4198 Eagle Lake Rd., Lount Township, Ont.
Asking price: $1,199,000
Lot size: 10.5 acres
Taxes: $701 (2026)
Listing agents: Meredith Cudney, Cristina Corti, Michael Decarli and Lucille Chenoweth, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
The backstory
Whether it’s the call of the wild or the desire to get away from it all, many Canadians have at some point wanted to escape into the woods, away from cities and back to nature.
Sometimes people want to live there permanently, other times they only want a brief escape.
Back in 2021, Sara Moore was feeling both urges. She would spend time at the family cottage in Collingwood, Ont., and feel restless when she returned to more urban Guelph. She sensed others wanted to get away, too, even if it wasn’t permanent. She had heard of “glamping” – where guests stay in facilities that lie somewhere between a cottage or a resort and a bare patch of land where you pitch your own tent – and began to dream a little.
The home is clad in yellow siding and has white trim on the windows, soffits, porches and second-floor balcony.Ivory + Quill Co.
“I’d never been glamping, but I love camping. Even now, I’ll take my tent to the local park. I love seeing people sitting around the campfire. My dad would take us on canoe trips; we did one on the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories,” said Ms. Moore. “I knew I liked camping and I knew I was handy.”
The search for a place that would get her out of the city and offer a chance to build a glamping experience took her to an unincorporated township about halfway between Lake Nipissing and Huntsville, Ont., where she found a property that had been used for vacation rentals.
The former farmstead and hunting lodge on Eagle Lake Road has changed hands several times over the years: one current neighbour is a former owner. There’s a former show-jumping ring on site, a bunkie/cabin, and the barn has been partly converted to living space.
The cabin on the property can be rented out.Ivory + Quill Co.
“The other thing that drew me to this property was the potential,” she said. The former owners would rent out the main house and stay in the barn/apartment, but the property is huge, and, Ms. Moore felt, could be made into something much more. “It would make a great place for a wedding venue, or host wellness retreats.”
When she moved in, she focused on its potential as a glamping retreat.
“I built the outhouse, I built the geodome from scratch – I had somebody clear the land and level it, and had help starting the deck – but I love doing that stuff. That’s where I thrive as proprietor/professional putterer,” she said. “In the winter, I get a lot of guests in the dome: A wood stove keeps it warm in the winter so it can be 28 degrees inside and minus 20 outside.”
The demand for glamping opportunities surprised her at first.
“I’ve had people drive from Windsor or Niagara Falls. They will drive hours to come here,” she said. “A lot of people are celebrating an occasion, a birthday or an anniversary. And I get a lot of newcomers to Canada – a lot of people who have been living here less than five years and never camped before. I’ve had people show up in sneakers in the middle of winter, so green to it all.”
The current owner Sara Moore built the geodome and the outhouse from scratch.Ivory + Quill Co.
The house today
Ms. Moore has kept the main house for herself. She has updated the interior style, shifting from hunting resort chic to more of a modern farmhouse vibe.
The two-storey home is clad in yellow siding under a steel roof, with white trim on the windows, soffits, porches and second-floor balcony.
Past the front porch, the main entrance opens into a dining room that connects to the kitchen at the back, with the staircase leading upstairs on the right.
The home's main entrance opens into a dining room that connects to the kitchen at the back.Ivory + Quill Co.
Shiplap-style boards painted white panel the walls below the chair rail and on the stairwell. In the kitchen, they line the wall behind the stove. A squared central island with a butcher-block top centres the open kitchen with an L-shaped run of shaker-style lower cabinets finishing the space under another butcher-block counter. A large stainless-steel sink with an industrial feel finishes the space.
More shiplap boards line the walls of the living room, which accounts for the other half of the main floor. The room has large windows and a new wood stove.
Upstairs, there are four bedrooms, a shared bath (and a separate powder room) and a laundry room. The rooms are modestly sized, but all updated. Access to the second-floor balcony also offers some outdoor space.
A rustic bedroom can be found at the attic level, with two windows flanking the bed’s headboard.Ivory + Quill Co.
At the top of the stairs to the attic level is a bathroom with closet space tucked under the eaves on one side, and a rustic bedroom retreat panelled in barn board on the other. Two windows flank the bed’s headboard.
“I love fresh air, so I’ll crack the window open all year round,” said Ms. Moore. “I love the smell of snow or the scent of the earth after a good rainfall, and I can turn my head and see the sunrise from my bed, coming up over the trees and over my barn.”
The claw-foot tub in the second-floor bathroom is another retreat, where she’ll leave the window open to see the sky and the trees during a long soak.