge upwind and letting the rest of the to take potential additional investors up mercial fishing lodge? That was the business was building exactly the kind building cascade down a slope, he could to Kyuquot to have a look.