An Extreme, Luxurious Wilderness Adventure

Editor's Note: The author visited Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort, a second-generation family-run lodge in northern British Columbia. This article is the first of a four-part series on Nimmo Bay.

Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort: Day 1

Tuesday May 20, 11:12pm: I am physically exhausted from an 11-hour day of hiking, kayaking and exploring the Great Bear Rainforest and yet I cannot fall asleep, for images of the wilderness beauty I've seen today are running through my mind like a National Geographic special.

The playground for my adventure is Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort, an eco-friendly, family-run lodge in northern British Columbia that is only accessible by helicopter or floatplane. The award-winning resort––routinely named one of the top ten wilderness getaways in the world––sits at the base of Mount Stephens and consists of nine two-person chalets built on stilts on a tidal, fjord-like bay. The luxury lodge beyond the middle of nowhere offers exclusive access to over 50,000 square miles of breathtaking beauty, including 10,000-year old glaciers, mountain tops, old-growth rainforests, remote islands, white sand beaches, hot springs, a 5,000-foot waterfall and over 50 pristine rivers and stream.

I arrived at this natural paradise the night before, just in time for a delicious dinner of fresh mussels and halibut, followed by an evening soak in an outdoor cedar hot tub at the bottom of a waterfall some 30 feet from my cabin. The 20-minute float plane flight into Nimmo Bay was breathtaking, as was the hour-flight preceding that from Vancouver International Airport to Port McNeil on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

My arrival at the lodge included an unforgettable welcome, as well as both a clinic in hospitality and a hint of what was to come during my stay at Nimmo Bay. I walked off the float plane around 8pm onto a floating dock with a crackling bonfire.

"Hi! You're Tony, right? I'm Francisco," said a short, grinning Chilean who was to be our main guide during the next 3 days. I would come to learn that Francisco is a skilled outdoorsman who prior to coming to Nimmo Bay lead emergency evacuations for the government in his native Chile and also ran an adventure guiding service. He got the job to be a guide at Nimmo Bay two years ago when, during a coffee-shop interview with lodge owner Fraser Murray, Francisco paused while answering a question to help an elderly woman maneuver the crowded restaurant. That Fraser offered him the job on the spot after observing the quiet act of service says as much about Fraser as it does Francisco.

"Have a seat," Hailey offered, and no more than 60 seconds into my stay at Nimmo Bay I was completely relaxed and transfixed. Had I truly woken up that very morning at a bustling international airport surrounded by traffic, buildings and throngs of people? Here I was sitting on a floating dock sipping wine by the fire under the stars, at the base a snow-capped mountain in the middle of nowhere, looking out at this remarkable view. Wow. Welcome to Nimmo Bay. I was seemingly a million miles from civilization, without a care in the world.

Frankly, I'm surprised I slept as well as I did the night of my arrival, my excitement level for the day's upcoming adventures was so high. Maybe the wine helped, or the massive portions at dinner did the trick––or, more likely, it was the soothing sound of the waterfall cascading 10-yards from my cabin. Not only does the waterfall provide the camp with "the purest, sweetest drinking water," as the Murrays say, it also provides the camp with power for nine months of the year thanks to a water-powered hydro system Fraser's father, Craig, built shortly after towing a float house from Vancouver Island back in 1982 to open the resort.

"We did all the stuff you can possibly do to be green right from Day 1 because we know how fortunate we are to live in this pristine environment," said Craig, a pioneer and entrepreneur who dragged his wife and young children to live out in the rainforest and attempt to open a lodge with scarcely a thousand dollars to his name. Of course, Craig's wife––a hearty Newfoundlander who was one of the first females to work at a logging camp––and kids loved every minute of it, even when a giant grizzly bear turned the family's float house into its personal den.

In addition to the hydro power, the Murray family also installed a hydroxyl waste management system that converts the camp's waste-water into to bacteria-free, clear water that can be released back into nature. They've been all catch-and-release with their incredible salmon and trout fishery since their very first guest––decades before the trend became popular––and they implemented a recycling and refuse elimination program. The Murrays even purchase BC-beneficial carbon offsets, and founded a Future Forever Fund in 2007 to raise money for Raincoast Research, save BC wild salmon and offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Hiking, Food, Exploring & More Food

I asked Hailey if there were any good trails I could hike before breakfast, and she graciously explained that due to the dense bear population in the area they encouraged guests not venture from camp alone, but that she or anyone on the staff would be happy walk with me anytime I'd like. She couldn't that very moment as she was preparing for breakfast, so we agreed to go on a hike later, which was fine with me. Without my knowing, however, she ran back into the staff building and told a co-worker.

Two minutes after my chat with Hailey, Francisco ran out to the dock and said, "Hi Tony! Want to go on a hike with me?" He then proceeded to guide me on a fantastic hike through the old growth forest, pointing out plants and animal tracks as we made our way through The Great Bear Rainforest.

We returned exactly at 8:30 for breakfast with my fellow camp guests. Initially I thought breakfast was fruit smoothies, chocolate-filled croissants, fresh fruit, granola and yogurt, but then I learned that was just the first course of breakfast!

Round two consisted of eggs benedict with bacon and avocado.

Fully nourished, we set out boating and kayaking on an expedition led by Fraser himself. Less than an hour into our adventure on the water, we spotted a black bear and its cub. Halfway between our kayaks and the bears, a seal popped up. Again, I thought, welcome to Nimmo Bay. I'm forty-five minutes into my first morning on the water and am already treated to this fantastic wildlife encounter.

Every staff member has their own bear story, even Fraser's 5-month-old daughter, Fauna. Fauna's mother (Fraser's delightful partner, Becky) was midway through her pregnancy and out on a walk in the woods when a pair of black bears appeared ahead of her on the path. Becky and her walking partner, Fraser's mother, began walking backwards but the bears followed. And followed, and followed. For 20 minutes, all the way back to camp, the bears followed them. Finally, once the pregnant Becky retreated into the lodge, the bears turned and disappeared into the woods. The Murrays are such great storytellers it's easy to imagine them telling the tale of Fauna's first dramatic bear enounter, before she was even more born, to future guests for years to come.

As thrilling as it was watching the bears, the kayaking and paddleboarding in and of itself was simply sublime. Nimmo Bay offers complimentary kayaks and stand-up paddleboards to its guests, and its protected waterways with countless islands and inlets is ideal for paddling of any type.

After a few hours, Fraser led us to a beautiful island with a seashell-laden beach for a shore lunch. As if on cue, the sun came out and a pod of dolphins surfaced out in front of the island as we ate.

You would've never guessed we were in the remote wilderness based on the quality and style of the food. We feasted on house made crackers with little quilicum brie cheese, orange and fennel salad and trail mix, paired with either red or white wine. The best part of the meal was a monstrous sandwich with heaps of genoa, soprassafta and capicolli salami stacked on artichoke hearts, little quilicum cheese and iceberg lettuce between homemade bread. Dessert offered options: cashew coconut custard bars and banana walnut ganache squared.

Talk about a picnic lunch in style! And we had this view, to boot:

Just before returning to camp for the day, we spotted another bear. This one was a large bear we got to watch for a quite a while before it finally detected us and retreated into the woods. What a way to bookend our day on the water, with a bear sighting to start and finish our excursion.

"There's more value in viewing a bear than in shooting a bear," said Fraser, who has worked to expand Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort from purely a fishing resort into a broader-based, eco-resort that offers bear-watching, kayaking, hiking, beachcombing and whale watching (Fracisco confided to me they called Fraser "the whale whisperer" last summer because he always seemed to bring guests to humpback whales). "We want to give people a chance to observe these animals in their natural settings."

We returned to camp around 5:30, so in the two hours we had before dinner, a few of us went back out for more paddleboarding. It's hard for me to sit still in a surrounding such as this.

As you can imagine given the day's previous feasts, I wasn't exactly starving when they brought out dinner despite my 11 hours of boating, kayaking and hiking. Nonetheless, I managed to put away the crab cakes and ultra-tender beef tenderloin just the same.

Dinner was followed by a soak in the outdoor hot tub next to the waterfall, and an evening campfire with my fellow guests and new friends, the owners and staff of Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort.