You wake up to the gentle crackling of a wood stove, and adjust your eyes to the soft morning sunlight shining into your cabin. You sit up and look out the window in front of your bed and see a perfect layer of mist over the mirror-like Tesla Lake and the surrounding mountains. On the shore you see the floatplane that brought you to the lodge, patiently waiting for today’s adventure. Flying is the only way into this natural oasis, as there are no roads or trails—not even any other connecting waterways. Just you, your inviting cabin, and untouched wilderness.

This is how days start at Tesla Lake Lodge.

Sitting just shy of 1000 metres above sea level, Tesla Lake is located deep in the rugged Pattullo Range of BC’s Coast Mountains, in the heart of the Eutsuk Nature Conservancy Area of North Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. One of the largest of BC’s provincial parks, Tweedsmuir is home to vast, remote mountain ranges sprinkled with waterfalls, lakes, and hiking trails. It is a giant playground for any outdoor lover.

Tesla Lake Lodge is owned and operated by Nick Hawes and his wife Mary, who fly in lucky visitors to experience the utmost solitude in unspoiled nature and world class angling. Nick’s roots are on the opposite coast of Canada, in Nova Scotia. He grew up skiing the small maritime snow hills, dreaming of the powder engulfed mountains of BC he saw in ski magazines. Barely 18 and fresh out of high school, he decided to head west in search of work. Tree planting jobs were rumoured to be lucrative, so he hitchhiked across the country and soon found himself working in the mountains that had seemed another world away in his youth. After years in the forestry industry, Nick was ready for a new challenge, and was intrigued by the helicopters he had often commuted in. As a child he had been captivated by aircrafts: “Every small boy that sees a plane fly over kinda wonders about how to get a hold of the controls of that machine, right?”

He eventually took a risk and got his pilot licence. Fast-forward more than fifteen years, and Nick now has the dream job, flying over turquoise rivers, evergreen forest, mountaintops and glaciers, in four planes he knows intimately.

Nick and Mary book and fly in only one group at a time to Tesla, for guaranteed privacy and exclusivity. The lodge is the only establishment in the area, so its guests are the only people with access to the lake as well as three others and a river, all excellent for fly fishing. Trophy rainbow trout swim the crystal clear waters, including a legendary 25-pounder named Walter, who has outsmarted eager anglers time after time. Several boats and canoes are available for use, and transportation from lake to lake consists of one scenic flight after another.

The Tweedsmuir area is home to some of the most spectacular scenery in North America, and getting a bird’s eye view is well worth the trek.

- Taylor Burk