Northern Colorado...Is there any riding?

[quailchaser]

My wife and I are discussing the possibility of maybe (hows that for non committal ) moving to the Fort Collins/Loveland area.

The riding here in AZ is fantastic and we have lots of reasons to stay....but, both of us have been here since childhood and it' getting way crowded and seems to feel hotter each year. Also, those Californians keep coming here and messing with our laws (I think they also brought some smog with them) . There is even a rumor that were going to get some sort of sticker program in the next year or two.

We've looked several times over the past few years and the cost of housing is much closer between AZ and CO now. One of the few benefits of the mass influx of new legal residents to AZ. We have been researching the pro's and con's of moving. Riding is one of the many issues that needs to fit for us to move.

I ride mostly singletrack and try to ride 1 to 2 times per week. My kid is 7 and just started riding on a 50. Good riding areas are only 1/2 hour to 45 minutes from my house (use to be 5 minutes before all the development ).

So, now that I filled up the page with useless babbling...Anyone have input as to the riding scene in N. Co?

[Colorado Mike]

Hey QC,

I Live a little south of Denver and ride in the mountain passes and in the mtns south of me. There is a track up near Loveland, with an open riding area on it. Ive also ridden up near Lyons, which would be a little southwest of you, but pretty close. That was a nice area. We're gettting quite a few Californians up here too. It's a free country and all, but I just don't get why folks leave a place cuz it's screwed up, and then try to make the new place just like the old.

I'll check around and see what else is up that way.

[IdahoCharley]

CM/QC - I second Colorado Mike's question of why Californians leave CA and then want to screw up the new state with CA type laws and regulations. ??

It makes no sense to me. I believe that a large majority of those moving to Idaho and Montana from California have too much money which they are able to put into screwing up the new areas they moved to. Nice ski resorts are turned into destination spots where only the rich can play and live.

'Open forest multiude use areas' are turned into roadless wilderness; Wild game or wilderness has become the God of many of the over-payed and under-worked crowd. Most of them seem to be able to buy their piece of 'Heaven' whether it is lake shore, river edge or mountain vista then attempt to stop all additional development in their area due to "environmental concerns".

We even have well funded groups in Sun Valley (Hailey Idaho) and Jackson Hole Wyoming that are attempting to eliminate thousands of relatively high paying jobs at Idaho National Laboratory due to their ignorance of what really happens on that site.

Extractive industries like mining and logging are all but gone : farming/ranching and apparently all other 'real jobs' other than those associated with manison building construction seem to be targeted.

Sorry about the Hijack but CM hit a nerve!!

I understand that CO has a lot or good riding around the Colorado Springs/Boulder areas. If you search the various riding forums you will see a lot of write-up and pictures. The riding season will definately be alot shorter due to the snow. I switch to snow machines which is almost as much fun. There is the problem associated with not enough snow for sledding and too much snow for biking which seems to exist for a couple months in the fall and a couple of months in the spring.

[canyncarvr]

As long as it's already jacked....

Amen, brothers!

Last factoid I heard...over 50% of the houses in this area are bought/paid for in cash $$..and the buyers come from Californistan.

Yeah..it is a free country and all (ha..that's gotten to be kind'a funny, all things considered) and I don't want to make some new damn law that prevents people from moving where they wanna. It's the screwin' with it after they GET here that gripes me!

'YOU don't have a SALES tax? WE did..so what's the big deal...EVERYBODY has one!!' ...stuff like that.

Best of luck, QC. Azirona would have been way too hot for me years ago. What with the global warming brought about by not cutting any trees in the past ten years, it's gotta be worse now!!

Wait a minute...did I get that right?

Maybe it's the 500,000 acre fires brought about by not taking care of the woods in the FIRST place that has something to do with all this heat!

Life is an adventure, ain't it? There are beautiful areas of CO I've been through. Hope you find a good one!!

[rlbranson]

Yo Rob
I was born in Ft Collins and spent some time in Loveland then we moved down by Denver. Of course this was quite a while back. You went to college in Flagstaff so you have some idea of getting around town when there is snow on the ground. Now take those snowy roads and clog them up with Kalyfornians and Texans and if you like a challenge you will be happy. I Go back to CO from time to time and it has changed so much that it makes me want to leave. Of course if I had never seen it before it was so built up it might not bother me. If memory serves me correct Loveland is about 6000 ft elevation and it is farther north than Flagstaff. It does get plenty of snow or it used to anyway. I still got relatives living in Loveland. We didn't used to have to go very far up into the mountains to ride or hike.
I haven't done anyriding here lately because I broke my left leg about a month ago up by Prescott. I was going to wait and see what the surgeon said before I said anything on the web sites down here. Well it was 17 days after the accident before the surgeon had the MRI's in hand and could see what had happened. By then that is old news. Thinking of CO brings back lots of memories. I would love to live up there in the summer.

Bob
kdx200 (resting)

[skipro3]

There's tons of wide open lands in California. Unfortunately, all the control is by vote and the majority live in either the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles. They "protected" the open areas so well, they can't even walk most of it anymore, let alone drive or bike it.

Want to keep your land from being run over by out-of-staters? Quit selling it for so cheap. Jack the price up so your kids can't afford to live in the same community they grew up in and have to move to some state they can afford the housing. Opps! They've already done that in California

[quailchaser]

I haven't done anyriding here lately because I broke my left leg about a month ago up by Prescott. I was going to wait and see what the surgeon said before I said anything on the web sites down here. Well it was 17 days after the accident before the surgeon had the MRI's in hand and could see what had happened. By then that is old news. Thinking of CO brings back lots of memories. I would love to live up there in the summer.

What I'm sorry to hear that Bob. Let me know if you need anything. What happened?...feel free to add some embellishments.

I haven't been riding much either. I haven't touched my bike since the Young race. I hosed it and the van off in Payson to get rid of some of the mud and dust. It's been parked and locked in the garage ever since. Maybe I'll get a chance to re-jet for Phoenix and do some post race maint. this week. Hope to see you on the trails soon.

As for the comments on the Kalifornians...Yeah, what's up with that? Screw up one State so bad that you move to another...then start screwing up that one too? I don't get it. All I can say is...keep moving here and push my home value up about another 50-75K by May and I'll be happy.

My wife is a nurse at one of the largest hospitals in the Valley and it is chalk full of those who ignore the immigration Laws of this country. Totally peeves me off! My parents moved from their home they lived in for 30 years because their nieghborhood was being overrun. It's disgusting how we as a Nation can allow such a mass influx of illegal (key word here is illegal) immigrants to go on virtually unchecked. One more reason we would like to move farther North.

Later
Robb

[jafo]

Guys, it's just not out west anymore. This stuff happens everywhere. The country has gone bezerk on land and housing for the past 8 years. Mostly due to Loan companies approving poeple 100's of thousands of dollars over what they can realisticaly afford. Thats how the realators got the property prices so high. I just bought a house here in Missouri for 177,000. Four bedroom, 3 full bath. It a "California Split" design house. I was pre-approved for 200,000. If I were to get approved, it would probably had been for at least 250,000. No way I could afford a 200,000 dollar house let alone a 250,000 dollar house. They just keep building bigger and bigger houses too. I don't know who is buying them. But anyways, one day will come when the housing markets gonna crash and take alot of good peole with it whille the "fat cats" that caused these outlandish prices for housing and land set back and laugh while sitting on top of millions of dollars.

Anyways, Gary Emig rides Colorado alot. He has'nt let me in on any of his riding areas, but I'm still working on him. Seems like he goes out there every week. I'd move to Colorado in a heart beat if I could find a way to earn a living out there. I have relatives if the Colorado Springs area from way way back. Boy it has changed alot too. My mom told me that some of the residents out there had to wear resperators some days because of the smog issues. That was a cuople years ago. If I did move out there, it'd most likeley be out of town somewhere. I would not live in the city for sure. I'd pick me a small town and drop in, or find me some land in the mountain range area. My relatives owned two seperate lots up behind Pikes Peak. It'd been awsome for riding, but they sold it. Colorado may be where I wind up after I retire. My brother is thinking about moving to New Mexico when he's done working. So that might be a good reason to uproot and move out there. Of coarse, if something happens before I can retire, like a plant closing, I'm on the way! There is a place called Rampart Heights that buddy of mine likes to ride. It's somewhere around Denver I think. I think theres alot of riding in Colorado, you just have to check it out. I did get some info off Emigthat there were some trails leading right out of old Coloado Springs, but I have'nt looked into it yet. I plan on comming out that way next summer, don't know if it'll be to ride but I'll defintley pass through.

Jon.

[rlbranson]

Um, Rob if you are thinking of moving to Colorado and getting away from illegal imigrants, you may be disappointed. A friend I went to high school with lives in what used to be a very nice neighborhood west of denver. He has had to get a post office box at a post office because of mexicans going through the mail in his mailbox. There is no shortage of illegals in CO. If I was just getting out of school I would think very seriously about moving to Canada. You might find a good neighborhood in CO, but in a few years it might change.
For over a month I have been getting around the house on crutches. It is getting a little old. On wednesday I see the doc again and see what he says. And some people thought I don't ride fast enough to get hurt.
You know where I live in Glendale, been there 15 years and the neighborhood has changed a lot, and not for the better.
Well Rob, clean your bike up and keep it shiny side up.

Bob
kdx200 (resting)

[Tim_from_AZ]

Rob,

This is way too funny. I've been kicking around the same idea except I'm leading more to the Denver/Boulder area. Our place here in AZ has doubled what I paid so I want to cash out and try something different. I'll have to come by the shop so we can chat!

[quailchaser]

Tim,

Yep, we should definately talk! Jeff will absolutely love to hear more talk about me moving.

We liked the Denver area too(the Suburb areas anyway). FT Collins/Loveland is only an hour from my brother-in-laws house in Hightlands Ranch just S. of Denver. That was one of the things we really liked about N. Colorado. Not much different than here. The one down side for us is we would be a long way from the beach. San Diego is only 5 hours from here. Up there we'd have to plan vacations instead of just taking a long weekend.

The Boulder area is beautiful too. For what we are looking for, the Boulder area was way to expensive for our blood. We found Boulder to be real similiar to Sedona only on a much larger scale (if you know what I mean ).

Later
Robb

[Tim_from_AZ]

Quick question for you CO folks... Are you guys able to ride year round or does the winter snow take you out of the picture. I'd figure the mountains are not rideable but what about the west of Denver?