Fernie BC?

freddyfour

freddyfour

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Brant County, Ontario
Hey guys, anyone from that area care to chime in? The wife and I are seriously contemplating a big move from Ontario to BC. I really like the Fernie area and have spent a lot of time there over the last 20 years, but have never hunted the area. What do you have there and how is the hunting?
 
Nobody regrets a move to New Zealand North until they shop real estate! I'd do as you're considering and move somewhere away from Vancouver that you like, and worry about the hunting second. There's great hunting in the Rockies and Kootenays, but you can travel anywhere in BC from home in 24hrs of driving or less. It's startling how many BC hunters have never been to Fort Nelson or Atlin for instance, and a good thing for those like yourself not afraid of traveling. BC's one of the great hunting destinations, Roosevelt, Keith, through the modern folks like Boddington were all hunting visitors and for good reasons that haven't changed! Would be happy to call ya neighbour out West. One risk is, and my brother and I have both stumbled here in the past, make sure you pick a destination with plenty of good employment prospects for both parties. In both our cases options for our wives have been limited at times in particularly quiet places. Fernie is extremely hippy but so are many of the pretty parts of the province, so I wouldn't sweat it. For a center with similar feel but much more to offer check out Nelson.
 
Is Fernie ever hippy now, when I first started going 9ut there is was just a mining and logging town. Now it has 'blown up'. Employment is the biggest concern for both of us, one of us would need to have something lined up before we made the plunge for sure.
 
Everyone I know who's left Ontario for BC wished they did it years ago. And they've stayed. But like Ardent said real estate will be a major factor potentially. You've picked a better area, much more reasonable then closer to Vancouver. After multiple offers not going through, offering 25k over asking and it sells for 85k over I gave up and won't play that game haha.

So it's all really relative. Housing costs will be cheaper in and around fernie but the work may be not as high paying or hit or miss hours. Whereas full time work in the lower mainland but stupid high prices. I'd check around that whole area. I know lots of trades guys and others who are young and seem to have a good life going forward. Creston, cranbrook, fernie. Happy hunting! And hope it goes well!

I hunted goats just before fernie up in the bull river valley. Gorgeous area, went too early in the season and would if needed ropes and carabiners and climbing gear to get to them hahaha
 
I live in Cranbrook, (pop 20,000) an hour from Fernie. I work at one of the big open pit coal mines in the Elk Valley and drive through Fernie twice per week, to and from work.

Fernie is a beautiful town but fairly expensive to live in (like all ski towns) with lots of tourists and hippie types etc.

Also, as it's a town that's literally in the mountains, expect a lot of rain and snow, it's nicknamed snow valley for a reason.

Where I live in Cranbrook, a few miles away from the Rockies, we have the most sunshine in BC (google it) much shorter winters,
and real estate is much more reasonable.

You can buy a nice house in Cranbrook or Kimberly for less than an old fixer upper in Fernie.

As far as hunting goes, the east Kootenays is God's country, I can hunt Elk, Moose, White Tail, and Mule deer every year without applying for a draw.
Lat year for example, my wife brought home two White tail deer, and I bagged a Mule deer buck and a White tail buck,
so 3-4 deer in our freezer every year is no problem.

On my drive home from work, it's not unusual to see 50-100 Elk.

We are a few hours from Spokane, Calgary, Banff, Golden, Nelson, and less than an hour from several other towns (Creston, Kimberly, Radium, Invermere, Fairmont hot springs etc)

We often shop in the USA, even with the Canadian dollar where it is, it's still less expensive to buy some stuff across the line, gas, dairy, poultry, beer/wine etc. (Montana has no state tax either)

We're an hour from Montana and an hour from Idaho.

Many of us in this area have an address in Eureka Montana to save on shipping costs for online purchases.

Mild, short winters, breath taking scenery, and all the public land to hunt that you can imagine, no need to ask for permission to hunt anywhere around this neck of the woods.

I'm usually hunting within 15-20 minutes from my house.
 
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We have a cabin 1/2hr outside of Fernie on Tie Lake. I'd love to move up that way but steady work is my primary concern. Property is reasonable (at least compared to VI) As already stated its an absolute hunting paradise out there.
 
The Outsider said:
I live in Cranbrook, an hour from Fernie. I work at one of the big open pit coal mines in the Elk Valley and drive through Fernie twice per week.
It's a beautiful town but fairly expensive to live in. Also as it's a town literally in the mountains, expect a lot of rain and snow, it's nicknamed snow valley for a reason.

Where I live in Cranbrook, we have the most sunshine in BC, much shorter winters (google it) and real estate is much more reasonable.

As far as hunting goes, the east Kootenays is God's country, I can hunt Elk, Moose, White Tail, and Mule deer every year without applying for a draw.
Lat year for example, my wife brought home two deer, and I bagged a Mule deer buck and a White tail buck, so 4 deer in our freezer every year is no problem.

We are a few hours from Spokane, Calgary, Banff, and several other small towns and cities, (Creston, Kimberly Kalispell MT, Nelson) an hour from Montana and an hour from Idaho.

Mild, short winters, awesome scenery, and all the public land to hunt that you can imagine, no need to ask for permission to hunt anywhere around this neck of the woods.

If you want more info, PM me for my phone number.
Click to expand...

Miles and Miles of Crown land to ATV on....

I agree.. Great place to live.
 
I was born in Hamilton and moved out west when I was 13 with my family. I'll never go back. My in laws have property in the south cariboo and its gorgeous country. The lower mainland can be a nightmare for traffic and housing prices but you can be in beautiful country within 5 hours
 
The Outsider said:
I live in Cranbrook, (pop 20,000) an hour from Fernie. I work at one of the big open pit coal mines in the Elk Valley and drive through Fernie twice per week, to and from work.

Fernie is a beautiful town but fairly expensive to live in (like all ski towns) with lots of tourists and hippie types etc.

Also, as it's a town that's literally in the mountains, expect a lot of rain and snow, it's nicknamed snow valley for a reason.

Where I live in Cranbrook, a few miles away from the Rockies, we have the most sunshine in BC (google it) much shorter winters,
and real estate is much more reasonable.

You can buy a nice house in Cranbrook or Kimberly for less than an old fixer upper in Fernie.

As far as hunting goes, the east Kootenays is God's country, I can hunt Elk, Moose, White Tail, and Mule deer every year without applying for a draw.
Lat year for example, my wife brought home two White tail deer, and I bagged a Mule deer buck and a White tail buck,
so 3-4 deer in our freezer every year is no problem.

On my drive home from work, it's not unusual to see 50-100 Elk.

We are a few hours from Spokane, Calgary, Banff, Golden, Nelson, and less than an hour from several other towns (Creston, Kimberly, Radium, Invermere, Fairmont hot springs etc)

We often shop in the USA, even with the Canadian dollar where it is, it's still lees expensive to buy some stuff across the line, gas, dairy, poultry, beer/wine etc. (Montana has no state tax either)

We're an hour from Montana and an hour from Idaho.

Most of us in this area have an address in Eureka Montana to save on shipping costs for online purchases.

Mild, short winters, breath taking scenery, and all the public land to hunt that you can imagine, no need to ask for permission to hunt anywhere around this neck of the woods.

I'm usually hunting within 15-20 minutes from my house.
Click to expand...


Great info, Cranbrook is definitely on our radar. It sounds like the huntingis as good as I thought it would be! How is the employment opportunities in the area?
 
Anywhere pleasant and low in bugs in BC generally has pretty poor employment prospects, many a Kootenay boy works in Fort Nelson or the like, my boss is one of them. Also a massive Kelowna representation at work, again because it's damn hard to make good money in the more populated (pretty) areas of the province. Check out Kitimat and Terrace too when you come hunting this fall. Beauty on a level that's hard to describe, but again limited work prospects depending what you do.
 
Pretty good,

Teck Coal is the biggest employer in the area with a couple thousand employees between here and the Elk Valley,
5 mines in total.

Keep checking their website for hiring opportunities.

We mine steelmaking coal with at least 100 years of coal reserves.
Average wages about $100,000 per year.

We've had a hiring freeze for the past year with commodity prices in the tank, but things are starting to pick up again.

There are hardly any mosquitos or black flies in this area either, I've only seen one or two mosquitos so far this year.
Great area for hunting, hiking and camping.
I stopped buying repellent 15 years ago when I moved down from northern BC.
 
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Ardent said:
Anywhere pleasant and low in bugs in BC generally has pretty poor employment prospects, many a Kootenay boy works in Fort Nelson or the like, my boss is one of them. Also a massive Kelowna representation at work, again because it's damn hard to make good money in the more populated (pretty) areas of the province. Check out Kitimat and Terrace too when you come hunting this fall. Beauty on a level that's hard to describe, but again limited work prospects depending what you do.
Click to expand...

Why does work have to get in the way of living the dream eh?!


The Outsider said:
Pretty good,

Teck Coal is the biggest employer in the area with a couple thousand employees between here and the Elk Valley,
5 mines in total.

Keep checking their website for hiring opportunities.

We mine steelmaking coal with at least 100 years of coal reserves.
Average wages about $100,000 per year.

We've had a hiring freeze for the past year with commodity prices in the tank, but things are starting to pick up again.

There are hardly any mosquitos or black flies in this area either, I've only seen one or two mosquitos so far this year.
Great area for hunting, hiking and camping.
I stopped buying repellent 15 years ago when I moved down from northern BC.
Click to expand...


I checked out some real estate on mls in Cranbrook and it seems very reasonable in comparing to where I live now. Mortgage free living or a very small mortgage seems within the possibility. Which would leave more room for more hunting!!
 
While you are checking out real estate do not forget the 100 Mile area (Cariboo, yes that is the correct spelling) for prices. 108 Mile Ranch is the subdivision outside 100 Mile and is very reasonable. You can get set up nicely for $200,000. Employment is not always easy here unfortunately. I agree that Cranbrook is hard to beat. I came out west in 76 and never looked back.
 
What are the prospects for some small acreage hunting property to put a cabin on in the east kootenays or are you better to just camp?
 
Tons available, but that's not even close to the best hunting in BC (while still decent and beautiful). If hunting was the focus rather than living, purely recreational, look at the North 6 and 7s.

Careful with basing the future on coal towns for now I'd caution, personal experience from Grande Cache. That town has collapsed as the mine closed from current prices, BC in all areas is floating high real estate wise, even the affordable places. A year or two from now you should see a decent drop as reality and commodities set in, except for perhaps the lower mainland due to Asian money.
 
It is a tough decision, the wife and I have decent jobs back here inq Ontario but I commute 200Km a day in to Toronto to make my living. This is not some I want to do forever and to be honest I really do not want to live in Southern Ontario for the rest on my life. The wife and I love the mountains and even got married there, plus I have an Aunt and uncle in Fernie which is one reason we are leaning that way. But it is hard to give up good stable jobs fir the unknown when you have two little ones to raise.
 
I have lived in the elk valley for all my life (35 years). The hunting here is great if you don't mind hiking and still decent if you just hunt the road like so many people do. Around Fernie, Sparwood and Elkford there is a lot of elk and mule deer, I find that "down south" towards Cranbrook and Kookanusa lake you can't drive down a road without seeing white tailed deer everywhere. Black bear are also numerous and I know few guys with dogs that hunt cougar. I don't hunt birds except for grouse (they are everywhere) and turkey (there is more every year).

As for towns, I agree Fernie is too yuppie and hippyish for me. Elkford is 20 mins away from the point that you can choose which way you want to go to do something (Sparwood). Cranbrook is personally too far for me to drive to work everyday and in winter the rock cuts between Fernie and Elko can be sketchy. House prices get better the further you get away from Fernie.

There is a great rod and gun club in Fernie with an exceptional outdoor range with around 200yards for rifle (250 if you shoot up the bank a bit, the bank is a mountain so no safety concern) small pistol range and excellent bow range. Sparwood has a decent outdoor range that is a little less used and not as nice. I am a member of both every year with fees at around 100 bucks a year it's very reasonable.

Hope that helps.
 
Elkford was the first place I ever stayed at in BC, I was 14 and we drove straight from the Calgary airport at night to Elkford. What a sight to see at first light, beautful mountains and deer walking down the mains street! Been in love with the mountains ever since.

This was my first trip to Sparwood as a younger man on my own with a couple close friends. I'm the smart guy in the middle.

 
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