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Where to live in North Carolina?

Salami

Turbo Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
1,784
118
Waxhaw, NC
:mumble: The wife and I are sick of the hustle and bustle of South Florida and are looking for an area to raise our family that has a better quality of life.

Financially it is best for us if I transfer with my current employer. The areas which to I can tranfer are: Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Matthews, and Winston Salem.

Can anyone help with good places to ride in these areas? Ideally I would like to have a trail within about 10 miles of the house so I can get some regular trail riding in. I would also wouldn't mind having an area relatively close by (say 20-40 miles) where I can get my DH or freeriding fix. It wouldn't have to be something full on with lift access, just something to get a weekly adrenaline fix.

From my internet research so far Matthews looks like and area we are interested in as property and taxes seems to be reasonable and there seems to be good schools. I can't seem to find much for riding in the area though.

The wife and I are going to to doing a short trip to N.C. Columbus day weekend and I am trying to plan out what areas we should check out first in the 2.5 short days we will have.

:thumb: Thanks, Rich
 

SuboptimusPrime

Turbo Monkey
Aug 18, 2005
1,658
1,633
NorCack
The durham area has a lot to offer in terms of riding. Durham itself only has the little river trails, which are quite nice, but within a 30 minute drive there are probably at least a dozen trail systems. There is a good budding freeride scene in several locations as well. I'd encourage you to check out www.trianglemtb.com (triangle refers to the chapel hill, durham, raleigh area) and look at the different trail pages, as well as checking out the forums.

I know that there is good riding in the highpoint/greensboro area as well as near charlotte, but I'm sure others could do a better job of telling you about that.
 

skurfer333

Monkey
Apr 21, 2005
249
0
Raleigh, NC
I lived in charlotte for a few years and its got some great trail riding. There's Francis Beatty in matthews thats got your XC trails with a few stunts and drops being built to keep you entertained. Then theres Beech Tree Park (Poplar Tent of I-85) that has awesome XC trails mixed with freeride stunts, and dirt jumps in the parking lot. And there are a few other XC trail systems in the area that any local bike shop could tell you about. Theres also quite a few underground trail/freeride opportunities if you hook up with the right people. There are a lot of urban riders who hit downtown too. They meet wednesday nights at marshall park (across from the adams mark hotel) around 8. If you move to matthews go to Ultimate Bikes on sardis rd/monroe rd, those guys are great and will take good care of you and your bikes. If you move to Charlotte look in Sun and Ski sports at concord mills mall, those guys are pretty knowledgable about the riding scene around those parts. Hope that helps.
 

motomike

Turbo Monkey
Jan 19, 2005
4,584
0
North Carolina
Well, I live in Greensboro, so here is my sales pitch: Greensboro itself has roughly 30 miles of XC trails, as well as a city-owned dirt jump(and soon to be freeride park). All of the trails are interconnected by a paved "greenway", which is an old railroad. And they are all within city limits too, so they will be close. 25-30 minutes west and you have Winston Salem. There you can find a DS course and plenty of XC trails. 40 minutes east and you get to Chapel Hill. There you will find more than enough XC trails with really fun dirt jumps and freeride stunts mixed into them.

And there are plenty of other places within your range, these are just the best known ones.
 

Salami

Turbo Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
1,784
118
Waxhaw, NC
Thanks everyone! It sounds like there should lots of good riding oppurtunities in the areas I am looking at.

How are these areas for the other things in life such as owning property, taxes, schools, health care, traffic and stuff like that? Any one of these areas stand out more than another for raising a family?
 

SuboptimusPrime

Turbo Monkey
Aug 18, 2005
1,658
1,633
NorCack
Durham is relatively cheap...there are definitely good parts and bad parts. The good parts are awesome while the bad parts are pretty bad. The public schools are ok, but the ones in chapel hill (9 miles away) are better. The trade off is that chapel hill is crazy mcpensive and has pretty high property taxes, hence the great schools.

As far as healthcare, you'd be right between Duke and UNC which both have top-notch hospitals, so that's covered to say the least.

Traffic is getting worse in the raleigh/durham/chapel hill area, but really only raleigh is bad IMHO...and bad is a relative term, its nothing like LA or Hotlanta.

As far as raising a family, I grew up here, and loved it best of the 6 places I've lived. I would avoid G-boro, cause well, just look at how Motomike turned out ;)
 

motomike

Turbo Monkey
Jan 19, 2005
4,584
0
North Carolina
bizutch said:
poor guy...must suck having to shop in the Juniors section....
I'm gonna kick yer azz this weekend Butch!




And I don't shop in the juniors department. I can rock small and medium shirts and, well, the smallest shorts I can find. In the mens department. :o:
 

zod

Turbo Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
1,376
0
G-County, NC
You're gonna be happy in any of those towns. We're all gonna try to sell you on where we live of course. Charlotte/Matthews, Durham, Winston all have XC and freeride but remember that Charlotte and Winston are MUCH closer to the mountains than Durham........an important factor IMHO.
I personally work in Charlotte but live one county to the west. Out of the high tax high dollar zone, closer to the mountains, rural/non-subdivision bountiful acreage environment, peace and quiet, etc. I do have a 25 miles commute to work but it is worth it. Plenty of good riding within 30 minutes drive including XC, FR, DJ, DH. :thumb:
 

Salami

Turbo Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
1,784
118
Waxhaw, NC
zod said:
but remember that Charlotte and Winston are MUCH closer to the mountains than Durham........an important factor IMHO.

That is something I have been thinking about, trying to keep the mountains near by. What options are there for DH riding? I know S.S. and Windrock aren't too bad a drive but there must be something closer, right? I don't need exact locations if they should be kept quiet, just maybe a city or distance from Charlotte.

BTW, you have one of our locals living up there now. I believe you have ridden with him. We called him Big Matt, he goes by AC1 now.
 

zod

Turbo Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
1,376
0
G-County, NC
There's DH not too far into the mountains.....from my area under 1.5 hours. Good stuff from Morganton on up to Asheville.

I would really suggest living in west Mecklenburg County or east Gaston County. That puts you on the other side of Charlotte traffic from the mountains, puts you closer to the FR/North Shore locations, and puts you closer to the better trails and future potentially epic trails. Stay out of the Matthews area as it is over crowded/congested and Beatty as your local trail is really gonna get old quick. Now that's coming from someone who likes open spaces......Mathews might be right up your sleeve.

Yeah, Matt is a good guy and a lot of fun to ride with.......ask him about what us boys got going on over here in Gaston County.....he gives our local loop 2 :thumb: up
 

meatboot

Monkey
Jul 28, 2004
134
0
Chapel Hell
As far as lift-accessed riding, don't write off Wintergreen, but it's pretty much equidistant from all the locales you're interested in.

On a more sensitive topic, I don't know where your political/social/moral values lie, but that's one thing to keep in mind. Durham and the Triangle generally have a pretty blue state vibe, but you can certainly find people who hold different viewpoints -- and are fairly vocal about it -- especially in the Raleigh/Cary corner (do triangles have corners)? Points west are probably a little more conservative, but I'm uncomfortable generalizing too much. And Charlotte is a big city, so I'm sure you can find all types there.

I guess my point is, find someplace where you'd like to live first, since there's good riding everywhere you mentioned.