Prince George

Prince George has served as home base for most of our hunting exploits. It also serves as home. Joel was born there, and Ryan has called this Northern B.C. town home all his life. 

This crossroads mill town, as Joel’s dad once called it, is situated at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers, between the Northern and Southern portions of the Rocky Mountain Trench. It is the homeland of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, whose very name means "people of the confluence of the two rivers." It is, indeed, a crossroads town, as it is an intersection of wild adventures that stretch out to the Pacific in the West, The Yukon and Alaska to the North and the Rockies to the East. 

In some ways, it’s a hard place to write about. No question, at times Prince George has also been a hard town. PG, as it’s often called, is, with the exception of Autumn’s brilliance, not a very pretty town either (if I’m being honest). That, however, is where its critique ends. Hidden only short drives from the downtown core are lakes, rivers, fishing spots, hunting, hiking and wide-open spaces. Expansive and heavy skies rest on hay pastures at the farthest reaches on if its boundaries. Its spirit is hard work, helping your friends and spending time with family — because in the North, you band together. And like the brilliant and bright Spring that ultimately bursts forth from long dark winters, so, too, does the revitalization of its business, restaurant and cafe scene. 

Our post-hunt haunts include Nancy O’s and North 54 Restaurant and Bar. The Book Man is a quirky cafe that holds its own with coffee shops the world over, as does Trench Brewing with their craft offerings.  

It’s here that we have skinned and prepped our own harvested game while local butchers, who know their way around the wild game, handle the rest. 

PG is no longer the small town it once was; you’re not going to find the small-town life you may crave here. That said, it’s a wonderful compromise between a metropolis and the precious remanent of that small-town charm that still carries through  all these years later.

With so many of our wilderness adventures beginning and ending here, we always look forward to experiencing the best of Prince George’s continuous transformation and its wistful sense of home.