how can you forget to mention the wines of Williamette? My god they’re good. i’d move there based on that alone! HAHHAH!
I’ve lived in Eugene and it rocks. Great cycling, awesome running and a ton of great pools, swimteams (one of which I coach if you’re ever here), and nice lake swimming too. Overall good tri community as well.
Eugene also has the UO so there’s a lot here. Tough and competitive job market though.
Sounds like you didn’t get to the coast, either. Yes, Oregon rox. Don’t forget Sun River, Bend, Coos Bay, Tilimook, Depot Bay, Mt. Hood, etc.
Brett
Man you got that right. I would leave Nor Cal in a minute to live in Portland area. Did you know they have the highest per capital number of breweries there? Any city with that statistic is a winner in my book. I spent 10 days last month windsurfing the Gorge and hiking in Mt Hood Wilderness. It was just awesome and Hood River Valley is one of the prettiest spots on earth.
Still trying to convice my wife to move up there but she likes Sonoma County.
I would go there in November-Marchish. I don’t have a problem with it, but some people don’t do well in the grey rainy season.
While it does rain here a lot during the winter it almost never snows in the Willamette Valley (Eugene area) and hardly ever stays below 32 F except at night so you can run/ride year round if you get some rain gear.
Eugene is also an hour from the coast and just under two from Bend. Corvallis is also worth checking out.
We also swim year round outside which makes getting in the hardest part of the workout!
You won’t find anyone who lives here disagreeing with you. The winter can be grey, but as someone pointed out it rarely snows in the valley so you can ride and run year round. You forgot to mention Forest Park with continuous trails over 30 miles long, and in the city.
The cascades of central Oregon, and the high desert of Eastern Orgeon make for great cycling trips.
Also, plenty of bike racing and a great cyclocross community.
For any locals who haven’t heard, there’s going to be a Tuesday night handicap series at PIR starting on September 6 and running through the month. Details at obra.org. A feature for novices will be coaching from Doug Ollerenshaw of team Healthnet prior to the Cat 4/5 race.
scott
Did Eugene for a year. Would love to move back if I could find a decent job there. I felt like I was coming back home when I moved there, after living in SoCal all my life. Came back to SoCal because of the job situation. Anyway, I’d say most people visiting in August would leave with the same sentiment you did, but six-seven+ straight months with almost no sun can be pretty taxing. It doesn’t snow much, but I did get stuck there last year because of snow/ice and they weren’t letting flights out for several days. Definitely worth giving the place a shot though…awesome beer too.
Scott and others,
I’ve been out here (Portland) a week now and I’m having trouble finding a place to swim. The master’s team in Beaverton looks awesome, but are there other options closer to me (I’m in Northeast)? Or closer to downtown? The Community Center pools are a bit warm (84 degrees) and lonely, and the outdoor ones close in September.
Please help if you can! I would appreciate any and all tips, as well as someone to ride with.
-Jeff
Hey astrotri (and everyone else giving out props) I’m glad you liked it here, but keep it on the down low. Do we need to review how secrets work?
Yep, no question, that’s a great area. After college in western washington, it came down to Eugene or Illinois for grad school. Sadly, I had to choose Illinois, as it’s the stronger, more prestigious department. My thinking was that I could spend six years here and then hopefully get a job in Oregon or Washington! I hope that works!
Hey Astro, what kind of astro do you do? I was an astrophys major in college, before seeing the light and moving to math for grad school.
-Colin
Hey astrotri (and everyone else giving out props) I’m glad you liked it here, but keep it on the down low. Do we need to review how secrets work?
don’t worry, not everyone likes it there…
spent 4 years there (college at LC). by the 4th it was just too small… and too rainy. (and where was the snow? i love snow, & missed it greatly).
the biking’s great, i do miss that.
Yeah, competition pools are tough to come by. Multnomah Athletic Club has a great LCM pool, but it’s a private club.
The metro Y’s pool is down while they build a new roof for it (it’s going on two years now - a real clusterfuck of a project). Y members can swim at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center in SW.
Mittleman is at 6651 SW Capital Hwy. 6 lanes and usually half of them are empty. They have a masters class that swims on Thursday morning and sometimes Monday. Not your typical masters. More technique then hammerfest, but mostly tri geeks in the class.
I have to take a few weeks off while I recup from back surgery, but this is where I swim and there’s a couple of us that do our own thing, but we put together some pretty good workouts. Pool temp is 80-82. Swimming is free with Y membership and $5 for drop-in.
It’s not the most convenient place to NE (I live in NE also - Laurelhurst), but it’s closer then Tualatin Hills.
Disman on N. Knott (2-3 blocks west of MLK) has a informal masters team that swims daily from 6-7. One lane on MWF, two lanes on TH & F. $3.
I haven’t been to the Nelson’s Nautilus on NE 82nd, but they have an older SCM pool and one of the former aquatic directors at the Y went over there and was planning on starting a masters team.
Hopefully the Y will have it’s pool back in operation by the end of the year. 6 lane SCM. A nice pool, but can be a bit warm.
scott
Check out the pool at Mt Hood Community College in Gresham. They have an indoor 25 yd pool and a 50M outdoor pool.
Just about every day I spend in Corvallis, OR I think to myself, “I love it here!”
I bike commute to work past organic farms and fields with horses and cows and once we get into town, it’s bike lanes and bike paths everywhere. There are at least 5 bike shops in our town of 50,000 people, two nice pools and a forest filled with (steep) trails to run or mtb.
On weekends I have to decide, do I want to stick around town and go to the Farmers Market, drink local microbrews and train or head 1 hour to the coast or 2 hours to the high desert near Bend OR? I don’t even mess with Portland that often… too many people!
In the winter, it does rain, but there aren’t too many days that I can’t ride my bike. Most days that it rains, the clouds will break and you will get a shot of sun. Makes you a little antsy, but it’s manageable, especially if you can vacation sometime near Feb.
My only complaint is that there aren’t enough lakes near Corvallis, but there are plenty of cold ones near Bend to cure me of that desire. brrrr!
I think a lot of people forget about everything East of the cascades. I went to college in Walla Walla, WA, and we had something ridiculous like 350 sunny days per year. I tell people that now, and they say, “what? Doesn’t it rain every day in Washington?”. People don’t realize that there are deserts on the other side of the mountains.
But you’re right, the type of rain on the west side is totally bike-able. It’s not torrential midwest rain that floods the streets, it’s just constant and steady. No sweat.
-C
This is a loaded question but how are the job prospects in Portland?
Scott,
Nice summary of swimming options, thanks. Is the Y pool open yet? I’ll be in the Portland area (Lake Oswego) this weekend visiting family and I am looking for a place to swim and/or go to a spin class.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Regards,
Matt
For a second I thought the title of this post was referring to Portland, the city, and a race that was being hosted here called: “The Willamette Kick Ass”. I was pretty excited and would have definitely done it, even without knowing the format of the race.
Portland is great.
Matt, PM me and I’ll see if I can get you a temp pass for 24 hour fitness. I don’t know if they will let an out of state visitor use the pass or not, but I’ll find out. Spin classes and a pool, and it’s just two exits down the freeway from Lake Oswego.
Yes, the metro Y pool is now open. I’ll try to remember to check the weekend lap swim hours and send you a PM tomorrow.
I think today is going to make it 41 days of rain in the past 44, but tons of snow in the mountains.
scott