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Poor Man’s Four Wheel Drive and Tent

poor1Many years ago, on a sunny fall Sunday morning, when both of my two sons were still very young, I decided to take my wife and sons fishing for the day. I was living in north central British Columbia at the time and a friend had told me about a serene, but remote, lake with lots of hungry, one pound trout, about 100 miles south west of Prince George. My friend also had told me that this lake was fairly inaccessible and that the only possible way to drive in there was with a 4-wheel drive vehicle,

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BC recreational market is hot, but investors must buy carefully

Frank O’Brien, Western Investor, June 2, 2007

Rudy Nielsen, considered the largest individual owner and developer of recreational land in British Columbia, has been choppering above the province this year searching for prime real estate deals.

While the legendary investor remains bullish on the future of BC’s recreational real estate, he said research is more important today than ever.

The founder and president of NIHO Land &

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Emergency Food Sources- How to Catch a Grouse

Grouse1What if you are in an emergency situation in the middle of nowhere, with no weapon available, and find that you need to eat something to survive? Out in the wild, there are many food sources available. All you need to do is look. While porcupine has traditionally been an old trapper standby, their numbers have steadily diminished over the past several years. The next best thing though, is the grouse. They are a common bird to find in the back country,

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Getaway Prices Go Way Up

Frank Luba, Vancouver Province, May 2, 2007

Lots of baby boomers have lots of money and they’re buying lots of recreational property for, you guessed it, lots more money.

That’s the bottom line in the 2007 RE/MAX Recreational Property Report issued yesterday.

The realty company surveyed 39 markets from Newfoundland to B.C. and found starting recreational prices topping $500,000 in 31 of those locales.

Just seven of the markets surveyed had waterfront property available for less than $250,000.

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Rising Demand Boosts Property Values

Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, May 2, 2007

In the market for a waterfront cabin on Windermere Lake? It will set you back about $2.5 million, if you can find one, according to Re/Max Realty’s latest recreational property report, which makes the east Kootenays resort spot the most expensive recreational property in Canada.

The catch, added Invermere realtor Wende Brash, is that lakefront is extremely rare — maybe two or three 50- to 75-foot lots will sell in a year.

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Flare Guns & Forest Fires

flare1Many years ago, I bought a number of 160 acre parcels sight unseen on the northern part of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. These properties were very remote and inaccessible by road. To view them, I would either have to take a helicopter to the properties or hike into the properties and spend a few nights under the stars which, while I prefer, I did not have time for. For about 15 years, I did not have time to travel to these properties,

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Lands taken from tree farm licenses

Wendy Stueck, Globe & Mail,  February 2, 2007

VANCOUVER — With the removal of some of its privately owned lands from provincial tree-farm licences, Duncan-based Western Forest Products Inc. now has the right to subdivide and sell wooded properties that in some cases are within an hour’s drive of Victoria.

And although those parcels account for a small portion of the lands freed up under an agreement with the province this week,

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Meet B.C.’s new paper millionaires

Derrick Penner, CanWest News Services – Victoria Times-Colonist, January 4, 2007

The number of real-estate millionaires in British Columbia’s skyrocketing real estate market nearly doubled in 2006.

Data from the 2007 B.C. property assessments, crunched by Landcor Data Corp., shows that B.C. is home to 51,059 properties valued at over $1 million.

That figure was 26,557 in 2006.

The biggest group of new paper millionaires were homeowners.

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Chilcotin Fly Fishing

fly1On a crisp fall morning last October, with the golden red leaves from the poplar trees reflecting on a calm, slightly misty lake, I took off for a four day fishing trip accompanied by a good friend, a master fly fisherman who has fished in many good streams around the world, and his nine year old son. We flew directly from Nimpo Lake, located in the Chilcotin, to Euchiniko Lake, which is part of Blackwater River system,

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House Millionaires double in the province

Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, January 4, 2007

The number of real-estate millionaires in B.C.’s real estate market nearly doubled in 2006.

Data from the 2007 property assessments, crunched by Landcor Data Corp., shows that B.C. is home to 51,059 residential properties valued at more than $1 million.

That figure was 26,557 in 2006.

Most new paper millionaires own single-family houses. There are 38,027 such homes worth more than $1 million according to 2007 property assessments —

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