Finding Oregon. Stunning video!

[porsche4life]

Looks like an awesome place, even if pwd lives there...

[LWJ]

We used to have advertising telling folks to stay away. There are lots of reasons why Oregon sucks.

We do have a pretty spectacular summer however. And currently a great football team. And world class beer everywhere. And good music. And nice trees.

Sort of a mixed bag sort of thing.

Larry

[Steve Carlton]

What's the downside- the rain? What else? My aunt and uncle live in Lake Oswego.

Nice video...

[skinnerd]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

What's the downside?

None that I know of....
I've lived there the past 13 yrs and there is no other State I'd prefer to live in.

[Flieger]

Cool.

[HardDrive]

There is beauty out this way. I never get tired of it.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

What's the downside?

Unemployment.

The wife and I will live there again one day. It is a beautiful state.

[RoninLB]

the consistent clear skies are bs imho

the whole Cascade strip with its forests can be spectacular if you don't mind that the whole NW starting north of Sacramento is infested with cougars

other than that my routine when camping up there is to use the Willamette N.F. as a centrally located home base to zip around from and then shoot down to the huge rocks next to the campgrounds in Zion N.P to lay out my water logged sleeping bag

if you want mountain high clear skies go to the Rockies in the spring before the tourists get there. I check with the rangers and ask if Independence pass has opened up yet before hitting the place


nice vid

[pwd72s]

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

What's the downside-
.

Weather - Oct thru June
Burns, Oregon
Traffic on the northern coast.
OSP writing for 5 over.
Traffic on I-5, Portland to Eugene


Upside:

Weather - July-Sept
Lack of traffic on southern coast
Beaches, Mountains and desert.
Crater lake
Bend
NE Oregon has some of the best sport driving roads anywhere
Lack of OSP in NE Oregon
Oregon Raceway Park in Grass Valley
Rogue River
Mt. Hood
Emory's
Mosier Route 30 Porsche Museum
Columbia River Gorge
I-5 - Eugene to Calif.
Rattlesnake Grade
Dooley Mtn Rd.
Hwy 395 - Pendleton to John Day
Hells Canyon
Hwy 47 and surrounding roads NW of Portland. Just go get lost for a day.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I lived there for a year. The upside is that when it's nice out, it's seriously one of the most beautiful places on earth. There are endless places to go explore - lush forests, waterfalls, etc. The mountains (Cascades) are breathtaking. Portland and the surrounding communities are great - very laid back, family-friendly and genuinely pleasant places. The microbrews and coffee shops there can't be beat. And there's Powell's Bookstore - worth a trip there just to go and kill a day. The Portland suburbs (where I lived) were awesome - it was like you went back in time 50 years ago to the way the USA used to be. People actually say hello to their neighbors. They're friendly and polite for the most part. It really threw me and took some getting used to - especially coming from L.A. where people are generally pretentious a-holes by nature.

The downsides (as has been said) are that the weather absolutely is suicide-inducing bad for about 9 months out of the year. Yes, the rain makes those beautiful forests, but when I lived there it literally rained for 50 straight days in a row, with little or no letup. I'm not joking - I tracked it. I did not see the sun for literally 50+ days consecutively. Sorry, but I can't handle that. I ran away screaming for my sanity.

The other (major) downside is the economy. Even in the best of times, Oregon is tough to find work in. In this economy it's probably downright impossible. We lived there in 2002-2003 just in time for the GWB recession (the one virtually everyone has forgotten about) hit full swing. My wife lost her job and looked for months, only able to find junky part-time or pitiful-paying full-time work that she wasn't interested in. She eventually got a position back down in Orange County a week after applying and looking around once we made the decision to get out and go back to SoCal. YMMV, but a lot of the economy up there is NOT what I'd consider exciting, dynamic, forward-thinking type stuff - it's a lot of residential contracting, landscaping, truck driving, auto repair and similar "job, not career" type stuff, most of it involving some kind of manual labor. It's not a place for highly-educated, white-collar types unless you get VERY lucky (there are some good professional businesses in/around the cities, but they're few and far between). There are a lot of low-rent loser/hippy types and a lot of boorish redneck types, which is a drag on things (most people are pretty cool though, but there are a lot of roach clips and skoal tins/old pickups disproportionate to the population size...)

YMMV. It's a nice place and I got to see/do some amazing things up there. The flying I did there in particular was something I'll never forget. It was simply awesome. I greatly enjoyed moving up there to experience it, and I greatly enjoyed leaving it after seeing how dreadful the weather and economic climate can be.

[motion]

I went there 15 years ago looking for land to buy. It scared me. I haven't been back since.

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

Upside:

Weather - July-Sept
Lack of traffic on southern coast
Beaches, Mountains and desert.
Crater lake
Bend
NE Oregon has some of the best sport driving roads anywhere
Lack of OSP in NE Oregon
Oregon Raceway Park in Grass Valley
Rogue River
Mt. Hood
Emory's
Mosier Route 30 Porsche Museum
Columbia River Gorge
I-5 - Eugene to Calif.
Rattlesnake Grade
Dooley Mtn Rd.
Hwy 395 - Pendleton to John Day
Hells Canyon
Hwy 47 and surrounding roads NW of Portland. Just go get lost for a day.

To the list, let me add:
Spectacular Mountain Biking!
Smith Rock State Park (climbing)
Crater Lake
Kalmiopsis Wilderness
Crooked River Gorge
No Sales Tax (plenty of other financial issues though)
Rogue River Wild and Scenic Area
Bend - very cool outdoors oriented/micro-brew town

As far as the rain goes, more of Oregon is arid than wet. You wouldn't know that talking to people, but most people live/work/visit within about 75 miles of the I-5 corridor. Once you are west of the Cascades, the rest of the state is much drier. The southern part, where we live, is also a little drier than the northern area. We are more similar to Redding, CA here, in Medford. The rain, even here, does grate on me in the winter. But more than the rain bothers me, it's the fog in this valley during the winter. The fog drives me kind of nuts. I periodically make escapes to California or Arizona to reset my clock.

Sid? You ever come out here, ship your bike and I'll take you on some fine adventures!

angela

[porsche4life]

Angela, if I ever make it out that way I will have to drive so I can haul all my climbing gear and my bike.

I have a feeling you would embarrass the hell out of me on a trail though. We'd have to go climbing to even the score.

[herr_oberst]

A few other cool things; at least from a Portland perspective;

The city likes cyclists. I hardly ever drive to work.
An Urban Growth Boundary keeps sprawl in check.
Powells Books.
Food carts.

[widgeon13]

any decent videographer can make a pile of **** look good, we do it back east all the time.

[porsche4life]

Landscape like that isn't found everywhere....

I don't care what you think of their political policies, it still looks like a gorgeous place...


God, uptight much?

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

We lived there in 2002-2003 just in time for the GWB recession.

At least you didn't have to suffer thru the OBAMA depreression there; it's much worse!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I can only imagine! OR is NOT a good place to be in a downturn - this much I know. The current one has got to be awful up there!

I forgot to mention that whole weird "can't pump your own gas" thing. I always hated that. I used to drive over the bridge to Vancouver, WA just to get gas because I found it that annoying...

[scottmandue]

Very cool state... I love it up there!

Having said that... my wife is moving down here... my old bones can't take the cold and wet.