Alinden Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 I am wondering if anyone has any experience with the BC Forestry service campsites that are all over BC. I am thinking of trying some out this year around Fernie and Cranbrook. Does anyone have any recommendations? Most of them are adjacent to river, creeks, stream, lake. So does anyone have experience fishing these more remote waters(I think or hope they are a little less used)? If BC's forestry service roads are anything like Alberta's FTR I would think they would make for a pretty sweet trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slingshotz Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 I've been to the Koocanusa campgrounds near Fernie and they were pretty good and much better maintained than the Alberta campgrounds, even though they are a bit of a zoo during long weekends. There's a few more private campsites at the smaller lakes near Koocanausa too. Great bass fishing on the fly. I venture to the more remote campgrounds north of Kamloops and they are incredible and usually the fishing is good since there's so much more water to choose from. I've been to some small campsites in BC where you basically have a private lake at your disposal since there's only one camping site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesG Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 I've been to some small campsites in BC where you basically have a private lake at your disposal since there's only one camping site I believe those are the ones he is refering to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trailhead Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 I have been to two of the BC Forest campsites, they are one step above (or below depending on who you are talking to) the random camping in Alberta. The park rangers come by more often to collect fees, when I went they had a big pile of firewood (don't know if that's the case anymore). There were also outhouses and a one had a water pump the other didn't. The more remote one was a bit of a gongshow, some of the campers had guns and they were shooting them at stuff. we only stayed the one night. The other one was quieter but we got a bit of a hard time because of our Alberta plates, so we stayed two nights. A lot of the ones around Cranbrook and Fernie are situated on classified water so you will need to have paid your daily fee, unless you are only going to fish the lakes. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alinden Posted May 6, 2010 Author Share Posted May 6, 2010 Do the sites get really busy? Having a lake to yourself sounds sweet! And I hate to ask can anyone recomend one? (not looking for secret spot just a good place to start exploring these sites) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trailhead Posted May 6, 2010 Share Posted May 6, 2010 Like I said it's kind of like the random camping in Alberta. In both instances when we camped at the two different sites it was a long weekend and both were packed. They didn't have defined sites, we just found a flat space to pitch our tents. The two spots we went to were Summer Lake, northwest of Fernie, and Kidney Lake which is north of Mabel Lake. It is advisable to have a 4X4, I used my truck and was lucky that it was dry because there are some real hairy spots on the forestry roads that go to these, especially Kidney Lake as we continued north when we left and hit the TransCanada around Three Valley Gap. In both cases we never caught any fish, really needed a boat or at least a belly boat, because of a lack of back casting room. It also was apparent that some people were set up for the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slingshotz Posted May 6, 2010 Share Posted May 6, 2010 Do the sites get really busy? Having a lake to yourself sounds sweet! And I hate to ask can anyone recomend one? (not looking for secret spot just a good place to start exploring these sites) I would check out the lakes around Jaffray, they are not that secret but at the same time not that convenient to get to so you won't get large crowds. There's also a provincial park up at Norbury but I've never been there so have no comment other than it looks like a nice place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesG Posted May 6, 2010 Share Posted May 6, 2010 I would check out the lakes around Jaffray, they are not that secret but at the same time not that convenient to get to so you won't get large crowds. There's also a provincial park up at Norbury but I've never been there so have no comment other than it looks like a nice place. The one time I camped at Norbury we pulled in and wondered why there was only 1 other person in the whole campground on a weekend. We found out right around sun down when the mosquitoes came out. They were as bad as in the northern ontario bush. You couldn't even sit outside even with bug spray on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastpoke Posted May 8, 2010 Share Posted May 8, 2010 Love them. We has used alot of these BC sites from Golden to Nelson and all points in between. And yes you can have a lake all to yourself at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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