About Us

Furthermost Outpost

Life Beyond the Last Road

There are places in this world where a person can still disappear into the wilderness without ever feeling lost.

Far beyond the last road, deep in British Columbia’s Chilcotin wilderness, Jennifer and Arön Toland have built an extraordinary life around that very possibility.

Their home is Eliguk Lake, a remote wilderness fishing lodge where the nearest neighbour is nearly fifty kilometres away, the journey to town can take days, and winter holds the landscape in its grip for much of the year.

There are no convenient service calls, no quick trips for forgotten supplies, and very little room for overlooking the details. Everything from the water supply to the next meal depends, in one way or another, on what can be planned, built, repaired, grown or gathered.

For some, that would sound like an impossible way to live.

For the Tolands, it’s been home since 2016.

Two Lives, One Remarkable Partnership

The wilderness wasn’t something Jennifer and Arön discovered later in life. Both grew up with the forests, lakes and rugged independence of Northern Ontario, where an appreciation for the outdoors took root long before either imagined making it a permanent way of life.

Over the decades that followed, they pursued very different careers, unknowingly gathering an extraordinary combination of skills that would one day prove invaluable.

Arön developed a deep understanding of how things work. His experience in engineering, mechanics, construction, fabrication and aviation-related design gave him the ability to see solutions where others might see only obstacles. Part craftsman, part inventor and endlessly curious, he’s rarely content to accept that something cannot be done simply because no one has figured out how to do it yet.

Jennifer’s path was equally diverse. Her professional experience in industrial emergency medicine, business and hospitality management developed the judgment, organization and composure needed when circumstances become complicated. Alongside it grew a lifelong passion for herbalism, wildcrafting, gardening, culinary arts, photography and professional writing.

Where Arön finds possibility in a fallen tree, a complicated structure or a stubborn engine, Jennifer finds it in a wilderness harvest, an unfamiliar ingredient or a story waiting to be told.

Together, their strengths extend well beyond the sum of their individual abilities.

And after three decades of marriage, they’ve learned that a healthy sense of humour can be every bit as important as a well-stocked toolbox.

Building a Life Where Few Would Dare

When the Tolands took on the abandoned Eliguk Lake Lodge in 2016, they inherited more than a remote business. They accepted the enormous responsibility of rebuilding, restoring, maintaining, and operating an isolated wilderness property, with all the challenges that came with it.

The work has never really stopped.

Buildings must withstand punishing winters. Engines and equipment must keep running despite difficult access to parts and repairs. Lumber is harvested and milled, renewable energy systems maintained, docks rebuilt and water infrastructure protected against the relentless cycle of freezing and thawing.

Arön’s mechanical ingenuity and building experience are evident throughout the property. From the sawmill to the workshop, his ability to design, fabricate and improvise keeps an astonishing variety of systems functioning. His background in aviation logistics, firefighting, fire mitigation, and wilderness operations is equally valuable in a place where transportation, weather and terrain can dictate the success of an entire project.

Meanwhile, Jennifer manages much of the intricate business of keeping the lodge and its many moving parts connected. Guest arrangements, provisions, hospitality, communications and the thousand small decisions behind a functioning wilderness operation demand as much attention as the larger projects.

And then there’s the kitchen.

For Jennifer, wilderness cooking is both an art and a deeply personal expression of the life they’ve chosen. Years of gardening, wildcrafting and preserving have cultivated an intimate understanding of the connection between the land and the table.

Heirloom vegetables, wild ingredients, fresh fish, game and carefully stored harvests find their way into gourmet meals prepared for lodge guests. Even the most unlikely ingredients can become something remarkable in her hands. Dandelions become jelly. Rendered fats become valuable kitchen staples. A season’s abundance becomes the foundation for meals served long after the garden has disappeared beneath the snow.

It’s a level of culinary creativity few would expect to find so far from civilization.

But that contrast is part of what makes Eliguk Lake extraordinary. The isolation may dictate how ingredients arrive, but it has never determined the quality of what leaves the kitchen.

The Price and Privilege of Independence

Life at Eliguk Lake is undeniably beautiful. It’s also demanding in ways that photographs and television cameras can never fully explain.

Seven-month winters test equipment, patience and resolve. Every autumn brings an urgency to finish what must be done before the lake freezes and the seasons close another door to the outside world.

Wildfires present a different kind of uncertainty. After years of facing threats from surrounding fires, preparedness has become inseparable from everyday life. Protecting buildings, managing surrounding vegetation and maintaining essential equipment require constant vigilance.

Their extensive backgrounds in mechanical systems, emergency preparedness, wilderness operations and practical problem-solving provide a foundation for meeting these challenges. Yet even decades of experience cannot eliminate the unexpected.

The wilderness has a way of reminding everyone who ultimately sets the rules.

That understanding has also strengthened the Tolands’ commitment to environmental stewardship. Protecting wildlife habitat, waterways and the surrounding forest isn’t simply a matter of principle when the landscape is both home and livelihood.

Jennifer’s involvement with Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism’s Marketing Advisory Committee, together with her training in freshwater invasive species awareness and responsible tourism through the Invasive Species Council of BC, reflects a commitment to the future of the region and the ecosystems that sustain it.

For the Tolands, independence has never meant freedom from responsibility.

Quite the opposite.

The privilege of living somewhere extraordinary carries an obligation to care for it.

From the Wilderness to Mountain Men

In 2023, the couple’s unconventional life reached an international audience when Jennifer and Arön appeared on Season 12 of HISTORY Channel’s Mountain Men.

They returned to the franchise in 2026 as cast members of Mountain Men: Wild North, the Canadian series also broadcast in the United States as Mountain Men Season 15.

The cameras follow projects and challenges onsite at Eliguk Lake: maintaining essential infrastructure, preparing for wildfires, constructing buildings and overcoming the considerable obstacles of working so far from conventional services.

For audiences, these experiences offer a fascinating glimpse into a world that seems increasingly removed from modern life.

For Jennifer and Arön, they’re simply part of another day’s work.

Television has opened an unexpected chapter, bringing new opportunities, new friendships and an audience interested in the skills and determination required to maintain such an isolated existence.

Yet the most compelling part of their story isn’t that they’ve appeared on television.

It’s that they built this life long before the cameras arrived.

The skills are real. The setbacks are real. And the work continues whether anyone is watching or not.

Stories Worth Sharing

Beyond the buildings, machinery and daily responsibilities lies another side of Furthermost Outpost: a shared passion for creativity and storytelling.

For years, Jennifer has documented their wilderness experiences through her writing at Off Grid Life, combining observation, reflection and a distinctly dry sense of humour with the extraordinary realities of their surroundings.

Her photography has been used on television, featured in newspapers, articles and magazines – it captures what words sometimes cannot: the stillness of a northern lake, the character of the changing seasons, the wildlife that inhabits their world and those fleeting moments of beauty that can stop even two seasoned wilderness dwellers in their tracks.

The Furthermost Outpost Podcast brings another dimension to those stories, exploring life beyond conventional boundaries through conversation, personal experiences and encounters with others who have chosen unusual paths.

Original music has also become part of their creative expression, turning wilderness experiences, relationships and personal histories into songs.

Together, these projects give Furthermost Outpost a voice extending far beyond the shores of Eliguk Lake.

What began as a remote wilderness home has become a place from which stories, ideas and inspiration can travel around the world.

The Knowledge Worth Passing On

After a decade at Eliguk Lake, the Tolands have accumulated something far more valuable than a collection of successful projects.

They’ve developed an understanding of how knowledge from seemingly unrelated disciplines can come together to make an independent life possible.

Engineering and wilderness logistics. Gardening and gourmet cooking. Environmental awareness and responsible land use. Emergency preparedness and the judgment to recognize when a situation demands a different approach.

Years of professional experience gave them a foundation. The wilderness has required them to put it all together.

That depth of practical knowledge is shaping the next chapter of Furthermost Outpost, as Jennifer and Arön develop opportunities to share their experience through wilderness education and hands-on skills courses.

Their approach is rooted in a simple belief: capability comes from understanding not only how something is done, but why it matters, what can go wrong and how to adapt when circumstances change.

The goal isn’t to convince everyone to abandon modern conveniences or move into the forest.

It’s to encourage greater confidence, resourcefulness, environmental awareness and appreciation for the skills that make people more independent, wherever they happen to live.

Because self-reliance isn’t about knowing everything.

It’s about knowing enough to keep learning.

Life Beyond the Last Road

There is a particular kind of freedom in the life Jennifer and Arön have created, but it has never come without a price.

It lives in the quiet satisfaction of completing a difficult project, a winter’s supply of food carefully put away, a beautifully prepared meal shared with guests, or an evening when the lake is so still that the surrounding mountains seem suspended between two skies.

It also lives in the less picturesque moments: frozen waterlines, broken equipment, exhausting workdays and the occasional disagreement over precisely how something ought to be done.

Thirty years of marriage and a decade of near-constant togetherness have given the Tolands a partnership built on trust, resourcefulness, mutual respect and the ability to laugh when circumstances become completely absurd.

They haven’t escaped the demands of life.

They’ve chosen to meet them differently.

And perhaps that’s what makes their story resonate. Not the isolation, the television appearances or even the remarkable range of skills required to remain here, but the determination to create something meaningful together—and to keep caring for it, season after season.

Somewhere beyond the last road, where the forest meets the water and the world grows wonderfully quiet, two people continue building the life they imagined.

Not because it’s easy.

Because, to them, it’s worth it.

Welcome to Furthermost Outpost — life beyond the last road.