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Looking to move west
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Posted by: Mildred Hubble---------------------
Hi I am just about ready to graduate here in PA, and I am looking to move out west. I want to be near the Rockies. I am looking for a place with lots of riding and racing around, good places to ski in the winter, and i would like the traveling distances to be shorter than about 2 1/2 hours. So how about it, are there any die hard skiers and racers out there who know of the perfect place to live? I have been thinking about Wyoming, Colarodo, Idaho, and Utah. What do you think?
Posted by: BEEF706---------------------
We weren't on your list , but you might consider N.M.. this year our ski season blows, but the riding has been phenominal. Taos is as good as anywhere for an aggresive skier(and I have skied all over the USA and most of Europe) As far as racers check out the 125 supercross results for the N.M. mafia (Ivan Tedesco, Isaiah, Kieth and Kevin Johnson, and Justin Bukalew, Ryan Clark and sometimes Travis Hodges in the 250s) The moto scene is not bad here and there are lots of desert races. I have a bro.-inlaw in CO and their racing is better in the summer and there are sure some of the best mountains in the world there, but he isn't riding this weekend and I am.(snow) 
Posted by: DirtFamily---------------------
How about Denver area (or even Loveland/Fort Collins)....there's lots of riding in the Woodland Park/Rampart Range area (within an hour of Denver) and skiing 1-2 hours away including Keystone/Breckenridge. What's your major?
Katie
Posted by: zilla---------------------
- Dirt biking: right out my back door on a few million acres of BLM land.
- Boating\fishing:Flaming Gorge is a half hour away
- Skiing: Park City is 2 hours on I-80, Jackson Hole is about 3 hours.
- Backpacking: Wind River Wilderness is about an hour and a half away.
- Sno-machiniing: Anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours
need I say more?
zilla
Posted by: a454elk---------------------
Zilla, a little off topic but I remember going goose hunting in Flaming Gorge when I was a kid living in Casper! Thanks for the memories.
Elk
Posted by: DirtFamily---------------------
Can you give directions to riding in the Medicine Bow area? Someone said they already posted that awhile ago, but I can't find it.
I think we ended up there when we were riding up in the Hahn's Peak area.....we got to a gnarly section and in the middle of nowhere pops up a sign saying "Wyoming"! 
Katie
Posted by: zilla---------------------
dropped ya a line
Posted by: Rodzilla---------------------
Hey Zil or Katie forward that on to me.
Katie did yo ride/see the blowdown up there!
Rod
Posted by: weimedog---------------------
Last fall we moved from the Berthoud Colorado area to New York State....it worked out better than we all expected.
Colorado is expensive as hell to live in relative to other states. Even the NYS taxes aren't as bad as we expected.
My family and I used to make that trek from Berthoud to the Medicine Bow National Forest for a weekend of riding horses and motorcycles on a regular basis. The best place to go there to dip the toe in the water from Loveland is as follows:
287 North to Laramie I80 exit. Take I80 one exit west to the 130-230 exit. Take 130 west until you see 130 head to the right and 230 go left. (A fork in the road so to speak just past the KTM dealer) Take 230 West about 45 minutes past woodslanding to a place called Wycolo. A little group of buildings on the right (north) side of the road. About 100 yards west of Wycolo there is a large parking lot on the north side of the road. Thats were you want to be. At either end of the parking lot are roads that take you off into the riding areas. There are tons of trails back in there for all levels of riding. We used to drive back in there a mile or so to a favorite camp site and hang out for a few days.
Also that burger place in Woodslanding serves awesome burgers ...freindly folks.
If you go too far past "Wycolo", 230 runs into "Mountain Home" on the Colorado border.
From that Wycolo parking lot there are trails on either side of the road. It could take a few years to find them all.
WHATEVER you do, bring a GPS system and a good set of maps.
For a person just getting out of school, living out of town can be just too damn expensive unless you can rent or coop with some one.
Lots of work out there for certain types of skills.
Golden is where I would start for a mix of mountain/riding/ski activities along with a really neet town. Rampart range is close by and the ski aea's are within reason.
Posted by: DirtFamily---------------------
Check your PM......
Also, John wants to talk about KTMs, but isn't online all day long like we are! LOL
email: tekteem@aol.com
Katie
Posted by: DirtFamily---------------------
Sounds like a Medicine Bow trip this summer! :confused:
Katie
Posted by: DirtFamily---------------------
I keep thinking of more things to say......sheeesh
Rod, I think I'll send John to the GPS class!!
Posted by: bbbom---------------------
One thing I've learned after living in NM, AZ, NV, WA and traveling all over the states is that every place has it's good & bad.
Best thing to do is see what locations can offer you employment in your field and decide from there because even the greatest place in the world isn't so great if you can't get work.
Posted by: zilla---------------------
I always leave from what I've been told is Albany. Not much there, but I park in the sno-mo park lot. The road is called "The Snowy Range" road an heads toward Centennial but you turn off before that. The KTM dealer is called Elite motors.. There is a railroad headed out there and it loops back at Albany. You need a guide or a map as I always get confused there.. Trails everywhere and loads of trees.
zilla
Posted by: zilla---------------------
I tried to PM ya but got thte message that your message center is full. Drop me an e-mail if you still need the info.
zilla
Posted by: OnAnySunday---------------------
The perfect place to live?
Dont think it exists. :D
But whats the matter -w- where your at?
I dont want to sound like a wet towel, but Pa. is pretty cool!
How do i know? Im from the Clearfield / Altoona / State College area.
Moved over here to the N.W. corner of NewMexico about 5 years ago.
I thought: "WOW this is gonna be way cool! ALL this great offroading area!"
Dont get me wrong, its not bad. Better in someways, worse in others.
IMHO i sorta see it as Quality (Pa.) vs Quantity (NM).
Theres much more AREA to ride here, but theres no variety.
The places i used to ride in Pa. had hillclimb areas, motox track, mudbogs, shalepiles, miles and miles of wooded trails, etc all within 15-30 min.s of each other. By BIKE. No need to load up to get to another section or area.
o.k. , so they werent official BLM trails, but i was never bothered by any land owners or anything.
The problem -w- the west is things are so dang FAR APART.
Im told that Rampart in Co. is great, and that there are some cool riding areas in Cloudcroft NM.
If you dont mind driving 3-4 hours one way.
The glade run trail system here in the "4 corners area" is nice, but sometimes boring. Sandy trails -w- miles and miles of "whoops". An occasional hillclimb.
I guess it depends on what your used to, and what kind of bike you have.
I would suggest a trip to the places your interested in first.
Talk to some of the local bikers, rent a bike, or bring your own.
Try it out before you move.
Why did i do it?
My wife lives here, and talked me into it.
And yea, i do like it. But i sure miss those good ol days back in Pa........
PS: have you ever skied at "BlueKnob" over by StateCollege??
Posted by: weimedog---------------------
One of the best guys to go with /get info from relative to trailriding (If you can get him to) is Bradley the owner of Fun Wheels in Longmont Colorado. His GPS can down load data to overlay over US Forest Service maps....after a ride we would do just that to get a clue where we were when trail breaking. He would print them out and I would use them on my rides when I didn't have the a GPS with one of my kids.
We would just strike out in a direction for a while and let the GPS help us back. He has maps and GPS tracking data from our rides over those maps.
Just getting him to show you what he knows about where to ride is worth a trip from Loveland to Longmont is you are planning to do a trip up there.
( The best way to have the flexibility to live where you want is to have the ability to run your own business or the sales/marketing skills to start one...many can be done anywhere there are people. Anyone can do it...its a game of statistics )
Posted by: weimedog---------------------
On Any Sunday actually is right. There are many places in Pennsylvania to ride that are actually more than a match of Rampart Range and the National Forests in Colorado/Wyoming. Look at the NE Spode fest and there are some places coming to our attention that have thousands of acres to ride in with all types of terrain. Another thing about Colorado is the average person who controls acrage is way more territorial out there. Something about the Cowboy way or whatever. Places to ride are National Forests, MX Parks like VDR Berthoud, Erie, and MIlliken, and private land if you have the right kind of freinds. Lots of variety if you are willing to drive. Awesome places if you want to drive a long way. Same as out here.
Actually VDR is under pressure As the town of Berthoud and Johnstown would like to use their area to develop because its right near I-25 and could be like the Longmont 119 exit. Big tax potential. As one town council member said to me a while back, its only a matter of time.
For riding, Pennsylvania has much more than we anticipated. New York is much like Colorado. Lots of MX parks, "ride until you get chased off" mentality in the State Parks, and private land. To talk to the average New Yorker and NYS is the definition of riding hell. But I grew up in New York. Raced out in District 6 and 34 from the early 70's until the late 80's. When I moved to Colorado the only place I knew to ride for a long time was VDR as the private land was all posted and they didn't want dirtbikes....over time after running into folks I discovered if I was willing to drive there are excellent riding area's some of the best anywhere....but if I was willing to drive there were places like that in New York, PA, Conn and any other place I've lived.
Sometimes grass is really the same color on the other side of the fence. Its not bad out here in NYS. Better in PA I think. :confused:
Posted by: DirtFamily---------------------
Quote:
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One of the best guys to go with /get info from relative to trailriding (If you can get him to) is Bradley the owner of Fun Wheels in Longmont Colorado.
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Thanks for the info!! Will check it out!
Katie
Posted by: Mildred Hubble---------------------
Thanks for all the replys, I really appriciate it. I am in my last summester at Slippey Rock University and I will graduate with an Applied Science degree with a Math minor, I also have an associates degree in Profesional Piloting from Beaver Community College. Now I am finaly looking at getting out in the real world after 155 credits and 4 years.
I need a break and I just want to take a few years to be a ski and motorcycle bum untill aviation starts to pick back up, and I am ready to move on. I am just looking for a new atmosphere. I did fly all around the country a while back while working on my instrument rating, so I have been to a lot of these places I just wanted to hear what you guys, avid dirtbikers, had to say.
I really like the idea of liveing in South Western Wyoming. What are the trails like, tight, open, rocky, muddy,... On the other end, one of my freinds loves it iin Nevada. I am sure where ever I go I will find good riding, and I am young still and not tied down so I can always move. Thanks again.
Posted by: zilla---------------------
I'll try to give ya an idea of the riding around here. The elevation in Rock Springs is 6250 Ft at my house. We are in the high desert just off the continental divide. The riding is mostlly open with areas of Junipers trails (called cedars by the locals). There is a lot of open BLM land here. Lots of sagebrush. Tons of wildlife. Here's a link to a pic of Rock Springs looking from one of the local trails here. This is a great place for dirtbikes as there are trails everywhere. Probably not what easterners would call tight, but some by our standards are "Tight" most are fairly open . A few rocks, not much mud, but some sand .. It varies.. All I can say is if you like dirt bikes you'll love this place.
zilla
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