The Point Of Point-No-Point? Quiet Walks, Nature, Meditation

The name itself seems to be a Zen-like enigma: Point-No-Point. A place that simply is, and a place where people can shed all their concerns about the past and the future and simply be.

And although that exactly fits the idea around which Stuart and Sharon Soderberg have developed Point-No-Point Resort on the south coast of Vancouver Island during the past 15 years, the name has a less romantic genesis.

Like a point with the same name at the tip of the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington, the small headland about 40 miles east of Victoria gets its label - a not-uncommon surveying term - from a peculiar characteristic. When viewed from the water, it appears as a point from some angles but not others.

Some navigation charts show it as Glacier Point, part of a rough, rocky stretch of coast between the mouth of the Jordan River about eight miles to the west and the basin and harbor at the mouth of the Sooke River about 18 miles to the east.

The area is rich in sea life. It's popular among divers for its abundance of anemones and crabs, eels and urchins, some of which find their way to restaurants in the area, such as the Sooke Harbour House. Otters, seals, orcas, sea birds, hawks and eagles and a wide variety of other birdlife abound. It's also a popular feeding grounds for gray whales during their annual migrations, especially off French Beach, which borders Point-No-Point on the east.

The 20 cabins in the woods and on the low cliffs of the 40-acre resort (construction will begin on two more cabins in January) face south across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The five newest cabins feature private spas and/or hot tubs. Prices range from Cdn. $70 to $160 per night ($52 to $118 U.S.)

Below them, winding through a mile of shoreline, are several miles of trails designed for quiet, meditative walks, bird and wildlife watching, and poking around teeming tide pools.

The main house/office contains a sun room in which afternoon tea is served; in the past year or two a dinner menu has been added, featuring mainly fresh local ingredients, under the direction of award-winning chef Angelo Prospera Porter, who also operates his own Cooper's Cove B&B in Sooke.

"From the very beginning, this was a retreat," says Stuart Soderberg. "Virtually everything we plan and do is designed to enhance that purpose. We want people to observe and appreciate the nature of the place, to draw some peace and quiet and calm from it.

"The trails - that's the focus of the place as far as I'm concerned. Walking them to unwind, to pay attention to all the life around here."

People who come mainly to soak in their hot tubs tend to miss the resort's point, he says.

A place for loggers, fisherman

Back in 1952, the property on the coast road, Highway 14, was bought as a retreat by Evelyn Packham, and its guests were mostly loggers and fishermen from the island and Vancouver. The retired nurse lived with her 26 Burmese cats on the point, in what had been an observation post during World War II. As a boy, Stuart Soderberg worked for Miss Packham, toting firewood and emptying the garbage.

He went off to college and the big city, where he met his wife, Sharon, also a nurse.

"It was around 1980 when Miss Packham, who was getting pretty old and couldn't really manage the place any more, decided to sell it, as a university retreat center," Stuart says.

"When Sharon and I found out about it - she grew up around here as well - we started thinking. We were doing well in our careers, but big city life was really getting to us. We began to wonder why we'd ever left. And we made an offer to buy the place, to keep it as a retreat."

Sharon adds: "We've never regretted it. And Stuart is still out here toting firewood and emptying the garbage."

All that's left of the old lookout tower where Miss Packham lived is the cement platform - now a spot for guests to sit and look out over the strait. One cabin, named Miss P's House, is the log cottage where the former owner lived in her later years. She died in 1988.

When we visit, we usually set aside some time for a visit to Victoria and often one dinner at Sooke Harbour House (that inn is closed until spring, for the addition of new rooms and renovation of the dining room).

We also walk the trails at French Beach, at the old-growth trail at Sandcut Beach two miles west of Point-No-Point and along the new Juan de Fuca Trail farther west, linking China Beach Provincial Park and Botanical Beach at Port Renfrew.

Among the three or four special retreats we've adopted in the region, Point-No-Point has become our favorite, because of its setting, its feeling of peace and isolation despite its proximity to Sooke and Victoria, and because of the Soderbergs and the atmosphere they maintain.

Finding your own special retreat

When choosing your own retreats, here are a couple of considerations you may want to keep in mind:

-- Make sure the spot reflects and addresses the preferences and needs of all your family members, a place you can all happily share. Or set aside a weekend or two a year for just yourself, your own private time and place.

-- Resorts and beachfront inns without kitchens are nice sometimes, but, at least for me, they never quite achieve the same sense of privacy and serenity that comes with being able to cook your own simple meals and eat on your own schedule. If you go with your family or a friend or two, share any cooking and cleaning-up duties. There's no sense in saddling one person with the work while others simply get to relax.

-- If you go with a friend or friends, choose carefully. Make sure you're all going for the same reason and have the same style of relaxation and retreat. If you want to simply walk the beach or sit and stare into a tide pool for an hour, and your companions mostly want to play volleyball or charades or Trivial Pursuit, the peace you're after might begin to fray pretty quickly.

-- Consider a place without television and phone. Or unplug them when you arrive. Try it. You might experience a short period of withdrawal, but afterwards, you might be surprised how clean and refreshed you feel.

More information: Point-No-Point Resort, 1505 West Coast Road, Sooke, B.C., Canada, V0S 1N0. Phone 250-646-2020; fax 250-646-2294.