LetsRun: Help me plan my trip across the country to Oregon

It depends what you are looking for; and how fast you can run.

If you want a small college town with great running trails and tons of runners...Eugene.

If you want a town that has a hipster and foodie sub culture going along with a side of town where running is the deal, you'll want Portland.

Eugene, easier to get around on by bus.

Portland, there are sides of water you have to deal with. To decide what side of things you want to be on.

Small town: Eugene.

City: Portland.

Follow some runners from both towns on twitter, send out some direct messages.

Get tickets to the Pre classic in Eugene, one of the best meets. Also try out Forrest park in Portland....trail runner heaven.

maps.google.com

I'm not a big city person so I like Eugene more than Portland, I think that's really what it comes down to. I moved here from the east coast and it's definitely a change of pace.

Some other places:

Bend is cool. Great trails, outdoor focused community. Can be expensive, but you get what you pay for. Can feel a bit remote for an east coast person, but it would take a long time to exhaust the outdoor recreation opportunities.

Ashland is cool. Small college town, great parks, trail running community. Easy access to southern Oregon and northern Cali wilderness. Laid back. Southern Oregon has high unemployment, so jobs are scarce.

Corvallis is kind of nerdy/engineer with a bunch of flannel and chain saws thrown in for character. Some great ultra runners in the area. Thriving small college town. A bit underrated, but limited. One hour from Eugene, 90 minutes to Portland.

The coast is great for a visit, but not a great place for young people to live.

Salem is weird. Can't explain it, maybe because it is dominated by the state politics. I would not want to live there.

Visit Hood River (wind sports). Sisters (western themed town, spectacular views). Maupin (rafting), Crater Lake and/or Paulina. Get out to the Wallowas/Joseph near the Idaho border if possible.

Drive a loop from Eugene up Hwy 58 to the crest of the cascades, then take the Cascades Lakes Hwy back road to Bend. Drop a line in Crane Prairie Reservoir or one of the other lakes along the way if you like to fish for trout. Stop into downtown Bend for an evening. From Bend go through Sisters, then take the Old MacKenzie Pass as you head east. Stop at the Dee Wright Observatory made out of lava rock, surrounded by miles of lava flow. Plan a hike of the trailheads into the PCT or other wilderness trails in the area. Take a swim at Belknap Hot Springs or get directions to Cougar Reservoir. Continue on down the MacKenzie Highway back to Springfield, then Eugene, but stop and get out along the way when you can to admire the clarity of the river.

Stop at the Forest Service stations and browse. Talk to the Rangers on duty.

(Beware care break ins (clouting) anywhere along the way at trailheads.)

The U of O running club is very good and coached by Tom Heinonen, but I don't know if they are active in the summer. The only Portland club I know of is the Red Lizards.

The good weather usually starts in June, becomes awesome from July 4 until October. Try to get on as a last minute replacement for Cascades Lakes Relay in late July if you like relays with spectacular scenery.

Check craigslist for jobs. It is highly used in these parts by employers.

Sublet rent is cheap in the summer in the college towns. Eugene's semester starts back up in late September and the market tightens up then.

I moved out from the Midwest after college a couple of decades ago; left a good job for Oregon with no prospects and only $400 in my pocket, and never went back.

That should get you started. One thing you'll learn is that the state is smeared thin with attractions and you'll have the best time if you have gas money and reliable transportation.

Trust me, you don't want to visit Eugene for the "running." You'll be sorely disappointed.

There are nice bike paths, but few running trails. The few that do exist are useless bark-mulch.

Eugene has no competitive road races. You'd think the running capital of the US would have some important road races. But the best Eugene's got is the Butte to Butte 10k, which Steve Plascencia ran once and lowered the course record to sub-30. And the nascent Eugene marathon which is a 2:20 affair at best. Other than that, it's turkey trots and low-key all-comer's meets at Hayward. And not very many.

But what about all the hype? Don't they say Eugene is full of runners and track fans? They sure do, and it's true, if "full" means "several hundred out of a population of over 150,000." The truth is, the average Eugenean knows nothing about track or running and doesn't care. The main newspaper praises the "knowledgeable track fans" yet still publishes results in feet and inches.

Most Eugeneans know Prefontaine because the UO hype machine has bludgeoned them over the head with him for 40 years. And a few remember Salazar because of his restaurant. But go up to anyone and ask who the women's NCAA XC champions are, and you'll get a blank stare. Ask them who Joaquim Cruz was, they'll guess maybe a soccer player. Ask them to pick Nick Symmonds out of a lineup of 3 downtown mall kids, and they'll fail every time.

The sport Eugene really cares about is football. After that there's the minor-league baseball and hockey teams, and basketball. And after that, high school sports. Track is a niche sport in Eugene just like everywhere else. The hype is mainly on the UO campus, a tiny section of a sprawling metropolis.

What you'll really find in Eugene is lots of homeless people and street kids, hippie kids, old people, and fat people. There are plenty of organic-type convenience stores to sell you disgusting grains and vegetables. And raccoons and other vermin on every block.

I'm with you on a lot of that. But what better place are you going to find for running? It sure as hell isn't Portland I can tell you that. You have a great running path in Pre's trail. For the Olympic trials years back they invested a lot in improving the drainage. Amazon trail is good to. If you want to go more trail running there is the Ridgeline trail which is much like Forest Park in Portland. A good amount of high school tracks if you want that. And plenty of bicycle paths. But yeah, Eugene is definitely nothing special anymore as far as the grassroots running culture that its famous for. I'll take your comment about the people as a joke since every community has those people. Its just a matter of how much each community tries to hide it.

The trails are fine, if you like running on bark mulch, which I can't stand. It's like mud. It's for jogging.

Ridgeline is a gravel hiking trail, also overrated as a running surface. What I want out of a trail is good honest dirt.

A brewing friend of mine (very knowledgeable) says that Portland is the best beer town in the country. Something like 50 brewpubs, many of high quality.

I road tripped out to Oregon twice before ultimately moving to Portland. On your road trip, taking a north route (up around Chicago, through Minnesota and North Dakota, through Montana - Glacier NP and Idaho) is a sweet trip. It's a beautiful, low-key part of the country that gets overlooked way too much. It'll slow you down and there is some great running along the way.

If you have time, it's worth driving north, then coming down to Colorado. Salt Lake City can be cool depending on the time of year (the heat of the summer makes the city smell horrible, at least that's my experience). Wyoming is so open and easy to travel and camp if you want to cut through there.

Enjoy your trip. Take your time. Explore this awesome country of ours. Some of the least populated spots are the most beautiful. I've spent a fair amount of time in both Eugene and Portland and Portland is far better in my eye, but if you're 22-23 you might like Eugene better. Portland, while far smaller than BOS-WASH on the east coast, has a tremendous amount of perks that come with living in a city. If you are looking for more affordable housing, stay away from the west side of the river. The east side is more low-key and more affordable and areas like inner Southeast and inner Northeast are pretty sweet with tons of young people.

If you're looking for a job in Oregon, good luck! The state's economy is really weak and unless you are willing to take whatever job you can get, it's going to take a while to find one.

Have fun!

Pre's trail isn't like mud. I think it used to be. But they put a hell of a lot of money into that to deal with drainage to help attract the Olympic Trials. Amazon trail has muddy patches here and there, but otherwise its well maintained too.

Bad Wigins wrote:

The trails are fine, if you like running on bark mulch, which I can't stand. It's like mud. It's for jogging.

Ridgeline is a gravel hiking trail, also overrated as a running surface. What I want out of a trail is good honest dirt.