I have two great one-year professional opportunities to chose from but as m having a hard time. Big into the outdoors - trails, hiking, running. Not so much into nightlife, though I am a single guy and don’t want to be a hermit. Anyone familiar at all with both areas? Pay and benefits comparable. Have at it and thanks!
Every time I've been to Lexington, the traffic makes getting anywhere extremely frustrating.
It's one year, just pick one. Lol. You ain't headed to Boulder or Burlington calm down
Hah! Good point…they both seem like good options and I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts. The traffic comment is helpful because I would be hopping from site to site in Lexington.
Walkin' to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke
But he's a-headin' west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee
Is this real? Johnson City has like no culture. Unless all you want to do is run in the country, Lexington is better in every way. Bays Mountain outside Kingsport is a cool place to run, so there is that.
If you are into outdoors, that’s a very easy decision to just go to Johnson City. You won’t be disappointed. Great trails, good food, good people, minimal bullsh*t, cheaper than Asheville. I’m a little bias, but aren’t we all.
Louisville native and UK double grad here that lived in Lexington for several years after school. Lexington is a great town. Not much urban trail running (unlike Louisville and the Olmstead park systems) but Lexington is barely 30 minutes from Red River Gorge, one of the most outstanding places in the world for rock climbing, camping, trail running, and hiking. Look up Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge. Its incredible.
+1 for Red River Gorge. Great place
In Johnson City, you will have a short drive to get to a lot of nice trails in the hills/mountains. And it is just around a 90 min drive to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway and all the best spots in the mountains in NC. Lexington has nice parks in the city with good running trails. But you have to drive about 90 min south to get into the mountains in the Daniel Boone National Forest (which is pretty cool, but not as expansive as what you will find along the Blue Ridge Highway). So, Johnson City is probably the winner when it comes to outdoor recreations. Johnson City is a small college town. It is about an hour to Ashville if you want more things to do on the weekend. Lexington is a decent sized city and has concerts, museums, etc.
But which town is better for running out the door?
It's like asking if you'd rather have gonorrhea or syphilis.
This is all great stuff so far. I am curious about easy access to trails since I’ll be pretty busy. The director at the Kentucky program is an endurance athlete and was raving about Red River Gorge as well.
Lexington is no NYC and contains an unfortunate excess of suburban-style development (contributing to traffic congestion), but, compared to Johnson City, is markedly more city and less town. Further, Lexington has become very bicycle-friendly the past 10 years and the growing number of diverse & progressive neighborhoods is a refreshing contrast to the static, reactionary monoculture that dominates the rest of the state.
If you ever wanted to take a deep dive into bourbon and thoroughbred horseracing, central KY is probably the epicenter--Pappyland, some call it--of both concerns. Lexington is home to the Univ of KY, which means you would be able to bike to several good NCAA track meets every year (and the annual state HS championships held at UKY). Louisville and Cincinnati are each a one hour drive away.
I live in downtown Lexington and can easily access the Legacy Trail (link below) by foot for most daily workouts and almost all of my weekend long runs and bike excursions into the horse country just north of the city.
a current Lexintonian wrote:
Lexington is no NYC and contains an unfortunate excess of suburban-style development (contributing to traffic congestion), but, compared to Johnson City, is markedly more city and less town. Further, Lexington has become very bicycle-friendly the past 10 years and the growing number of diverse & progressive neighborhoods is a refreshing contrast to the static, reactionary monoculture that dominates the rest of the state.
Depends on where you're at for "bicycle friendly." Outside of New Circle, it's difficult to access the interior on a bike - only a few GOOD/truly protected from cars ways of accessing the interior of New Circle: Greentree Road, The Lexmark bridge that Legacy Trail uses, and Lansdowne Dr/Clays Mill Rd/Parkers Mill are good enough to be considered "safe." And most of those are on the south side. Besides the Lexmark bridge, no good options for those anywhere from the northwest quadrant to the east side.
It's definitely moving in the direction of more bicycle friendly, but still hostile to those outside of New Circle. I'd definitely look for a place on the interior of New Circle if looking for a place to live in Lexington.
Josh439 wrote:
+1 for Red River Gorge. Great place
Another +1 for Red River Gorge. It’s one of my favorite places to hike that is east of the Mississippi. There are a lot of great places, northern Georgia in the Appalachians, just a few hours away in sw North Carolina, the White Mountains, Isle Royale in Lake Superior, etc, but RRG is right there with all of those. Just be careful and don’t do anything stupid. Several people die there every year taking unnecessary risks.
Johnson City, TN has better outdoor opportunities.