Sandpoint Area Rural Land Question (Pack River Area?) (purchase, property taxes)

[Old Fat Hillbilly]

Hello!

Me and the family are looking at permanently relocating to the Sandpoint area and have some questions for y'all about a particular area.......from Sandpoint the land is a little bit past the Pack River General Store out on Rapid Lightning Road and then left up Rolling Thunder Ridge Road about one mile. I believe the elevation of the particular piece of land is 2900 ft.

We ran into a local who was very helpful and told us a ton of info......one of the things he told us is that this year was very mild and that they (neighbors to the property we are looking at) recieved just over 10 ft (120 inches) of snow and that last year they recieved 27 ft (324 inches) of snow and most winters are easily over 20 ft (240 inches) of snow. Now according to the numbers Sandpoint recieves 72 inches of snow a year......that is a far cry from 'well over 240 and often over 300 inches'...especially when we are talking about only 900 foot difference in elevation.

Are the numbers that this fella was talking about accurate?

Now please understand we are not scared of snow and that is actually one of our reasons for wanting to move to Idaho is to have long snowy winters again. And if these numbers are accurate, that doesn't even mean that we are no longer interested in the property; we just want to know for sure what we are getting ourselves into so we can be properly prepared.

Any help from anyone familiar with this area would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks for your time.

[brokencrayola]

All I can say is whoever told you that was not being truthful, there is no way we get that kind of snow here. This was a mild winter, but those figures are way off.

[flatlander dave]

that is a bit of a snow belt. they may have received that much snow but not all at once. i live northwest of that area and we typically get 2-3 times snow as bonners or sandpoint. we probably got 8-10 feet snow this year, dec. we got about 2 1/2 feet in couple days then rain that melted it. Be careful of access to the property. Is it on a county road or private ?

[Clark Fork Fantast]

OFH, I assume you've been to the area and have a first-hand impression of the details. We looked for property up in that direction in 2008, and I have to say that of all the places I saw, the Pack River area had the absolute worst access roads! The potholes were wider than the road itself . There was a property we gave up looking at (in our realtor's massive 4wd SUV) because the road was an obstacle course. So just keep that in mind. It could be that your specific area has had its roads improved since then.

PS I just looked up your area on Google Earth. The elevation looks to be between 2500 and 2600 ft, if it's just a mile up Rolling Thunder Ridge. I have a vague recollection of the property we wanted to see being up Coyote Creek Ln. Anyway, it was up in that general area. Loved the area--just not the access road! Rapid Lightning was in good condition, though.

[Old Fat Hillbilly]

Thanks for the replies, very much appreciated!

FD...yup, he was talking about for the whole season and he said the same as you in regards to this year, he said they just barely broke 10 ft of snow. He said that he keeps close eye on the amount of snow they get and he certainly seemed to be on top of everything.

Also, it is a private road. The neighbors furthur back plow to within about 2/5'ths of a mile from the property, and at that point the road starts going downhill at a mild angle for the remaining 2/5 ths of a mile and finally bottoming/leveling out at the property. The fella said that he was very, very concerned about the road this year because of the double break up the road has washed out real bad in a lot of places.

CFF....yes sir, that bout sums up the road conditions there! lol. We hiked into the property, but we definitely want to get back out there and take a harder look at it. Any other info you might have about that area in regards to any and all things would be extremely appreciated bud! We are looking to purchase our "this is the land we will one day die on" property, so we are trying to look at all angles. One thing that greatly surprises me about that area is the cost of property and the amount of property tax....I won't even get into opening that bag of worms because I am very strongly opinionated in that area...but I will say that it greatly chaps my backside to think of paying the county well over 1000 bucks a year in property taxes on a house, when the county does not even plow the damn road for me to get to the house!

Thanks again for y'alls time!

p.s......The fella that we ran into that gave us the info was a God-send, super helpful and definitely seemed like he would make the best neighbor in the world! Just wanted to double check the numbers and see if he was mistaken and maybe going off the numbers way way up on the top of the mountain range or something of that nature.

[Sage of Sagle]

OFH,

If you're thinking of the Pack River area and you don't come visit in winter to be SURE you have reasonable access, you're plumb crazy. Honestly. Several people in that area have all sorts of access issues during the winter...it can really vary parcel to parcel. ANY narrow or winding roadway or ANY road that parallels or crosses moving water bears the potential for real issues.

[mistyriver]

We used to drive that road fairly frequently in all seasons up to BackWoods Solar before they relocated down next to the Pack River store. I've never seen or heard of that area getting that much snow but if you want to be sure, call the people there. They're very helpful and while the Willey's (who live way up on Rolling Thunder no longer own it, most of the folks there worked for them while they did and spent lots of time up there.
Backwoods Solar Electric Systems

[Old Fat Hillbilly]

thank you, I will call em on Monday!

[mistyriver]

Uh...I just mentioned this to my husband and he said we'd only been up there in good weather in winter and the road can be really awful in bad winter weather. My memory appears to have been selective.