514 words
Canada - British Columbia -
East Meets West...and Heads out on Horseback
"Should I go for the hike, sit in the hot tub or go horseback riding?" Paula Disney, a guest from Portland, is laughing at her morning dilemma. "Maybe I'll just book the Thai massage and then nap."
Her slippered feet dangle over the arm of the overstuffed brown leather chair. We are sitting in the timber and log living room of the Echo Valley Ranch & Spa's main lodge in the middle of B.C.'s Cariboo country.
She sips some more of her coffee. "Are you beginning to understand why this is my sixth visit?" Our conversation is broken by the ringing of the breakfast triangle. The other guests come in, kicking off their shoes at the front door.
Soon, we are all seated, family-style, around the big dining room table. The morning sun highlights the breakfast selection heaped on the counter - eggs, bacon, steaming hash browns, fruit, cereals, toast, bagels, pastries and yogurt - waiting for us to dig in.
Ten years ago, Norm & Nan Dove were looking for somewhere special. They found it when they discovered this 160-acre property. The fact that it feels even larger than that is due to the protected Crown land that it is surrounded by. The silence here is thick. The kind of sky-silence that makes you think of heavy snow. The air has a weight that suggests this is where you will finally learn to breathe and relax.
But there is something else at work here. It is as though the best of the East-meets-West energy of Vancouver has traveled 4 hours inland up to Clinton and then headed northwest up a dusty 50-km gravel road. So, though all the buildings are made of logs and the 40 horses waiting in the paddock all use Western saddles and the seven border collies most certainly look like ranch dogs, the staff, with the exception of the wranglers and the chef, are all Thai.
The huge pavilion to the right of the main lodge is a Thai-fairy-tale of a pagoda where guests can learn ruesri dat ton, a type of Thai yoga. The large statue at its entrance is a stone vision of serene meditation.
There are fragile orchids growing in glazed pots, silk cushions on leather sofas and woven slippers waiting by scuffed cowboy boots under the porch's worn wooden bench.
Nan Dove is Thai. Norm Dove is British. Echo Valley Ranch & Spa marries the Oriental and the Occidental deep in this wilderness. The wind washes through the white birch and rustles the pine branches. Plump trout splash to the surface of the huge ponds. The rooster crows, the horses whinny and later at night, the coyotes will howl at the fat yellow moon.
In the morning, guests will compare who slept best, and once again, ponder their day's big decisions...head out on horseback, hike with seven doggie-friends as guides, swim or work out in the gym, read/snooze on the couch with warm homemade cookies or have a tiny Thai woman massage away the last lingering bits of tension.
Return visits are very wise.
Saddle Up: www.evranch.com
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