We are about a year away from starting our move, after nearly twenty years in Southeast I am ready to leave the humidity behind!
So, here are our criteria:
Employment: We are both nurse practitioners, so we need a sufficient base population to support our jobs. A greater MSRA of 100,000 - 150,000 is minimum, a bigger town or small city within a MSRA would work fine.
Three Season Recreation: I ride year round now, so this is not something I want to give up, though I also want to be near skiiing, so I expect to have some compromise. Ideally I’d be within reasonable driving distance to ride during the winter with easy access to riding the other three seasons.
Winter Recreation: I want good access to backcountry skiing, lift access is fine if it happens to be around, but I prefer to hike for my turns. A longer season is great, but that requires big mountains and a Northern latitude, so I’d like to balance that with my wife’s “weather related needs”.
The Weather, V.1: Mrs Nurse Ben is a southern belle, so cold and dark is not going to work out for my lovely bride, so there needs to be sun if it’s gonna be cold or it needs to be warm if it’s gonna be wet. Where we live now, it rains > 60" a year, but the temps are moderate, so even though we stay pretty wet, the winters are mild; not so for the summers where it gets hot and humid enough to bake my brain!
The Weather V.2: I want less rain, so maybe half as much rain or less yet, though I don’t really want to live in a desert; I like trees. I do not like humidity, it makes it hard to breathe and allergies are awful, so rain >10 and <30 inches a year is good for me.
The Community: We are quite liberal, outdoor/tree hugger/social activist oriented, so we’d prefer a more liberal location, though an outpost of liberalism in a conservative state is workable. An active outdoor community with bikers, runners, and skiiers who like to work for their fun. Coffee shops, quaint stores, good food, healthfood grocers, etc…
Here’s where we’re looking, feel free to comment, pros cons from “real experience”, no heresay, we’re especially interested in weather related issues like year round riding, how cold or hot does it feel, etc… and extra credit if you can compare it to other places you know.
For comparison sake I have lived in the Bay Area (too many people), Truckee (not bad, gets kinda snow bound), Reno (it has seen better days), Eugene (really rainy and poor bike trail access), Blacksurg (nice small town, too far East), and Knoxville (get me outta this place!).
Short List:
Ashland, OR
Bend, OR
Durango, CO
Corvallis, OR
Flagstaff, AZ
Eureka, CA
Long List:
Eugene
Boulder
Ft Collins
San Luis Obispo
Long Long List:
Portland
Salt Lake
