SoCal riding specifically San Diego

Rabie · Apr 23, 2005

Taz said:
What's the riding like in SoCal. I'm mainly interested in the areas around San Diego. I know there is probably XC trails, as they are everywhere, but what is the DH like? Is there any local DH trails and are there many people in the area that rides DH?

I just returned from a trip to SoCal and visited San Diego one day, fell in love with the place. Thinking about it as my next place to live since I know I can get a job there somewhere.

Thankx

Look through Orven's gallery.

lovebunny · Apr 23, 2005

go to the underwear gallery post. the newest riding is at the end. but its got evrything in san diego and socal for about 2 years

lovebunny · Apr 23, 2005

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1542437#post1542437

lovebunny · Apr 23, 2005

pm me whjen oyu get here. im allways up to ride.

ncrider · Apr 23, 2005

Taz said:
Now to look into housing, this is going to suck!

I'm the moron wanting to move from VERY cheap cost of living to VERY expensive. Yea.. I'm smart! HA

yeah I think the ave. price for a 3bdr is around $600,000.

Orvan · Apr 23, 2005

Taz said:
Hehe. Will run an east coast website from the west coast

Hcor will attract west coasters. Rabie and Pegboy are the freeriding ambassadors here. Rabie being high in the ladder bec he refuses to wear anything with logos and wears black all the time.

Orvan · Apr 23, 2005

Oh and the median home price last quarter was at $435K...median...in SD County. The bubble has not burst yet as many assumed.

Brian HCM#1 · Apr 24, 2005

Taz, it's just the way of life here in CA, if you wanna play you gotta pay. The one advantage about buying property here in CA is it's also an investment. You'll probably make more money within 3 years than you would within 10 years in most other places in the country. As Orven stated about the bubble, it will burst at one point in the future, but even when or if it ever does, it will be just temporary. If you are looking for property here in CA, get in NOW!!!!!!

Tonycalves · Apr 25, 2005

You guys know John Hcor?

spookydave · Apr 25, 2005

Taz said:
I'm the moron wanting to move from VERY cheap cost of living to VERY expensive. Yea.. I'm smart! HA

I did the same thing and never looked back. It's hard to put a price tag on a lifestyle.
If you look at housing as an investment it's not so bad. I bet your 116K place was worth 115K a few years ago. To put it in perspective I paid 184K 5 years ago and could sell right now in the low 500's. I wish my 401K would go up like that!

Ciaran · Apr 26, 2005

If you don't need to be close to everything maybe look at east county. Things seem to be cheaper out there (last time I lived there anyway). Either way though, San Diego is expensive. The GF and I looked at moving back there to appease her parents and we just couldn't afford it, well not without some cutbacks in other areas. Well, not without living out in Lakeside anyway. I love S.D. though, and someday we'll likely move back down there.

Is there any reason why you are looking at S.D. in particular rather than Orange County, the Inland Empire or Pasadena areas? (Just curious)

Try www.realtor.com They have a decent searchable database of homes and land for sale. Usually with pics and prices.

ncrider · Apr 27, 2005

So where are you coming from?

Kornphlake · Apr 27, 2005

If you can come up with a half million you can buy a shack in Alpine, it's about 30 minutes from parts of San Diego, about 45 minutes to downtown. It's near the mountains, although not really in the mountains and the community is pretty diverse. I had a link to the elementary school ratings across the county and alpine was ranked at the top, places like El Cajon or Lakeside rank at the bottom if that means anything to you. Another place to try finding a house would be Pine Valley, it's closer to an hour from SD but it's a honest to goodness mountain town. Housing is hard to find and affordable housing (by any definition) is even more scarce, so if you're serious start looking now. If you're coming from mississippi you might appreciate lakeside, everyone there has a Camero on blocks and drives a truck with tires so big you need a ladder to get in and the girls all dress like hookers. If you're fluent in spanish you could try national city or chula vista and you might come up with something that fits your needs.

Really you'll have to look into home prices and see picutres of what a half a million dollars gets you out here. I thought I wanted the San Diego lifestyle until I moved here and realized that owning a home will never be a reality. If I ever did own a home it would be a 500 sq ft hole in the middle of some ghetto. Right now I can't even afford that home, even if I was giving 100% of my salry to make interest only payments, I still couldn't afford it.

Ciaran · Apr 27, 2005

Kornphlake said:
... If you're coming from mississippi you might appreciate lakeside, everyone there has a Camero on blocks and drives a truck with tires so big you need a ladder to get in and the girls all dress like hookers.

Oh man, I lived in Lakeside for a while, and you aren't kidding. We lived in a house in the middle of some junkyards. We had to heat the house with the fireplace. We would get the wood from the recycling place below us. you had to be careful because if you were caught the people who lived in the schoolbus would shoot at you. The closest store was not within walking distance, but it had a hitchin post for those who rode their horses there. The nice thing was that we could shoot our guns in the backyard and no one complained. And they do have a nice BMX track. Though I never did find the lake in Lakeside...

dhjill · Apr 27, 2005

Kornphlake said:
Really you'll have to look into home prices and see picutres of what a half a million dollars gets you out here. I thought I wanted the San Diego lifestyle until I moved here and realized that owning a home will never be a reality. If I ever did own a home it would be a 500 sq ft hole in the middle of some ghetto. Right now I can't even afford that home, even if I was giving 100% of my salry to make interest only payments, I still couldn't afford it.

Word on that! Take a long, hard look at San Diego before moving here. Sure, you can't beat the weather, but last time I checked, we have the second highest cost of living in the country. Less than 10% of the population here can afford to buy a home at the median price of $550K. Yeah, home prices are just as high as the Bay Area, but their incomes are generally higher.

I have a small condo that I've made good money on in the past couple years. Looking down the road, I'll probably sell it in the next couple of years and get the heck out of SD for cheaper living, less traffic, and that whole ball of yarn.

Good luck!

Kornphlake · Apr 27, 2005

We're not trying to scare you, just trying to help you see all sides of living in San Diego. If can get a good job and don't mind a middle class lifestyle with an upper class income, (or lower class lifestyle with a middle class income as in my case,) then by all means come on out.

dhjill · Apr 27, 2005

Yeah, we're not trying to scare you, just educate you. My major beefs about San Diego and SoCal in general are the high cost of living, the hideous traffic that just seems to get worse year after year, and the SoCal attitude. I'm sure that's going to cause a sh!tstorm and I'll be flamed with the fire of 7 sons, but it's sort of true. I've lived here my entire life and when I travel elsewhere, I'm always amazed at how nice the people are. Of course all us SoCal Monkeys are cool, though!

MikeD · Apr 28, 2005

The riding is also not that easy to come by...we make due, but just lost Big Bear and seem to be on some trail-access panic every week. It's crowded here, with little green left near the coast, and hordes of competing users clamoring to claim what's left. Most of the riding is an hour or more's drive from San Diego itself with a few notable exceptions, and there's no guarantee that stuff closer to the city itself will survive too long. Plus, fires two years ago and this year's rains have really taken their toll on some local trails, although things are starting to recover. Our beloved Anderson Truck Trail, once the only local DH ride, is again beginning to resemble a trail, but only just (IMHO. Some guys like to ride it in its ripped-up, indeterminitely routed, unflowy form.) Orange County has some really sick DH riding, too, though, and most of the stuff around here is shuttleable. Californians love roads... Then again, gotta be careful about shuttling multiuse trailrides and turning them into DH races...not good for the politics or the trail.

Another cool thing is that it's only 6 hours to Vegas with Bootleg Canyon riding, 4 hours or so to some amazing stuff in Santa Barbara (ALL rock trails, very cool, tenuous trail access), 7 hours or so to Mammoth or Northstar, 8 hours to southwest Utah, etc.

So long weekends are good things. There are DH races in Mexico, too, to expand on your theory of BMX tracks. And we have lots of fish tacos and tamales to eat, too.

MD

spookydave · Apr 28, 2005

Taz said:
One other thing that attracts me to San Diego is the amount of defense jobs there. Lots of Navy jobs there, Lockeed, Northrup Grumman, etc. All of which I could I could get a job at pretty easily.

You better check into that too. I'm sure I'm not the only ex aerospace / defence worker in So Cal. Back in the mid 80's if you wanted a 15% raise all you had to do was go across the street from Hughes to TRW or MD. 2 years later you would be back at Hughes doing the same thing for 30% more pay. Those days are long gone. It's picked back up some and there are jobs. But not like it used to be. The main program I worked on packed up and moved to Lagrange, GA!
It's hard to live out here and the hardest part is breaking into the housing market. Once you're in you're in so to speak. Hey, I had to give up the coolest beach rental and move WAY inland to be able to get a house. But it was worth it.

MikeD · Apr 28, 2005

Oh, no, DO NOT go to Edwards. That's so far from anywhere that you'd want to be...stopped there to refuel a convoy once...baaaad place. Made 29 Palms look like a glittering metropolis with lush scenery. It was cool to drive past the dry lakebed where they land the space shuttle...but that was the coolest thing by far.

You've got TONS of GS options in San Diego...all the Navy bases, the Marine Corps recruit depot, Miramar air station, Camp Pendleton in the north county. And there are other bases around that aren't in such crappy places...Port Huaneme north of LA on the coast, lots of Army facilities in central and northern Cal, Travis AFB...

There's Colorado, too, even, for the air force. But do not go to Edwards or China Lake. Ever. Even to visit.

MD

Kornphlake · Apr 28, 2005

MikeD said:
Oh, no, DO NOT go to Edwards. That's so far from anywhere that you'd want to be...stopped there to refuel a convoy once...baaaad place. Made 29 Palms look like a glittering metropolis with lush scenery. It was cool to drive past the dry lakebed where they land the space shuttle...but that was the coolest thing by far.

You've got TONS of GS options in San Diego...all the Navy bases, the Marine Corps recruit depot, Miramar air station, Camp Pendleton in the north county. And there are other bases around that aren't in such crappy places...Port Huaneme north of LA on the coast, lots of Army facilities in central and northern Cal, Travis AFB...

There's Colorado, too, even, for the air force. But do not go to Edwards or China Lake. Ever. Even to visit.

MD

I worked an entire summer at Edwards and it has got to be the most miserable place in all of southern california. Palmdale and Lancaster are the closest cities, I guess california city is considered a city now too. Still they are the suburbs that barfed out of los angeles when all the hicks moved in. My description of lakeside would be accurate of the palmdale area as well except everybody drives a ricer with bullet holes instead of a truck. Summer time temperatures get as high as 120 degrees, on a calm day the wind blows 40 mph. I guess the space shuttle isn't very sensitive to wind when it lands??? Seriously I'd take Rachel Nevada over Edwards. If you're looking for a government job I hear the border patrol pays $80,000 to start if you've got a college degree, with significant advancement opportunities after as little as one year. Hablas Espanol? If you're looking for something on a base I have to say San Diego is your best option without going much farther north.

Spunger · Apr 29, 2005

Whatever you do, do NOT move to Santa Barbara. It's north of San Deigo by a bit but just to show you. This was from our local newspaper a few weeks ago.

"On the South Coast, the median home price for an existing single-family home was $1,150,000 in March. That's down from the median record of $1,206,250, set in January."

You see that? 1.1 milllion for a median home price. I've been lucky to live here my whole life in a sense. My parents both work goverment jobs here in Santa Barbara and they've had to live in an apartment because they couldn't afford a house. People that bought houses in the 80's and earley 90's before all this inflation started happening are rolling in it now. But the thing is the state rapes you on gain's taxes and such if you try to just sell out. I know there's a boat load of fee's and such that they tax you on when you sell the home due to how much money it's made. Hell my girlfriend's parents are looking for places to buy and most are above the 1.2+ million mark. That's just for a normal place to live, nothing special or fancy. Even rent's here are super expensive. $800+ for a studio or if you're lucky a 1 bedroom, $1200+ for a 2 bedroom (most go for more than that depending on the area), plus high gas prices ($2.60 for the cheapest gas) at the station across the street, higher insurance prices, smog and registration and such, it all add's up.

Good luck though, just make sure you got the $$$ before comming. It's hard to relocate, especially to a more expensive town then you were in before and finding out that housing sucks, gas sucks, and work sucks doesn't make it any better. Riding wise though Cali has a boatload of spots all north and south so you're good there

Ciaran · Apr 29, 2005

Taz said:
...
I'll be looking for tech jobs. I'm one of those nerdy engineer types

http://www.kaiserpermanentejobs.org/

We have locations from San Diego to San Francisco, and we could use some good engineers. I do desktop support in Panorama City (which is a lousy place). The company pays decently but gives some seriously kick azz benefits. I get over 21 days of vacation time each year.

As well as medical , dental and all that other stuff.

Kornphlake · Apr 29, 2005

What kind of engineers are you looking for? I typed engineer in the search box I most conveniently found in the link you posted and got some administrative sounding stuff back. Do you get 21 days vacation or 21 holidays, or are you counting them together, that sounds like a little too much time off for a california company.

Ciaran · Apr 29, 2005

Kornphlake said:
What kind of engineers are you looking for? I typed engineer in the search box I most conveniently found in the link you posted and got some administrative sounding stuff back. Do you get 21 days vacation or 21 holidays, or are you counting them together, that sounds like a little too much time off for a california company.

The trick with the link is under the REGION that you are looking for you need to choose KP-IT. It's a sucky website but it does display the jobs. (They took our jerbs!)

Ahhh... vacation... I get paid every two weeks. On each paycheck I earn 8.2 hours of time off. (52 weeks in a year, divided by two = 26 :eek:

) I can choose to use it as vacation or sick leave. In addition, I get most of the regular holidays off... X-Mas, New years, labor day, easter, etc. There are a few that we don't get like MLK day, and prez day. For those they give us four "float holidays" in addition to our vacation. We also get extended sick time. When I broke my leg I didn't have to use my vacation time.

FYI- Most of the IT engineering jobs are either in Pasadena, or Corona. Thats where the regional / program offices are(Pas) and the Data Center/Server farm (Corona). But there are high level tech people all over doing various things. There is desktop support and server support people in just about every facility though.

If you need some assistance PM me. I'll be more than happy to try and help you peruse the job boards.

bdamschen · Jun 12, 2006

Ciaran said:
Though I never did find the lake in Lakeside...

Just wait til it rains real hard, and all the people living on RIVERFORD ave. act real supprised when everything floods :rolleyes:

SoCal riding specifically San Diego

Monkey

Rabie

Guest

Monkey

can i lick your balls?

can i lick your balls?

Monkey

Monkey

can i lick your balls?

Turbo Monkey

Monkey

....................

....................

Monkey

MMMMMMMMM BEER!!!!!!!!!!

Monkey

Monkey

Monkey

Monkey

Fear my banana

Monkey

Turbo Monkey

Turbo Monkey

Fear my banana

Monkey

Monkey

Turbo Monkey

Monkey

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists

Monkey

Monkey

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists

Monkey

Turbo Monkey

Monkey

Git yer dumb questions here

Fear my banana

Turbo Monkey

Fear my banana

Turbo Monkey