It was 1979 when a young couple pulled ashore on then-remote Read Island. These latecomers to the back-to-the-land movement arrived in B.C.’s Discovery Islands like a couple of latter day pilgrims. They’d sold a photography business for a down payment on a 50-acre parcel of waterfront land to hatch their dream of building a wilderness adventure lodge. They came in a leaky aluminum skiff packed with their worldly possessions: tent, chainsaw, lopping shears, a table, rocking chair, spinning wheel and a transistor radio.
The learning curve on coastal homesteading is steep. The first step was to clear building sites for a family home and lodge, gardens and outbuildings. Next was to mill their own lumber from salvaged cedar logs and erect a post- and-beam house. The plan to produce their own hydro power from a nearby stream short-circuited at first when their newly installed turbine was stolen. To support themselves while their dream took shape, the Kellers worked odd jobs like treeplanting and construction.
Although it was originally the alpine environment of the coast Range that Ralph and Lannie envisaged taking their guests to, the fledgling interest in sea kayaking caught their imagination and in 1987, eight years after arriving on Read Island, they welcomed their first guests to Coast Mountain Lodge.
With two children Emily and Albert now completing the Keller family, they continued with the tasks—Ralph working as self-described “systems manager and kayak guide” and Lannie as “mom, gardener, cook and logistics.”
Inquiries began to trickle into their post office box in Surge Narrows and over the past two decades visitors have come from around the world to share the Kellers’ life in the wilderness.
In 2001, the business expanded to include a second lodge, Discovery Islands Lodge on Quadra Island, operated as a kayaker’s B&B and hostel. Both operations squarely put the “eco” in ecotourism with local food, composting toilets and homegrown power from solar, wind and small hydro. It sounds like a dream come true.
IN OTHER WORDS:
Sink the nest egg
“We wanted to have some adventure in our lives. We had taken the plunge and put all we had into buying a piece of land in paradise. We needed a way to make a living where we lived. Kayaking was one of those late-night brainstorms that seemed like it might work.”
Don’t specialize
“We had to provide everything for ourselves, from water to electricity to communication. Every system you take for granted in town we had to figure how to build and then keep it functioning—even our first four fibreglass kayaks, from a borrowed mould.”
Commitment is its own reward
“Make sure you like what you do and be prepared to do a lot of it for free before you get paid for it…. If you refuse to fail, sooner or later you are bound to succeed.”
This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.
