On Oct. 23, Sechelt-based author Rosella Leslie will aim to redefine the phrase “cougar lady.”

She will do so by presenting everything she’s come to learn about Asta Bergliot “Bergie” Solberg, the fabled trapper of the Sechelt Inlet, by writing her biography, titled The Cougar Lady.

Bergie, as she was known, made a name and reputation for herself just by doing what she did best — living off the land on the Sunshine Coast.

That meant often bucking modern conveniences as she continued to trap, hunt and fish.

Through local lore, anecdotes and interviews with those who knew Bergie, Leslie pieced together the cougar lady’s life story over about a year.

“I wrote it and it sat on the shelf for a long time,” Leslie said of the book. “Then I would get another story and so I would redo it and add another story to it.”

Born in 1923, Bergie was the younger of two daughters of Norwegian immigrants.

She was only three years old when her family set off on the Canadian Pacific Railway’s SS Montrose to Canada from Liverpool.

She grew up, lived and died in the same area her family called its new home.

Though her unconventional way of living made her well-known, Bergie wasn’t always well-liked.

Some instances in the book show a brash side of Bergie — such as her demands that strangers give her a ride back to her boat so she could cross the inlet and get home.

But there are just as many — if not more — instances in the book that make Bergie easy to root for.

In the pages of the book, Leslie tells of Bergie’s appreciation for coffee served in a “purdy” mug, and how an acquaintance gave her a Christmas gift after she’d told him she’d never received one.

Although Bergie and her sister, Minnie, were fiercely independent, they were also very close to one another.

The sisters were born about a year apart and, much later, died about a year apart.

“She was just lost after Minnie died,” Leslie said of Bergie. “I think Minnie was her best friend.”

Leslie, who knew Bergie for about 20 years, said it was Bergie’s no-nonsense approach to life that made her an easy choice for a central character.

“I just admired her,” Leslie said. “I knew that she had a rough side, but I saw her coming up the inlet in a boat and because I’d been up the inlet, I knew what it was like to be on the inlet in the wintertime in an open boat — it’s very cold — and she was into her 70s and she had these big hands, her fists were just huge from arthritis, and yet she was out there running that boat back and forth to Sechelt just about every day. She was just a very hardy person and I thought her story had to be told.”

Leslie said Bergie largely embraced her notoriety and even posed for pictures with tourists.

She said Bergie didn’t appear to think twice about doing activities traditionally done by men.

“We went through women’s lib and I don’t think she even thought about those issues,” Leslie said. “She just did what had to be done and she did things that men traditionally did, but she never thought anything about it. It just came natural. She never put limitations on herself.”

Leslie’s presentation of The Cougar Lady concludes with a seminar on researching techniques for those interested in writing non-fiction.

Searching the Past: A Journey of Discovery draws on Leslie’s 30-plus years of experience in the area of non-fiction writing. She said attendees are welcome to bring their own topics to discuss.

The presentation begins at 6 p.m. at the Merritt library on Oct. 23.