Red Cedar

So, we’re at it again with the attempts to find and purchase a little piece of recreation land (with a group of people) – and we have another potential property that looks very promising! Just four hours from Vancouver, it is a 35 acre parcel in a popular summer area, with a trailer, sleeping cabin and outhouse on it already – and a great zoning for the kind of mini-development we want to do. Plus! Services! Well water, electricity and community wireless (not to mention sewer and telephone) are all available on this property. And! It has a beautiful, fish-bearing creek running through it, evidence of elk, moose and deer populations, and views of hills all around. Oh – plus it’s on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail (like right across the road from it).

B. and I went and checked out some properties in the area (Princeton) on Saturday, and we’re pretty convinced that this one has all the attributes that people involved in this venture have said they want – with one caveat. Level building sites. (And by building site I mean one-room cabin, or tent/yurt pad)….. which are restricted by the fact of the beautiful wetland that runs in the center of the property. There are probably four good building sites on level ground which meet the riparian regs.  On the other hand, there is a graded slope (a replanted cutblock) which could be leveled into “steps” for preparing sites, or could be worked with in terms of building into the slope and using supports to balance the front.

(I already have mapped out exactly where I want to build the pad for our tent (eventually yurt) on the slope – which would promise incredible views of the whole valley and the beautiful creek below. My imagination, it’s a churning.)

I also think there might be some other potential sites up-top of the old logging road that runs into the property, but since we didn’t realize that was included in the land when we looked at it, we didn’t explore up there at all.

It’s definitely a quirkly piece of land, but at the rate we want to spend, it’s what we might expect – and it has the advantages of being beautiful, hot in the summer, snowy in the winter, and close to lots of recreational activity. Plus it’s in the ALR so taxes are dirt cheap, and there are no neighbours on either side (one across the road, that’s it).

Essentially, I’m crazy about this strange little wetland with its possibilities. Now we just have to find enough people with $15,000 who want to join the Everton Wilderness Society and own a little piece of something like this too. We’re hoping to get several parties who can put in an initial investment of the whole amount, but are also willing to consider taking a loan for the remainder for folks who prefer/require a “rent-to-own” option over several years.

At the moment I’m having a hard time believing we can get enough people together on this – and simultaneously challenged by an imagination that won’t let go. It’s not every property that does this to me. And while I can see that this land is not straightforward to work with, it’s completely reasonable for what we want to do, and in our price range (owing to the fact of not being an easily-developed lot).

If you know me and are reading this – interested in a getaway for sunning, swimming, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, boating, mountain-biking, hiking, and general communal building of a retreat – please send me a private message and I’ll fill you in on further details.