Car-free city with accessible XC skiing?
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Car-free city with accessible XC skiing?
Looking for opinions and input on a good city with dependable snow to live a bike-based lifestyle where I can still walk, ski or bus to XC ski trails - I must have my skiing. I'm open to any part of the lower 48, but it must have dependable snow, which rules out a place like Minneapolis. Any ideas? Thanks.
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What about a small town, like Fargo or something?
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OK, I'm going on thirty year old information, which is when I last lived there, but it's still just as cycling accessible as I remember it: Erie, PA. I lived without a car, or with the car parked 99% of the time, got around on a Raleigh 3-speed, or whatever collection of 10-speeds I had at the time.
Big pluses: From Lake Erie south to 18th street (the town's laid out in a grid, numeric streets are east/west), it's flat. Heading south from 18th Street going back to I-90 you've got a constant rise, but nothing that an English 3-speed with a fit rider couldn't easily handle. Presque Isle State Park is a 17-mile loop out into the lake, excellent for daily training, and good XC skiing in the winter.
Winter - can you say lake effect snows? We're talking the same weather that occasionally shuts down Buffalo, only Buffalo gets all the publicity. Heading east on US20 or I-90 through Northeast, PA and Ripley, NY you run into a number of ski areas, and XC was welcomed there back when it first got going.
Rereading your initial post, OK, living in the city probably means having to drive to ski areas. Live south of the city, just south of I-90 and you're in the lake effect belt. Find yourself a place in the open area and just strap your skiis on at the back door. That's how I used to do it.
Big pluses: From Lake Erie south to 18th street (the town's laid out in a grid, numeric streets are east/west), it's flat. Heading south from 18th Street going back to I-90 you've got a constant rise, but nothing that an English 3-speed with a fit rider couldn't easily handle. Presque Isle State Park is a 17-mile loop out into the lake, excellent for daily training, and good XC skiing in the winter.
Winter - can you say lake effect snows? We're talking the same weather that occasionally shuts down Buffalo, only Buffalo gets all the publicity. Heading east on US20 or I-90 through Northeast, PA and Ripley, NY you run into a number of ski areas, and XC was welcomed there back when it first got going.
Rereading your initial post, OK, living in the city probably means having to drive to ski areas. Live south of the city, just south of I-90 and you're in the lake effect belt. Find yourself a place in the open area and just strap your skiis on at the back door. That's how I used to do it.
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Boulder, Flagstaff, Salt Lake, Taos, Glenwood Colorado. Ogden Utah, Billings, Bozeman, shall I keep going?
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After the first real snow of the season here, I was riding on a street along a park. It took me a long while to figure out that the strange tracks in the snow were from cross-country skis. This was well within the city limits.
They also don't plow the MUPs here so that XC skiers can use them.
They also don't plow the MUPs here so that XC skiers can use them.
#6
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Any of the lake effect snow cities (usually south and east shores) of the Great Lakes will do you just fine.
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Winnipeg!!
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Big Bear Lake, Mammoth Lakes
Or for a change, go to Palm Springs. Daytime temps are often in the 70s in winter and you can take a 15 minute Tram ride up to Mt. San Jacinto and enjoy XC skiing in Long Valley.
Or for a change, go to Palm Springs. Daytime temps are often in the 70s in winter and you can take a 15 minute Tram ride up to Mt. San Jacinto and enjoy XC skiing in Long Valley.
Last edited by Artkansas; 01-04-08 at 07:48 PM.
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I assume it snows a lot in Burlington VT.
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Portland, Oregon. Lots of shuttle services to the mountain. Mt. Hood.
Bend, Oregon. Lots of shuttle services to the mountain. Mt. Bachelor.
Ashland, Oregon. Lots of shuttle services to the mountain. Mt. Ashland.
Personally, I'd pick Portland. Daily bus service to stops in the coast range (fantastic mountain bike trails) and Oregon coast. Too many retired Californians in Bend and Ashland. Property prices are outrageous in all three as compared to income. There was an article in the paper this morning comparing housing prices and home ownership between Iowa and Oregon. Housing costs three times as much in Oregon with about the same average income. Of course, there's a reason for that. People like living here. Even when its raining.
Bend, Oregon. Lots of shuttle services to the mountain. Mt. Bachelor.
Ashland, Oregon. Lots of shuttle services to the mountain. Mt. Ashland.
Personally, I'd pick Portland. Daily bus service to stops in the coast range (fantastic mountain bike trails) and Oregon coast. Too many retired Californians in Bend and Ashland. Property prices are outrageous in all three as compared to income. There was an article in the paper this morning comparing housing prices and home ownership between Iowa and Oregon. Housing costs three times as much in Oregon with about the same average income. Of course, there's a reason for that. People like living here. Even when its raining.
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I live right in town. I live within a two miles of three parks with nice cross-country ski trails. Sure, they are only about 2 to 3 mile long trails, but it is great to lash the skis to my bicycle and ride to a trail for a quick lunch-time ski. Not enough? Do it twice.
I love it. We are having a great snow year and the trails have been great all of December.
I love it. We are having a great snow year and the trails have been great all of December.
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Minneapolis has places that makes snow (accessible) now so I'm not sure if that is dependable enough?
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Chicago. Absolutely the best city to live in during the summer. Street festivals every weekend. Bike culture securely in place. Also, plenty of cross country skiing on the lakefront due to lake effect snow. If you moved to Chicago, you would not be sorry.
Crosscountry skiing around Chicagoland....
https://www.chicagowilderness.org/exp.../ski/index.cfm
Found this little presentation online for getting out and about in and around Chicago.....
https://astro.uchicago.edu/~coble/pho...ac/top_ten.pdf
Also here is a link that shows different areas all within the city limits that are specifically used in the winter for crosscountry skiing.....
https://www.chicagoaa.com/news/30211.html
Crosscountry skiing around Chicagoland....
https://www.chicagowilderness.org/exp.../ski/index.cfm
Found this little presentation online for getting out and about in and around Chicago.....
https://astro.uchicago.edu/~coble/pho...ac/top_ten.pdf
Also here is a link that shows different areas all within the city limits that are specifically used in the winter for crosscountry skiing.....
https://www.chicagoaa.com/news/30211.html
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Chicago in the summer? Umm, boy, give me some of that Chicagoland sweltering, humid, summer heat. I get a sweat on just thinking about the summer I spent there. I though Indiana was bad in the summer until I lived there. Florida would be a close second for the worst summer I ever spent. The commute for the xc ski is a little longer though.
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jackson, nh.
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How 'bout Leavenworth WA? It's small, cute and stunning. It is a ways out there but that can be a good thing.
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Chicago in the summer? Umm, boy, give me some of that Chicagoland sweltering, humid, summer heat. I get a sweat on just thinking about the summer I spent there. I though Indiana was bad in the summer until I lived there. Florida would be a close second for the worst summer I ever spent. The commute for the xc ski is a little longer though.
This past Summer, I think I only used my window AC unit for four days. You must have visited during a bad heat wave or something because Chicago is NOT known for bad Summer weather. And, if you do get too hot you can go down to the miles upon miles of lakefront and be comforted by the cool breeze off the lake. Do a search for Chicago in the Summer and you will see how great a place Chicago is to live.
https://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/w...meEnumValue=38
Last edited by jcwitte; 01-06-08 at 03:20 PM.
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Looking for opinions and input on a good city with dependable snow to live a bike-based lifestyle where I can still walk, ski or bus to XC ski trails - I must have my skiing. I'm open to any part of the lower 48, but it must have dependable snow, which rules out a place like Minneapolis. Any ideas? Thanks.
Cities where you have to drive off to the snow and find parking, pay fees, etc. are going to make a car free lifestyle more difficult.
Last edited by Cosmoline; 01-07-08 at 06:15 PM.
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I'm car free in Anchorage. Plenty of x-country skiing here, though cycling in the winter can get kinda scary. We have half a year of snow and ice. Fairbanks is also nicer than people think, with less insane traffic and some truly fantastic x-country skiing. You can strap on your skis and keep going for hundreds of miles.
Cities where you have to drive off to the snow and find parking, pay fees, etc. are going to make a car free lifestyle more difficult.
Cities where you have to drive off to the snow and find parking, pay fees, etc. are going to make a car free lifestyle more difficult.
So it looks like the Upper Midwest for me, either Duluth or Marquette (both good cycling towns from what I've heard), where the snow comes to me instead of vice versa. I figure I can bike anywhere so it all comes down to winter sports for me. Thanks for all the responses so far.
https://www.fasterskier.com/travel.ph...583e022df92465
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Bend, Oregon. Lots of shuttle services to the mountain. Mt. Bachelor.
Ashland, Oregon. Lots of shuttle services to the mountain. Mt. Ashland.
I agree with the rest of that analysis
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Novosibirsk, Russia. 1.5 million people in that southwestern Siberian city. We lived downtown, and had a bus stop five minutes away on a bus route that took us right to some top-notch XC skiing trails. The ride wasn't that long either. Some of the best memories of my childhood.
#24
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So it looks like the Upper Midwest for me, either Duluth or Marquette (both good cycling towns from what I've heard), where the snow comes to me instead of vice versa. I figure I can bike anywhere so it all comes down to winter sports for me. Thanks for all the responses so far.
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So it looks like the Upper Midwest for me, either Duluth or Marquette (both good cycling towns from what I've heard), where the snow comes to me instead of vice versa. I figure I can bike anywhere so it all comes down to winter sports for me. Thanks for all the responses so far.
https://www.fasterskier.com/travel.ph...583e022df92465
https://www.fasterskier.com/travel.ph...583e022df92465
I agree that in the west, a xc skiing trip often involves long road trips, which explains why living here in southern cal I rarely slap on the skinny skis. The big blizzards that just unloaded at Mammoth make it tempting, but 10 hours round trip by car don't make that sound quite as good.