Comox Valley Nature, in collaboration with Save Our Forests Team (SOFT), invites members and the public to a special presentation:
Title: Alone in the Great Unknown: One Woman’s Remarkable Adventures in the Northwestern Wilderness
Speaker: Caroll Simpson
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2026
Time: 3:00 p.m. PT (doors open 2:30)
Location: Main hall of Comox United Church, 250 Beach Drive, Comox
Admission: By donation (proceeds to SOFT)
(Drawing by Caroll Simpson)
In her memoir, Alone in the Great Unknown: One Woman’s Remarkable Adventures in the Northwestern Wilderness, author Caroll Simpson recounts the highs and lows of running a remote fishing lodge on her own following the untimely death of her husband, and of falling in love with the natural world.
Simpson tells stories of living in the remote wilderness and managing the lodge, becoming an accidental environmental activist, fending off wild animals, working as an angling guide and finally, fighting off a proposed mining operation and participating in the development of a government land management plan as a spokesperson for the wilderness tourism industry.
While Simpson welcomed paying guests at Ookpik Lodge, unwanted house guests included a woodchuck, a pack rat, and martens. Simpson constantly had to watch out for grizzlies, moose, and cougars. Storms and extreme weather also provided fodder for hair-raising tales. All this makes for wonderful storytelling.
Caroll’s story is essentially a love story. In an essay for Sierra Club, Simpson wrote: “I developed an immense passion for flora and fauna. Just walking back and forth on the 300’ dock several times a day, I was exposed to the unbelievable beauty of the northern spectrum of water life: the golden eagle soaring above, the osprey and kingfisher diving and coming up with fish for their hatchlings, the muskrats and otters looking for an easy meal, the tireless beaver working into the late evening sunsets. All of these creatures and more expressed their generational ownership of this small piece of the world. In return each was given my utmost respect and admiration…As I listened to the loons at the end of each day and the owl and the wolf in the night, I felt blessed to be witnessing such beauty. “
On September 20, join Comox Valley Nature and Save Our Forests Team for an afternoon of storytelling about this remarkable time spent living on a remote British Columbia lake. There will be time for Q&A after the presentation, as well as books available for purchase. Tea/coffee and cookies – including forest-themed cupcakes – will be available for a donation.
Join us, and prepare to fall in love.
