Best place in Ontario where a young family can live and enjoy the outdoors

[rick_iles]

Ok you got me on that one...

However we have giant Steel head & brown trout fishing out of Wheatley in the summer that is hot & your arms will be sore by the end of the day... LOL

Yea, and we don't have to dress up in a funny hat, vest and rubber pants to catch a ton of fish !!!

[Species8472]

Caught in a few snow storms have you? My version on southern Ontario is it starts about 2 miles past Sudbury.

No storms involved. Just lots of traffic and too much construction. And if we want to be truly accurate Northern Ontario actually starts north of a line between Red Lake on the west and Moosonee on the east.

[Bushmoose]

No storms involved. Just lots of traffic and too much construction. And if we want to be truly accurate Northern Ontario actually starts north of a line between Red Lake on the west and Moosonee on the east.

"Too much construction"? Jumpin gesus Man! The 15 minutes you might be stuck in a line up here for road work, doesn't even come close to the hours spent locked in on the 400 north?

[Species8472]

"Too much construction"? Jumpin gesus Man! The 15 minutes you might be stuck in a line up here for road work, doesn't even come close to the hours spent locked in on the 400 north?

Don't know how Hwy 400 is relevant. It's nowhere near the areas of southern Ontario I referenced in comparison. All the roads I travel in southern Ontario to/from and around my hunting grounds never have a wait time anywhere close to 15 minutes. The 400 corridor is basically an extension of the GTA which you seem to repeated confuse with the rest of southern Ontario.

Your perception that southern Ontario is a crazy busy place with no peace is only true for the GTA and the primary corridors leading to/from the GTA. Most of southern Ontario, while not wilderness is actually pretty quiet and has some pretty good hunting and fishing.

My camp for example has frontage on a river that I can fly fish for trout. Over the last 4 Canada Day long weekends I have fished the entire weekend and in those 4 years have only ever seen one other person on the river.

[x_xeon_x]

Well Bushmoose having lived in the Soo for a few years I can say that my votes with you on this. Hunting around the Soo is a bit hit or miss though. Bear hunting is top notch, deer hunting is alright depending on where you go, moose is impossible to get a tag for but you're already far enough north that the drive isn't as bad, small game like grouse is alright, waterfowl can be good. The fishing around the Soo is much better than the hunting though. You have the Soo rapids, LSPP is 2hrs away for some practically untouched trout fishing, if you've got a sled there are a ton of great lakes that are easily accessible in the winter, Lake Superior and Huron are right there, the list goes on. You've got an OK university and college there, Lake State Uni is across the river, Laurentian in Sudbury. There is a new hospital in the Soo I think. The US border is right there and I'm sure the schools are OK.

Best of all, there is very little fishing and hunting pressure once you're off the trail.

But good luck getting your family to move way up north, that'll need some serious convincing.

[Bushmoose]

Well Bushmoose having lived in the Soo for a few years I can say that my votes with you on this. Hunting around the Soo is a bit hit or miss though. Bear hunting is top notch, deer hunting is alright depending on where you go, moose is impossible to get a tag for but you're already far enough north that the drive isn't as bad, small game like grouse is alright, waterfowl can be good. The fishing around the Soo is much better than the hunting though. You have the Soo rapids, LSPP is 2hrs away for some practically untouched trout fishing, if you've got a sled there are a ton of great lakes that are easily accessible in the winter, Lake Superior and Huron are right there, the list goes on. You've got an OK university and college there, Lake State Uni is across the river, Laurentian in Sudbury. There is a new hospital in the Soo I think. The US border is right there and I'm sure the schools are OK.

Best of all, there is very little fishing and hunting pressure once you're off the trail.

But good luck getting your family to move way up north, that'll need some serious convincing.

No worries there for me? Lived up here all my life and the family is more than happy to call this "HOME" Just can't convince those that don't have a clue? Geez, did I say they're clueless outloud? Shame....

[Species8472]

Bushmoose - Just to be clear I am not saying that Southern Ontario is a better place to live than the north shore with respect to hunting, fishing and outdoor activities. My point is that much of it is not the hectic rat race that you make out to be and while certainly different than the north shore there are areas with excellent hunting and fishing as my freezer will attest to.

Believe it or not, in addition to hunting our camp, I hunted public land in Southern Ontario this season 7 or 8 times including the first and last day of rifle for deer and never crossed paths with another soul. If your definition of clueless means possession limits of numerous types of fish, small game, upland, and filling my deer tag plus 2 additional deer tags - than I am in.

[Bluebulldog]

Well now.

I currently am looking at options, and planning for the next step in life. I love where I live in Orangeville, but being further away from the GTA is on the list.

The two places that my wife and I are in agreement on are North Bay, and Peterborough. For the same reasons. Proximity to all amenities and services. Out of the hustle and bustle of the GTA. Excellent proximity to the great outdoors. I lean a bit towards Peterborough, since I already have a cottage near Sharbot Lake. My wife leans towards North Bay, since she has family nearby.

Looking at housing prices is important, as is reviewing what services are available. If you're a work at home guy, I'm assuming you use the internet quite a bit, so it's imperative that you look and see where high speed is available, and research how good / bad / inconsistent it may be.

[superhunterguy]

hey bushmoose, i think your being prety smug. species is right. southrn ontario is more then just toronto. U ever been down here?

[skull]

I lived here in sudbury for the past 30 years lots of work with all the mines around here. Hospital alone employes 4000 people, now theres a school of architectuire coming up
the nice thing is with 3-4 hours of driving i can be as far north or as far south i want to be
We have big university and a college
House Price around 300,000 that's an average house
Hunting I will say good for bears good for moose OK for everything else
Good luck on your search

Oh yeah and if you work from home I just got installed fiber optic Internet it just amazing