A couple's affectionate retrospective of their decade spent living off the grid, in a coastal paradise for paddlers, whale watchers, and naturalists.

Twenty years ago, two empty-nesters with a love of the outdoors stumbled upon a vacant beach house on a small island in Clayoquot Sound, part of an off-grid, ten-acre stretch nestled within a provincial park reserve. Escape to Clayoquot Sound is an extended love letter to this place, chronicling the decade John and Bea Dowd spent as year-round caretakers of the property.

Told with humor and heart in alternating voices, and lavishly illustrated throughout with stunning natural photography, this book is a story of joyful solitude, of living in harmony with wildlife and respecting the forces of nature. It is about the fleeting definition of home and family, and about creating community in the wilderness. Above all, it is a tribute to an achingly beautiful, fragile place.

John Dowd is a true adventurer, as well as a writer and photojournalist. He has worked as a seaman on a Danish freighter out of Libya; taught at New Zealand's Anakiwa Outward Bound School; paddled from Punta Arenas to Puerto Montt in Chile on assignment for National Geographic; and established himself in the Guinness Book of World Records by leading a 3600 kilometer kayak expedition from Venezuela to Miami along the Caribbean island chain. He is the author of Hogsty Reef and Rare and Endangered. He lives in Canada.

John Dowd's profile page

Bea Dowd is a photographer, editor, and translator, who has worked in magazine and newspaper publishing and corporate communications. With her husband, John Dowd, she co-edited Sea Kayaker magazine.

Bea Dowd's profile page