Toba Time

 

It’s amazing how many marina’s are tucked in the wilderness of the Desolation and Discovery Islands area. The amazing part is they all operate without any access to roads. None more amazing than Toba Wilderness.

Tucked in behind a small island at the entrance of Toba Inlet, and a few miles north of Prideaux Haven, is this small marina situated at the end of a waterfall that seems to fall straight down from the top of a mountain. Three 200 foot finger docks perpendicular to the main dock provide moorage for anyone with a reservation. Those reservations need to be made by email, and are necessary because the docks are usually full. We posted a request by email during one of the brief periods of cell service and got a response right away.

When we arrived we were greeted by a nice voice over the radio that told us where we would be tying (second finger, all the way to the back) and on what side (port). That meant we had to back all the way in, after turning 90 degrees in a space just a bit longer than our boat length. No problem, because the depth up to the shore was easily over 60 feet - and I do mean RIGHT up to the shore. The coasts along Toba Inlet all fall vertically to the bottom, some 500-700 feet below, leaving the risk of hitting bottom, or anchoring, at nil.

At the all-concrete floating dock we were met by the lady with the gentle radio voice, and by a gentleman that looked like a brother of Grizzly Adams. Longish, scraggly hair, barrel chest, big arms, in shorts that didn’t fit the look, highlighted by his ear rings and big tooth grin. Kyle was a strong, stocky man from Alberta who for the last 20 years has been restoring, building, and expanding this idyllic and remote marina. He is also the owner. 

Services at Toba are limited. Electricity, either 30 amp or even 50 amp, with water available at stanchions all along the docks. Daily garbage service (1 small bag only please), and showers, but no supplies, pump out or fuel. At the base of the dock on land is a beautiful area covered with big, wooden beams and a huge roof. All open air, the reception counter is situated at the end with a desk and a single square transaction cube awaiting next to the dock reservation schedule and a layout drawing of the facilities. In wondering how Square registered the payment so quickly, I learned that services did include wifi, which is provided through StarLink. Very helpful in an area of no cell phone signal. One step into the wilderness, but only one step away from the internets.

Our hostess, Miranda, was from Manitoba, and was just finishing her first month as radio voice and dock coordinator. Single and not intending to leave her post anytime until the end of the season, it was obvious there was some interesting backstory to her life that brought her to this remote location, but we didn’t get into that. She arrived at 7:00 a.m. to rake the pea gravel floor of the Welcome Center, and was there until anywhere between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. for anyone that wanted to lounge in the comfortable chairs around the gas fireplace. The facility was always clean, organized, and very inviting. 

Very attentive and dedicated to her role, she still needed Kyle’s guidance in docking and tying boats, which he provided both to her and to the captain of the boat - whether he or she wanted it or not. It was obvious that you were going to tie up the Toba way or you weren’t going to tie up at all. Miranda shared the reason for asking us to back into the dock and for tying up as we did. We hadn’t thought about it, but they place all the boats so that the view out the back - the most common place boaters relax and spend outdoor time - is of the surrounding mountains and entrances to the inlets and channels that converge on that point. One of the most spectacular views ever.

Kyle ran the ship his way and he deserved to. After checking in, he had time to chat and I asked him about some of the history of the place. How did he decide to buy a business way out in, well, the wilderness.

“First of all,” he said, “I didn’t really buy a business. It was a large, wooden dock with a small cabin on the hillside. It had been a fish farm gone bust, and when I first saw it there was a hand painted for sale sign on it. I was on a fishing trip, and didn’t think much of it until I saw the hydro.”

When we hiked up to the waterfalls, on a trail Kyle made for guests to access one of the most dramatic of waterfalls in the area, we walked by a large cistern full of roiling water coming from a large steel pipe that extended 50 yards or so into the middle of the waterfall. Another pipe went from the cistern down the hill. It turns out this fed a hydro-electric turbine located in a small house near the shore. 

“I saw that generator and it hooked me. I hated the power company all my life, and dreamed of owning my own source of electricity, and there it was. So I bought the place. Kinda weird, since I lived in Alberta on the plains, where there’s no ocean and I didn’t have any boating experience, but I knew how to fix stuff involving plumbing and piping and motors and stuff.”

So he started with a small cabin and a dock and a hydro-electric power station that was entirely unreliable and variable (in voltage). 

“The thing would never produce a consistent voltage, and would quit often. I had to watch it and adjust it constantly just to get it to work. I’d go in the power house and sit on a paint pail and stare at that creature for hours and days at a time, just trying to understand how it was supposed to work, and what I could do to fix it. After a while, I began to recognize the sounds it made when things were going well, and when things didn’t go well. Then I realized the variability was largely because the valving and piping was poorly designed for maintaining flow, and figured out how to fix it. And it got better and better. These days, it’ll work for four months sometimes before I have to look at it or fix something.”

I asked him how he managed to keep the piping up the falls working, since it looked old and seemed to get beat up by the hundreds of gallons of falling water.

“Yeah, one year a lot of debris - rocks and gravel and sand and wood - got jammed in the pipe, all the way from the falls to the cistern. I had to go in and clean that out, but had to do it in winter when the flow was low. Man that was cold water. Once in a while it would go down my back or chest in those waders and even the eagles would scare off at the sound I would make.”

A Waterfall Water Feature

Everything around the place was evidence of hard work. The water from the falls passed under a bridge after navigating down a staircase of precisely placed boulders that made it look like a water feature. The house he built for himself and his family, who most often stayed at their home on Vancouver Island, was big and beautiful. The serene cabin next to that, where Miranda stayed, was adjacent a large, grass lawn that presented the same view we were seeing from our boat. The building with the restrooms had inviting, clean showers with hot water. A large generator was enclosed in a shipping container, and fed the grounds with 50 amps of electricity, enough to power all the boats and facilities. The Welcome House, with its 12” x 18” wooden beams, and the all concrete floating docks, all constructed in the off season (read: winter) by Kyle with a little help from his friends. It’s amazing how much an individual can accomplish by having the right skills, creativity, and motivation.

A Wilderness Home

“We wanted a place where people could suspend time for a bit with the view and tranquility offered by our dock. We call it “Toba Time.”

During our visit, they accommodated two super yachts, one a toy-hauler for the other, each about 200 feet in length. The guests on those yachts had a front seat at the Toba show. Kyle has clearly built a popular destination for boats and boaters of all types and sizes as a result of his vision and effort.