Author: Jessica

After finding this beautiful Iron Mountain Wilderness property on the top of Whycocomagh Mountain, we considered how we would and even if we could proceed with the land purchase. Grant and I are too small business owners. As entrepreneurs we have invested considerable time and money into our businesses to build and grow them. Grant opened FireHouse Ironworks Ltd. in 2010 and I started my website and print design business Beach Pea Design in 2013. As any self-employed person can tell you, trying to arrange financing for purchasing real-estate is a little tricky if not impossible without co-borrowers or a spouse with a regular income. If you have reinvested in your business as we had, your personal income can be unimpressive to lenders. Nevermind trying to convince a conventional bank to lend you money to purchase vacant land, off-grid. Hahahahahahaha……..

That being where we were, the quaint thought of purchasing this mountain property for our own little paradise and sustainable farm was not an option for the two of us. However, we were determined to see if there was a way. After all we had been looking for a place like this for over 5 years! Grant wisely held strong in his view that if we were going to proceed with this purchase of property, we had to have a plan for how it would pay for itself. In effect, economic stability needed to be the first “sustainable” or “self-sufficient” item to tackle.

In effect, economic stability needed to be the first “sustainable” or “self-sufficient” item to tackle.

Given the stunning views and groomed snowmobile trails that passed through the property it didn’t take long for the genesis of a plan to offer four season wilderness accommodations to emerge. We had watched the winter snowmobile traffic grow exponentially in our local area year after year, and knew they were an under serviced segment of the tourism industry on the island. We began to do our homework on winter tourism and accommodations. The more we learned, the more of an opportunity we saw in developing a business that would suit our location, our personalities, and the market. We started writing our business plan in December 2017.

Before the New Year, we had placed an accepted offer on the property, conditional on financing. And there began a whole new set of obstacles and hurdles to maneuver, before the closing date of April 30th, 2018.

We had found the property, we had the business idea, we had a plan and now we were lacing our boots and getting after it. What does it take to try and do something like this, some might ask. In our case: two dedicated, loyal, stubborn and very determined people; a patient guardian cattle dog to keep them grounded and sane; and a few generous angels who believed in them and stepped forward to assist when they most needed it.

To be continued…..

Once we decided to make an offer on our mountain property, we came up to do several exploratory hikes. This was such a big move, we wanted to get a better feel for the lay of the land. The first hike we did was in late fall with dear friends. The wind was up and sharp, bringing tears to our eyes when we stood at the camp looking over the mountains, Bras d’Or Lake and Denys Basin. We decided to walk down the trail heading west through the parcel across Whycocomagh Mountain’s “Whaleback’, so called because it has a distinct ridge on its north face.

Once in the shelter of the forest, the wind was barely noticeable. We struck out down the trail under the shelter of the Acadian hardwood forest. While the eastern half of the property had been harvested for softwood several decades prior, this western half was mature beautiful hardwood forest. Brooks bounded south down slope, the moss was thick and lush, and a wonderful sense of the land falling away on either side of you reinforced the fact, that despite the beautiful shelter of the woods, we were on the apex of this ancient mountain.

On a second hike, Molly and I toured the southeastern part of the property, crossing over the previously cut land that fell away in rolling hills to the south west. I could picture future agricultural fields, animals, and shelters for them tucked in here. I was feeling a bit apprehensive crossing the land – the new growth vegetation in this area was dense and higher than I could see and knowing the wilderness surrounded us I feared sneaking up on or coming face to face with some wildlife. I spoke loudly to Molly as we safely descended down into a gully where the old trees had been left undisturbed.

A pristine mountain creek, where ages of water flowing had scoured away the rock creating a wide gully, seemed to me to be a great natural cathedral. A bowl where the creek now meanders in curves along the gully floor. The land rises up steeply around it and the great old birches tower above. The kind of place I would retreat to, when I needed to reconnect.

On our third hike, Molly and I walked The Great Trail from where it meets the Whycocomagh Mountain Road to where it meets our property. It was a foggy mild winter day and the visibility was not great, perhaps 30 meters. I felt nervous again. The forest looked particularly wild and prehistoric as the fog slunk into the woods below the canopy. My imagination was picturing coyotes and bobcats stealthily watching us, wondering what we were doing there. I decided the best course of action was to sing loudly as we hiked.

One of Grant and my favourite songs was what came to mind then and there – Splendid Isolation by the wonderful Warren Zevon. I sang it loudly, making up the lyrics I didn’t know. Molly and I stopped to further explore and pay homage at the creek. While the place was still wild, and scary at times to me, and the weather could be extreme on the mountain, my spirit was connecting with it. I was becoming familiar with it. And I knew that I loved it, with all its peculiarities, all its challenges, its moods, creatures and weather. It was our opportunity to live in nature, but how we would manage to be able to stay there turned out to be quite a challenging course to traverse. Before us lay obstacles great and small, characters of ill repute, major disappointment and challenges that would require great perseverance and fierce determination on our part. Of course, perhaps mercifully, we had no idea what was in store for us. Our first task was to envision a plan for making our life in this place and that is when the idea of Iron Mountain Wilderness Cabins found its genesis.

To be continued….

Our trek up the mountain began many years ago. Grant and I had been looking for a piece of land out in the country quite seriously for about 3 years. We were looking for a rural location with a southern aspect that would be suitable for organic gardening and farming. A quiet place in the woods where we could live peacefully in nature, learn to be more self sufficient and eventually spend more time doing the things we enjoy – fishing, hunting, gardening, and creating. We visited many properties prospecting for such a place. While we found a few that seemed promising, nothing had materialized.

It was while we were out hunting early one fall morning that we first laid eyes on what would become our Iron Mountain property. It was late in the season, the frost was heavy in the highlands. It was beautiful, the hoar frost clinging to the shrubs and tall grasses, twinkling in the first rays of daylight, the forest so quiet and serene. We had gone up Whycocomagh Mountain at the crack of dawn in pursuit of Ruffed Grouse, or if we were lucky perhaps a deer.

We had noticed that a property had come up for sale on the realtor maps on the mountain behind our existing business and home recently, but hadn’t been too optimistic after looking at the airphotos. It seemed much of the property had been logged and, logging practices being what they are in Nova Scotia, we feared that the land may be very degraded. That morning however, we impulsively pulled into the driveway to take a look. As we entered the drive, fruit bushes tumbled out toward the dirt lane, remnants of the old forest stood out on the horizon and a vibrant young forest was recovering after the last softwood harvesting activities. The lane meandered around a bend and then ended suddenly on top of a rocky hill crest. The land fell away from a little trailer, down to a singing brook. The site commanded an unbelievable view across Whycocomagh Bay, Denys Basin, all the way to Mainland Nova Scotia. It was breath taking. We couldn’t believe the site before us. Suddenly our daydreams, thoughts and wishes for our future came into sharp focus.

I couldn’t help but proclaim to Grant: “This is it. Let’s go for it!”

And that is what we did. What we have been doing, every day since.

To be continued….