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Ride the Canadian Ranch
A luxury ranch experience at Little Beaver Creek Ranch
By: Mary Gostelow
September is the time for rodeos - and there is no better place to be than British Columbia. Use Little Beaver Creek Ranch as your base for the North Nicola Valley Memorial Rodeo or the North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo, both on the weekends of September 2-3, or for nearby professional bull-riding championships, September 16-17.
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But stay at the Relais & Châteaux Little Beaver Creek Ranch ANY time, May through mid-October that is (rest of the year you might find Owner-General Manager Alex Schütz there, and his 25 horses and Don Pepe the donkey, but the place is actually closed). Schütz is already in history books as Switzerland's most famous cowboy, certainly the only one of his countrymen to make it to the cover of Canadian Cowboy magazine. But then he wanted to be a cowboy when he was 12, and 23 years later, as a medical graduate who somehow graduated into marketing the likes of swimmer Mark Spitz and Puma sportswear, he flew over western Canada, saw Glimpse Lake and went to the farm on its banks. I want to buy, he said. He did, and now he owns 200 acres next to infinite acreage owned either by the Upper Nicola Band - one of the 197 First Nation groups in British Columbia - or by Douglas Lake, the largest ranch in Canada.
You arrive, after a breathtaking scenic three-hour drive east and then north from Vancouver. The final 12 miles are dirt track, with a few homes. You come across a lake-set complex of half a dozen lodges built of whole, skinned, pine trunks: three are two-floor, the rest single-story. A flag denotes the main lodge, where you are greeted by one of the 16 happy-and-fit people who help run the place. By day they wear stetsons, red checked shirts and so-tight jeans, with leather belts and cowboy boots (by night it will be hats off to reveal one or two high-fashion hairdos, generally on the men, and shirts are pristine white). You are escorted to your room.
The three taller lodges in total house seven rooms. Loon Bay Residence, called after the wilderness bird, is arguably the favorite, and it can be rented as-is, to give three bedrooms, or as two suites. I had its master suite. This gave a shared downstairs foyer, with a note on my personal inner door that welcomed me by name. I had a spacious parlor with full kitchen area and dining for four, plus a working log fireplace. Upstairs there were two bedrooms. Interior walls downstairs are the undecorated tree trunks, cleverly inset with hidden electrics (I went up to the main lodge for fullest-reception wireless WiFi connectivity). Decor upstairs was comfortable, Ralph Lauren goes log cabin, plus a steam shower and Gilchrist & Soames toiletries. Outside I had a deck right by the lake, with two chairs for lazily gazing over its 11-mile length.
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We went out on Alex Schütz's boat, silent, thanks to its electric battery. We did make a noise later, as we chatted over lunch on the main lodge terrace, where tables were set with red and white gingham (surprise surprise, there is a first-class chef, Jürg Vogt, who likes the wilderness life so much he has returned here for five summers). His pre-set dinner that night was amazing, beef carpaccio followed in turn by lobster, stuffed quail and a raspberry dessert sampler.
And oh breakfast the following morning, in my case eaten on my terrace. Two young ladies from Taiwan arrived, set up a place mat made of blue denim, with a pocket holding a red and white checked napkin and cutlery. Eating fresh toast, made from my kitchen's toaster, and drinking flavorful coffee from a black vacuum flask as I looked across the lake.... all three meals, by the way, and a night turndown that gives you a red bandana and 35 ways to use it (you can even fabricate a tourniquet or wave for help) are included in the room rate, and minimum stay is three nights. You also have free use of bicycles, and the bijou gym and ample heated indoor pool, and on-the-grass volleyball, and you can, if you must, watch television in the saloon, which has a full-size snooker table. Alex Schütz has a fully-equipped medical center in case you might just need a little bandage and the bandana cannot suffice.
Among the extras, which are essential in this unique environment, are horseback riding. Well, why else, you might sensibly ask, would you come to this out-of-the-way place? Schütz has regulars who are as old as 92 coming for a week of riding, and he revels in teaching those who have never been in the saddle. Sessions start with watching him horse-whispering, showing how he talks to his beloved animals. Touch them all over, even their bellies, and you have their smell on your hands, which means the mount relates to you. A suitable mount is saddled up, with western gear, you are put on and, always - for insurance reasons - with escort, away you go. Your escort has radio connectivity, and a GPS, so however long you roam you are always contactable.
No wonder you want to stay here for ever!
www.littlebeavercreekranch.com
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