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The small house is unfinished and rustic, but very functional and even cosy year round. It is designed for a single person or couple, but can be stretched to accomodate kids or an additional couple. Sleeping more than 4 people and you'll want to expand using tents outdoors. There's no public phone for miles and not a chance your cell phone will work either. There's no SatelliteTV, wireless internet, electricity, indoor plumbing, white noise, traffic, or zoom zoom zoom. Daily life grounds you in the unspoiled quiet full of wildlife frequently visible right out the window, or right out the door. The solitude in deep winter when pack ice fills the Gulf is hard to describe.

The neighborhood is quiet and remote at the end of a gravel road where the trailhead begins for the Pollet Cove-Aspy Fault Wilderness Area. It's a hikers paradise and when you've exhausted the neighborhood trails there's plenty more in the National Park just up the road. Close by is Gampo Abbey, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. The nearest supplies are at the general store in Pleasant Bay, about 5 miles away which you'll pass on your way in. Pleasant Bay is an English speaking fishing village with an excellent harbour on the Cabot Trail on the outskirts of the Park. The nearest grocery store, laundry, liquor store, hospital, gas, bakery and banking is in the Acadian French-speaking town of Cheticamp about 25 miles to the south.

The house is wood heated in the offseason and has one or 2 propane wall lamps in each of the rooms described below for lighting. The rustic non-electric lifestyle is not for everyone. It takes more time and thought but I find it an essential and joyful part of an outdoor experience on the edge of the wilderness. If an outhouse or outdoor hot shower and no TV or phone is not to your liking, you will probably not be comfortable here.

I use the tower room upstairs (with NE view shown below) as the living or common space for reading, meditation, rainy day hangout, as well as bird, whale, and weather watching from indoors. This room also has a futon (full) to use as a second bedroom. Many will prefer to sleep up here for the views rather than the darker bedroom below. The always changing weather, seas, and ice beat anything on cable. Even in a fierce blizzard, the lookout is always comfy with the heat from the woodstove rising up the stairwell.

The kitchen below has a working propane stove and oven, sink drains, ash counters, dishware and utensils for cooking, but no cuisinarts or microwaves. Some amazing meals have been produced in this kitchen. You can bake bread or steam crablegs using the small propane stove and oven, or keep the tea kettle and a pot of stew simmering on the woodstove in the chilllier seasons. The dining area at the other end of the room has a table and 4 chairs in the corner windows overlooking the gulf. Refrigeration is currently by coolers and ice but a propane fridge is expected for Spring 2009.

The downstairs bedroom has a queen-size bed with a brand new mattress. There are blankets, pillows, puffs and a quilt. Clean sheets and pillowcases are provided when you arrive (bring your own towels). The gas wall lamps give plenty of warm light for night reading. There is also a small spare room (future bath) currently being used for storage.

The original tiny cabin is now a storage shed, and a convenient place to change after an outdoor hot shower when the waterline is operating (May-Oct). In the offseason (late fall to early spring), water needs to be hauled from the pristine mountain brook a few feet away by bucket as the aboveground waterline will freeze if not drained. In winter you'll need to heat water on one of the stoves indoors every few days for bathing. It's rustic, but it all works great. In summertime you might prefer to bathe in one of the many neighborhood brook pools and waterfalls after a saltwater swim or a hike along the beach.

Outdoors the yard is bordered by the brook ravine and the waterfall to the SW, 85' rubble cliffs (w/a cobble beach below) on the NW side overlooking the Gulf, a field to the NE, and a thicket of spruce to the SE which screens the cabin from the road above where you park your car in a small lot. There are additional tentsites, hammock areas, portable furniture, and 2 campfire areas. The outhouse is surrounded by spruce in a pocket clearing and you very well might see a fox or moose on the way there. From where this picture was taken at the edge of the woods looking North, the brook is right behind me. Retreat visitors in winter will need an AWD vehicle and should bring their snowshoes and/or cross-country skis.