Klee Wyck Journal: The Making of a Wilderness Retreat

by Lou McKee

After many years of paddling the waterways and outer coasts of the Pacific Northwest, author and artist Lou McKee planned a short kayaking trip near Vancouver Island with friends and family that unexpectedly became a yearly tradition. During the first trip that Pacific Northwestern summer, they chanced upon an enchanting stretch of beach and spent several days collecting stones polished by the ocean, exploring the nearby creek, and breathing in the wonder of untamed water and wilderness. This remote coastal beach drew them back year after year, though the coastal rains become almost too much to endure. Thus, the Klee Wyck Cabin, as it came to be named, was borne from found cedar beach logs and other reclaimed wood to shield the travelers from summer storms. For a few weeks each year, friends and family came together to share stories, heartaches, celebrations, and the building of the tiny wilderness retreat cabin. Lou took her journal and sketchbook with her to the cabin, documenting the construction and rendering local flora and fauna in colored ink and pencil drawings. Collected together in print for the first time, Klee Wyck Journal showcases the cabin and Lou's remarkable lifetime on and near the water in exquisite, full color sketches.

240 pages, Paperback

Published October 17, 2017

Reviews

[Bob Kohn]

This beautifully illustrated book is in part a journal recording the realization of Lou Mckee's dream of creating a cabin on the remote west coast of Vancouver Island. But more than that, it’s about her own journey through the natural world from childhood days spent boating on the inland sea between the BC mainland and Vancouver Island to her kayaking adventures as an adult exploring the coast. There is this sense from early on that Mckee was searching for a place that would resonate with her adventuresome self, her love of the natural world, her easy connection to people, and her clear need to find a place to center her spirit. Klee Wick became that place, an accidental find discovered when looking for a campsite in the rain while kayaking among the rocky shoals of the coast. The site and its beach become a favorite to which she return. In 1995, with her nephews, husband David Verwolf and friend Marilyn she returns once more to the beach and declares it as the place she wants to build her dream cabin. Mckee and Verwolf plot and plan to make the cabin possible. They can’t buy the land, but there is a tradition of fisherman refuge cabins built up and down the coast which they’ve used in bad weather. Theirs’s would fit that pattern. A friend architect draws a plan. Friends and family are called upon to pitch in and over the years the cabin becomes the refuge she wanted. Construction begins in 1997. The main materials of the structure, early on finished lumber delivered by boat to the site, later are found on the beaches nearby: split logs for siding, cedar rounds are turned into roof shakes and also used for flooring, beach gravel to fill the cracks between the rounds. Some stuff is imported from the city, such as a stove and windows, but much is created from the material the sea and forest supply. It’s hard work, demands planning, and can only be done during the summer season in a not easily accessed place.
This journal records the fulfilling of McKee’s dream. It lovingly extolls the natural worId but equally the community of friends and family, and her husband David, who made her cabin a reality. What sets the journal apart is Mckee’s exceptionally rendered color drawings that were part of her journal. Her eye misses nothing: tiny plants discovered among the beach rocks, an ancient cedar shaped by time and weather, her neighbors, the mama black bear and cubs, the multi-colored textures of beach rocks. These drawing are scattered among the descriptions of the cabin construction and repair, of friends gathered for good meals around a campfire, and of days of her solitude at Klee Wick. The drawings not only illustrate the natural world but also the human artifacts scattered in it: kayaking gear, women’s hats, the cabin’s kitchen counter loaded with stove and pots, the outdoor privy. Each chapter in the journal covers a kayaking season and is sub-headed with the names of those who stayed that year. There are many repeat visitors from previous years, especially women friends, who enrich her life at Klee Wick with a resonating bond. Beside the building the cabin and its site, there are many day trips chronicled--some ending up quite hazardously--which enrich the readers sense of Mckee’s constant curiosity and adventuresomeness. And, each chapter provides drawings of the discoveries she or her companions found that year, giving the reader a rich sense of their experience there.
The drawings complement what is good, often vivid writing. This not just a chronical of the place being created, or the daily life at Klee Wick, it is also Mckee’s reflections on the beauty and terror of the natural world, and her feelings and appreciation for cherished family and friends. Some of her nature writing reminds me bit of Sally Carraghar and McKee’s beloved Emily Carr with their sense of connection and beauty. Her descriptions of the food cooked over the fire makes one hungry. Where the writing stands out in my memory is when Mckee faces fear. She’s not reluctant to express this feeling when confronted by the black bears who are regular visitors to Klee wick. But as she studies them, she eventually comes to see them as curious neighbors you don’t want to mess with, but not as threats. Wolves are a different story; the writing of an encounter with a pack protecting its beach tightens one’s stomach muscles. Or, as a woman alone for the first time at Klee Wick, she wonders how she’ll cope with the aloneness, how she’ll fill her time, how exposed she feels there, especially when she encounters a strange man on Klee Wick’s beach. She’s often at her best when she describes the hazards of sea kayaking. The sea, of course, is the constant presence, rumbling and crashing just beyond protective rocks, that makes Klee Wick what it is. A crossing from the island freighter to Klee Wick becomes a vividly written terrifying moment of panic when the wind builds to a gale and the waves become steep white caps as she drifts away from her companions.
For Lou Mckee, facing and overcoming fear was an essential part of the making of Klee Wick. Her journal is more than a story of cabin and its setting. It’s the story of a woman’s dream to create “…my home of homes.” She had to push herself to create Klee Wick, to bring all those people along with her to a place where she felt enfolded, where she had vision and purpose. For us, the readers, we are given a visual feast of the Klee Wick’s world through her eyes, and a sense of the deep sense her love of nature, of family, of friends conjoined in beautiful place.

[Susan Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I SAVORED this book, much like I would a chunk of exquisite dark chocolate and a glass of ruby red wine. I loved everything about Lou Mckee's lovely memoir: the silky feel of it in my hands, the remarkable illustrations, the stories within the stories, getting to know Lou and hubby David along with the myriad of friends who were privy to this most magical cabin in a most magical place. Each time I picked Klee Wyck Journal up I settled deep into my couch and anticipated being transported to another coastal adventure. Lou never disappoints. Read this book if YOU'D enjoy being transported to a magical cabin in a magical place! It's more than a journal, more than a memoir, more than a work of art. This is a treasure, much like the legacy the author and David has left behind.

~ Susan Marie Conrad, author of "Inside, One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage"

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was delighted by and drawn into Lou McKee's journal and drawings. I looked forward to picking up the book every evening and returning to Klee Wyck, watching mother bears and their cubs romping on the rocky beaches of Pacific northwest islands, gazing eye to eye with humpback whales, eating delicious meals and drinking red wine while watching the sunsets. Reading this book felt like a meditation on nature, in nature. I'm grateful that I could experience the wonder of her experiences through her writing and didn't have to actually kayak on the open ocean, which seems very scary to me. But it obviously was a fabulous experience for Lou and her friends.

[Patricia Saab · Rating 5 out of 5]

This delightful true story of adventure and comraderie, written and illustrated by Lou McKee, follows her merry band of kayak'ers over a period of more than two decades as they "grow" a charming cabin, which Lou calls their wilderness retreat, in the middle of the woods somewhere on Vancouver Island. In just a few pages, your senses will be engaged, hearing waves and songs, smelling dinner cooking, picking up cool rocks at the shoreline, immersed vicariously in this unique journey as if you are right there.

Ever so many splendid original colored ink and pencil illustrations enrich this story. Truly a book to both savor and devour, to hold in one's hands. Oh, and there are recipes, bear tales and much more for you to discover!

[Sharon Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because of the title, which is a reference to an Emily Carr nickname, a member of my book club stumbled upon this while searching for books about Carr. It turns out the author is a resident of my hometown, what a co-incidence! When I saw the illustrations, I decided I had to have a copy for myself.

I enjoyed this book way more than I expected to. I thought that I would get sick of reading descriptions of the same location, by the same person over and over. But I found myself interested to see which of her friends would be joining each year, what progress they would make on the cabins, and I grew anxious reading about the occasional harrowing journeys through perilous seas.

The drawings, of course, are what elevate this to much more than just a diary or memoir. They and the accompanying notes are charming, without pretense, but also no-nonsense, a bit like the author. She adds just enough philosophical musing to give us an understanding of who she is, and what she thinks about while alone on the beach for weeks. The balance of this with the recipes, descriptions of the local wildlife, and descriptions of the landscape make this a book you just don’t want to put down. And the drawings? Did I mention the drawings?

I found myself feeling jealous, but also inspired by Lou’s wonderful collection of friends and family and her amazing opportunity to create and revisit this magical place every year. Over and over, I thought, “I want to BE her.” She just happens to drop the fact in the epilogue that after this adventure she spent 3 YEARS roaming Europe in a camper van. Now I really want to be her, but I also want to know, where are the book and drawings from THAT adventure?


I guess it’s time to pull the kayaks out of the shed and hose them off. After all I turn 60 this year!

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying this beautiful book which chronicles Lou’s kayak trips with family and friends in the waterways of the Pacific Northwest, happening upon a stunning stretch of beach in a remote area of Canada’s coast, returning year after year and eventually constructing a wilderness cabin. Interspersed are Lou’s beautiful drawings of flora and fauna as well as special recipes for food cooked over the camp fire. If you love the sights, sounds and smells of nature, you will love this book!

[Trace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful memoir. I couldn't put it down!!