SurlyDave wrote on 01/27/20 at 2:04am:
If that's your local stuff, I have to ask-why you moving to NC? I suppose ones retirement goes further here and there's way less hippies if that bothers you but it looks like you've got heaven outside your door.
There are some nice trails here, for sure, and I will miss them. However I also miss the beautiful deciduous forests of back east, the hero dirt single track winding through trees, the fall colors and change of seasons... Also, much of what we do here is impacted by fire damage and/or risk. Seems like every year is another big fire, and another 20,000 acres of back-country that is nuked back to the stone age. Right now half of my favorite single track back in Cleveland National Forest is "off-limits" while they wait for the scrub to recover so the trails are stabilized. I may never get the chance to bike on them again.
And then there's California. Take everything bad you have ever heard about California, and believe it
Then assume it is worse than it sounds. Since we moved here 20 years ago, the population of California has grown by about the same amount as the entire population of North Carolina. And all of those people live in a narrow band along the coast. The congestion is terrible... housing prices are through the roof... our schools are the worst in the country... our top marginal income tax rate is 13%... I could go on and on. And the more the government tries to "fix" things, the worse it gets.
I get that I will have a two hour drive if I want to bike Pisgah National Forest. But I also hope to be living within easy biking distance of Lake Norman State Park. And everywhere I look I see communities around Charlotte that are interested in the biking community, and want to increase trail mileage and improve/expand bike lanes.
Did you know Tarheel TrailBlazers are actually mentioned in the Strategic Plan of the city of Troutman? It's what brought me to this site!