I'm planning to relocate out west in a couple of months. I'm self-employed and can work from just about anywhere as long as my cell phone works. I am planning to head out there in a couple of weeks to visit some towns and would like to get some thoughts on those towns and/or suggestions of other places to check out.
I am a new paddler, but plan to continue so access to Class II/III and hopefully in the next year III/IV is important. Non-paddling things that are important:
Good singletrack
Good road biking, which isn't hard to find.
Skiing nearby would be nice
Access to organic foods
Reasonable housing
A great brewpub would be nice, but a good beer bar will do
A bike friendly community. Ideally I could live in a reasonable bike riding distance of everything.
No sprawl
Reasonable male:female ratio (I hear some mtn towns are very screwed up in this regard).
I'm undecided on size. I live a pretty nice city of about 250k people where I live walking distance from everything important, although I do have to drive 7 miles to do any mtn biking. I think I might be able to be happy in a much smaller town, but probably something around 100k would be a good balance.
Places I'm thinking about visiting based on reading with a heavy influence from Outside magazine's best places to live in the last few years:
Sailda, CO
Crested Butte, CO
Gunnison, CO
Golden, CO
Ft. Collins, CO
Helen, MT
Missoula, MT
Coeur D'Alene, ID
Spokane, WA
Moscow, ID
Boise, ID
The list is a little CO heavy, but that's because I've been around there a good bit and have friends in Denver.
If you think there are other places worth looking at or have comments on any of these places let me know. I appreciate any help.
What about Durango? Not that I want anyone else to move here, but I have to stick up for my hometown.
We're between two ski resorts, 45 min and an hour away respectively; there are tons of roadbikers here who love themselves, even if they aren't universally loved by the town; 5 minutes to about ten mtn bike trails; 30 minutes to hundreds more; Class III run right through town with good play waves (and supposedly a park in the works); Class IV and V runs within 30 minutes and several others within 4 hours.
2 health food stores, tons of hippies, and 4 different breweries!
Oh- and there are more available girls here than guys- if that's what you're into.
try jackson, WY... or JXN to the rest of the world. This valley could always use another new person who works from their phone. dont worry about all the fucking snobby assholes they are only here once in a while and dont represent the dirt bags that all moved away. Skiing, check- cycling, check- mtns, check- elitist fucks- check Good luck and get a mouthpiece
If you are into chicks.. anywhere in the mountains is out of the question.. Except as 3d says I would totally live in Jackson regardless of the ratio. Despite what some might say Boulder is a fun college town with all that you are looking for.. (even the guy/girl ratio) affordable rent and living wise, entry level single family home will cost you though.
of the ones you list, i would choose gunny, fort collins, or missoula. each has its plusses and minuses, and each is very livable in my opinion. to put it another way - we've decided that if we leave fort collins (unlikely at this point), it will be for one of those two towns.
Monticello, Utah. It's right up against the Abajo Mountains, close to Canyonlands, up the road from the San Juan River. And there are scads of Mormon chicks who want to enter into plural marriage. The downside? You have to buy the required "magic underwear" from the LDS Church and cough up 10% of your net income to support the church. But those Mormon girls have really cool hairdos and those unbelievably sexy Little House on the Prairie dresses.
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