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WELCOME TO THE WILDERNESS
If you are looking for a beautiful wilderness setting with incredible mountain views and a very comfortable and brand new customized cabin cottage to relax in then we want to welcome you to our place.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF VACATION RENTAL
We see ourselves as a very unique vacation rental experience. Our primary commercial is that we are very non-commercial. Our place is not so much an investment, but a way of life for us. We are very remote - the cabin is behind a locked gate up a 6.5 mile mountain dirt ranch road and four wheel drive is strongly recommended. We can provide transportation from the gate at no charge. The gate is less than 25 minutes to the beach or the local wineries. You may bring mountain bikes, ATV’s, trail bikes or horses but will need to respect our few neighbors and neighboring properties. One of the unique aspects of the cabin rental is that we are available to help with advice, questions, or problems. We will meet you at the gate and lead you to the cabin along the access road – or even drive you to the cabin from there if you prefer. We live across the property, well enough away to assure your PRIVACY and SECLUSION, yet available if you need us or just want to chat about the area or learn more about the unique amenities. We are friendly and love to socialize – yet have a high regard for your privacy. Our cabin is mostly new and built largely from recycled materials and designed to have a minimal impact on the environment. You will have a wood stove for heat with all the wood you need included (the stove is high tech efficient to minimize pollution and maximize heat output.) You will shower (hot water included)with real filtered spring water collected from our property. (We are happy to show you the spring if you like!) Your power is generated by our customized solar power system (free tours are available). We have a fully equipped kitchen and provide bottled drinking water (all you need to bring is your food! note-if you are a coffee drinker we have an old fashion perculator for the stove top). For a touch of luxury in the wilderness, Egyptian Cotton linens, and towels are also provided. In the interest of getting away from it all, we DO NOT provide satellite TV, though we have a TV and DVD player. We do provide satellite radio, a book and game library and a few DVD’s. We can also be easily persuaded to show you some good hikes or probably take you on one if you desire (ask us about the hidden waterfall!). At night if you step outside, you will see stars like you never see around the city – including the Milky Way! Generally, you will hear nothing but natural sounds - at night coyotes in the distance, owls, perhaps if you are lucky, a bobcat or mountain lion.
OUR PLACE IS PERFECT FOR SMALL FAMILY REUNIONS, WORKSHOPS, WEDDINGS... IF YOU WANT TO PLAN A SPECIAL EVENT CONTACT US!
12 MORE PICTURES BELOW.
A LINK TO OUR PERSONAL WEBSITE IS RIGHT OF THE 3RD PICTURE.
We look forward to sharing our place with you! Randy and Elaine
WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE GOT HERE
In spring of 2005 Elaine and I left city life in the LA area and decided to pursue our dreams to "live off the grid...". We owned a property in Cuyama but wanted something less desert like, with an easy drive to California’s beautiful coast – yet far enough away from the coast where we can get completely away from it all. At the time we were uncertain whether we could find such a place but were ecstatic when our realtor showed us 40 acres next to the Los Padres National Forest near the northern Santa Barbara/Southern San Luis Obispo county line. The property had everything we had envisioned - and more in a wilderness escape – rare unspoiled mountain beauty, endless hiking/horse/mountain bike trails, abundant wildlife (deer, elk, hawks, road runners, horned toads, bobcats, coyotes and more!), a short walk to the national forest, Native American history, very few neighbors and peace and quiet. We realized that since the Cuyama river has to be forded to get to the property (though it is always easily fordable except after the most extreme of storms) it was unlikely that the surrounding area would be developed anytime soon. Soon after we agreed on a contract with the owner of the property, we gave notice on our jobs and put our Simi Valley house up for sale and off to the wilderness we went!
THE MAKING OF A WILDERNESS RETREAT
When we arrived in June, 2005, the timing was fortunate because there was nothing but a partially open air shack to live in on the property. This was fine for us for the summer but we did not want to spend the winter in these conditions so we got busy winterizing the cabin. We filled in wind and mouse holes, added in insulation, a wood stove and some decoration to make it more homey and got it ready just in time for the first winter rains. Since that first summer, we have completely renovated the cabin, added an 18 foot diameter geodesic dome, a teepee, developed a spring and water storage system, added camp showers and toilets, and added a 30 foot diameter yurt(To check out the yurt site click to the right of the yurt picture below) We received approval for a federal 501-c3 nonprofit status to begin a sustainable educational retreat.We plan to activate all of this late this summer. Since the land is large and mountainous we have been able to create these structures in such a way that they all are separate from each other to insure PRIVACY & SECLUSION which is not often found in vacation rentals. One of the other features we appreciated about the property (believe it or not!) is that it is out of range of electrical, water and telephone land line utilities. This forced us to develop our solar power knowledge early on to create nice nonpolluting solar systems for both the cabin and the yurt and to be independent of utilities for the first time in our lives. |
Pet Friendly
