Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/109278
The Pioneers Finding Nimmo mo Bay Nim Meet the visionaries behind B.C.���s hottest celebrity wilderness lodge by Kate MacLennan >> photography by Jeremy Koreski NIMMO BAY, CENTRAL B.C. COAST On the walls of the ���Memory Room��� at B.C.���s most intimate wilderness retreat, words stretch across framed page after framed page of yellowing letterhead, each emblazoned with the logos of Fortune 500 behemoths ��� Boeing, McDonald���s, American Airlines. Other, more discreet, pages display handwritten accolades and the signatures of Hollywood stars, a former leader of the free world (George Bush), an ambassador from outer space (William Shatner) and his soon-to-begalactic successor (Richard Branson). ���As I work my days in the concrete jungle, I can still close my eyes and ���feel The pioneers: Deborah and Craig Murray, and (above) the couple���s almost four-decade labour of love, Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort. (opposite, clockwise from top) Pacific whitesided dolphins; Dungeness crab; grizzly in Wakeman River estuary; kayaking in the ���front yard���; heli-hiking in the Coast Range. (centre) The resort���s floating firepit. (inset) Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort p10-15_The Pioneers.indd 11 Nimmo,������ says one. Another quips, ���I believe you must be the Fountain of Youth, the Givers of Freedom and the Gods of Play.��� Voices of powerful men and women, movers and shakers in the international worlds of business, politics and celebrity, left gobsmacked ��� changed even ��� just as we regular Joes are by Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort. For while perhaps a dozen or so wilderness retreats in B.C. also qualify as ���remarkable,��� going to Nimmo Bay feels profoundly like going home, no matter how far one journeys to get there. Before I met Deborah Murray I���d already ���found Nimmo.��� As a weekend guest of her son, Fraser, I���d eaten meals pulled from the ocean off the resort���s dock and from the fields of nearby Vancouver Island; meals served at the table where, for almost 40 years, Deborah and Craig Murray have hosted family and friends. I���d drunk from taps connected to a waterfall via a pipeline they���d laid. I���d seen Deborah���s photograph ��� her wide smile, eyes still gleaming with adventure, even in her sixties ��� and read a book about her life: her solo motorcycle trek across Europe in her teens, her brown belt in karate. And I felt a kinship with this Newfoundlander whose fate was sealed in the 1970s when, exploring Vancouver Island���s east coast, she hitched a ride heading north to Port McNeill. In a resource town known for its shortage of eligible women, she then took a waitressing job at one of two diners ��� where she served coffee to Craig Murray, a W e s tw o r l d >> S p r i n g 2 0 1 3 11 13-01-28 10:27 AM