The Birchdale Letter October 2025

It all starts with the canoe

During our second Birchdale Unplugged, Will Poole and his family arrived with a hand-hewn canoe—a vessel crafted with care, shaped by patient hands, meant to carry people safely across water. Looking at it, I thought about how Birchdale began. Not with grand plans or certainty, but with the simple act of putting something “carefully made” into the world and trusting it would hold what mattered most.

A canoe requires balance. Too much weight on one side and you tip. But when you find the right distribution—when everyone leans into the rhythm together—you glide. This year has taught us about that balance, about what it means to carry history forward while making room for what’s new—and like any good paddler knows, it’s the balance that keeps you afloat.

Halloween

Our first summer, staring at the old log cabins, Tracey said: “What if for Halloween, children could walk through the forest and trick-or-treat from cabin to cabin? They would remember that for the rest of their lives.”

That first year, the event was small—four cabins, a small group of friends and their little ones, and a full moon. The cars arrived precisely at 7pm, their headlights piercing the blackness through early cloud cover. We had decorated all four cabins, scared ourselves silly while the trick-or-treating ensued, offered great treats, and finished by 9pm with hot chocolate, s’mores, a dance party inside the main lodge, and a bonfire outside.

At one point, the clouds parted. Tracey started howling at the moon. Our little dog Matzo joined in. Then every child. Then every adult. A chorus of howls rising up through the trees to meet that brilliant moon—a moment that perfectly marked the joy and possibility of Birchdale.

The rest, as they say, is history. Like launching a canoe for the first time, Halloween at Birchdale was an act of faith—pushing off from shore with no guarantee of where the current might take us. But it held. And it’s been holding ever since.

Over the years, Halloween at Birchdale has grown! 12 cabins to trick or treat between, a haunted library, a costume contest and 150+ families seeking chills, thrills and a fabulous time in the forest. And now the beautiful ghost canoe has become a centrepiece of the night—a spectral vessel that seems to drift between worlds, reminding us that some journeys transcend the physical. It floats on the water like that first howl at the moon floated through the night sky.

This year, Halloween returns on Friday, October 25th. By donation, come experience what has become legend at Birchdale. Details and reservations at: birchdalelake@gmail.com.

Six Years: From Dream to Daydream to Reality

Six years ago, I turned from a late-night real estate dreamer into a discoverer of the most magical place called Birchdale. In a café in Toronto, I shared with Tracey what I had found—we still have the video that capturing the occasion! Some months later, after a lot of soul searching and deciding to answer the call to adventure, we put an offer to Helen Matthews to purchase Birchdale.

The offer was made on January 4, 2020—twenty years to the day from a dream that Tracey had (and wrote down and now hangs in our cabin) about a place very much like Birchdale. The pandemic had not yet arrived, and what we imagined we might be doing turned into something completely different… and—of course—so much better! And now, as we close our sixth summer season, we have so, so much to be grateful for.

Not the least of which are the donation Virginia Smith made to Birchdale of a beautiful red canoe in our second season, and a donation this year of an aluminum canoe by Bill Flemmer the 4th. Canoes!

Every journey begins with a single paddle stroke. Ours began with a late-night search, a café conversation, and the courage to say yes to something we couldn’t fully see yet. Like the early travelers who arrived at Birchdale by canoe—navigating by stars and shoreline, reading the water as they went—we’ve been finding our way stroke by stroke.

The Formation of Birchdale and Co

A year ago, in a mild panic between love of Birchdale and the impossibility of keeping it going and thriving, I had a daydream. It was not a sleep dream. Maybe it was a vision. I don’t know. But essentially it was… “wouldn’t it be amazing if Nicola Roberts-Fenton was interested in working with us at Birchdale?”

Not two days later, she approached me to ask if Tracey and I would be open to talking to her about a business proposal she had for Birchdale! After several in-depth conversations and a lot of planning, we came together to create Birchdale and Co—with an eye to sustaining the beauty and history of Birchdale while finding the path to make it more broadly accessible, economically viable, and ultimately, offering employment opportunities for our region. We are just at the beginning, but some of these goals are already on the way to being realized.

Sometimes you need another person in the canoe. Not to take over the paddling, but to share the weight, to help navigate the rapids, to point out what you might have missed from your seat. That’s what this partnership has become—a shared vessel carrying us all forward. (And for those of you who know Nicola, she’s one of the best guides in the region too.)

This Season’s Highlights

What a season it has been. The rebuilding of FIR CABIN, the last one on the horseshoe. The restructuring of the workshop. The re-launching of our cabin rentals. The launching of a recurring music event, Birchdale Unplugged. Sandra Phinney and Heather White’s Writer’s Retreat, the SOULO retreat, Aiden’t Place Retreat, Petite Retreat(s). AND our Chamber of Commerce nomination for Tourism Business of the Year!

It’s just a sampling of a season full of highlights. So many contributed—with hands, hearts, ideas, and presence—to making this season what it has been. Each accomplishment is like a stroke of the paddle—individually they may seem small, but together they create momentum, carrying us across distances we couldn’t have imagined crossing alone.

The Seasonal Shift

At the end of October, we turn off the water in the cabins and shift into off-season mode. Think winter camping with walls! If you are interested, drop us a line. The coming of winter marks not an ending, but a change in rhythm—moving from the bustle of summer into the cozy, contemplative possibilities of winter retreating.

Like pulling a canoe up onto shore for the cold months—securing it, protecting it, knowing it will be ready when the ice breaks and the water calls again. We’re not gone. We’re just changing our paddles for walking sticks and—if we’re lucky—snow shoes!

What’s Ahead

Book Ahead for Next Season

If you’re ready to paddle into next season with us, we’re offering 25% off when you book four nights or more for 2026. A little planning now means more time to simply be here when the moment arrives. Reach out at: birchdalelake@gmail.com to reserve your dates.

Stay Connected

We hope you will continue to participate in the wonderful Birchdale Group on Facebook and follow our NEW Birchdale and Co page to keep up with all the happenings, gatherings, and unfolding stories from this place and to be able to message us more directly.

Through every season, every transition, every howl at the moon—Birchdale continues to unfold. Like a canoe on ever changing waters, we move forward by working together, by finding our rhythm, by trusting what holds us, and by sharing it all with you.

Thank you for being part of the story.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah