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Best Bike Park City

colton

Monkey
May 20, 2007
126
0
If you had a choice, what downhill oriented town in North America would you live in? Ideally it would be a town with a bike park that is lift operated. I ride Angel Fire Bike Park all summer here in New Mexico, but it seems like the town of Angel Fire would be a difficult one to live in with relatively few places to rent. I would ideally like to live in the pacific northwest (that includes Northern California, Oregon, Washington, West Canada).

I thought I saw a thread with a list of all of the lift operated bike parks somewhere on ridemonkey but I can’t seem to find it when I search. That would be an excellent reference for me. I also would like it to be a town that has work available. I’m going to be graduating from college in August with a bachelor’s in civil engineering so that might help.

Thanks for any advice.
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,928
14,450
where the trails are
Denver area has 3-4 lift served mountains, plus tons of DJ spots and trail riding all (potentially) within a reasonable drive. Life is good, riding is great and the economy isn't sucking here.
 

boogenman

Turbo Monkey
Nov 3, 2004
4,290
973
BUFFALO
I would say Denver. Great weather plus what nick said. Outside of New York City is also pretty good, you have mountain creek very close, Plath not much farther and then a whole bunch within a few hours(mt snow, killing ton, whiteface ect)
 

dfinn

Turbo Monkey
Jul 24, 2003
2,129
0
SL, UT
Yup, reading is hard. Totally missed that in the title and read "town" in the body of his thread.

North Vancouver would be an ok 2nd choice.
 

colton

Monkey
May 20, 2007
126
0
Thanks for that link, it is very helpful. I am liking the sound of Vancouver; I will have to look into that. And I am cool with living in a town too. I just need to be able to find work so no extremely small towns.
 

colton

Monkey
May 20, 2007
126
0
After looking into this quite a bit, I think it might be best/easiest to move to somewhere in Washington. I was thinking somewhere around Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, or Discovery Bay area. From Seattle there are 9 bike parks within 7 hours, many would be closer if I move to the Bellingham area. http://trails.evergreenmtb.org/wiki/Main_Page Most of these trails aren't downhill but it's still cool there's that many trails in North West Washington, way more than I'm used. I would love to help build some trails, I've built a couple downhill trails but I have a ton of experience building BMX trails.

I'm still interested in moving to BC in the Vancouver area, but it seems like getting perminent residency and ultimately citzenship in Canada could be quite time consuming. Has anybody here made a permanent move from the US to Canada? How was the experience? I will look into this option more in the coming weeks.
 

slowmoe

Chimp
Mar 8, 2003
12
0
If you're American, and want to be close to Whistler then move to the Bellingham
area. I am an American living in Squamish, but I got lucky and married a Canadian.
If you don't marry a Canadian, then it can take many years to get residency, hell
it can take years even if you do. Plus, when you cross that imaginary line on the
map, everything gets way more expensive up here. Bellingham is a great town, tons
of riding nearby, not too far from Whistler, Seattle, or Portland so there's lot's to
do and see.
 

colton

Monkey
May 20, 2007
126
0
I am feeling the same way. Washington seems to have excellent riding and the major bike parks in Canada aren't that far away. It seems like it might be the right way to go.
 

yetihenry

Monkey
Aug 9, 2009
241
1
Whistler, BC
I live and work in Whistler. If and when I have a family, Squamish/The North Shore would be a good compromise. The benefits of city living, with the ability to get far away, pretty quickly!
 

colton

Monkey
May 20, 2007
126
0
Ha right... I have relatives in Oregon and the terrain seems sweet there. Washington should be sick as sht.