Originally Posted by
Devilbear
My experience in dealing with Leif Olsen was just after he and his partner, bought SM from Dave Wiens, this was in early 2005, IIRC. I phoned to enquire about hunts for residents and he was both very polite and receptive and sent me a brochure, which I may still have among my papers.
My buddy and I then went on a trip from Vancity to Prince, then to Terrace, Stewart, Dease, Muncho, Nelly and south then into Alberta. I mentioned this to Leif in the call and he invited us to stay at their " bed and breakfast", which I would have, however, my buddy wanted to stay in Nelly. My impression of the Olsens is like Gate's, very nice people and legal landed-immigrants who may now be Canadian citizens.
Barry Thompkins of "High and Wild" IS a Canadian and has an outstanding reputation in the hunting industry; while his business may have some American investment, it is still a Canadian firm and he did and may still offer the sort of "transporter" services to which I referred.
Larry Warren of "Tuchodi Outfitters" was very pleasant to me on the phone and he did offer exactly the sort of "transporter" situations I wanted, but, my buddy did not want to go and I am not going to go alone, shoot a Moose or Elk and then lose the bulk of the meat to a Grizzly due to being inable to backpack it all out quickly. I have no idea if Larry was/is a native Canuck or not, but, he was very highly recommended by the wife of a head guide for Barry and I would trust her word on this.
The facts are that some Americans have immigrated to BC as have some Germans, etc. and have legally entered the GO industry; these people LIVE HERE all year, obtain Canadian citizenship and at that point, they have the same rights as any among us. The foreign ownership issue is a separate one to this and dragging it in here hardly assists the OP, but, then, that is not the purpose behind doing so........
I am merely suggesting here, that one of the three GO's I mentioned might be the best over-all option for a group who wants to hunt that area as the logistics are much more simple and I would think that you can make a contractual agreement with them that will keep both you and them happy.
With the US economy where it is, I suspect that many GOs will be dammed glad to have resident's patronage and, as their quotas are reduced and they WILL be, such arrangements will benefit all concerned.
I had a really interesting offer from an EK GO a couple of years ago and may well make a contract with him for "unguided" hunting in a year or two. There is "more than one way to skin a cat"...........