Well I have been living up in the Hills of Colorados for too long now and I am starting to consider well, believe it or not I ma starting to consider coming out to San Francisco to co back to school/get a respectable job sort of ish. What are your thoughts any playparks/creeks? how is the skiing within a reasonable distance, backcountry? climbing, surfing?

thanks,
Ian

sorry I am lame, but any insight would be helpful

playparks, haha
to got to any real river you had better be willing to spend a lot on gas

get ready to bend over for rent or home purchase too. Stay in the mountains....way too many people in the bay driving Porsche Cayennes to come up to their second million dollar home in Tahoe. Forgive me....I am bitter about the bay....every week end they clean out my local Safeway of bread and milk and congest my streets with expensive German SUV's.

If you like the city though apparently it kicks ass....but bring your pocketbook.

Hey man,

Sacramento is closer to paddling/skiing/climbing/etc than the Bay Area. Frisco does have surf though...

As far as the paddling goes, Colorado really can't touch Cali. Same with skiing, both in bounds and in the backcountry. CA just gets more snow to cover the moguls, doesn't get cold so it doesn't get icy, and has a maritime snowpack which means snow sticks to the steeps and the avi danger is lower.

There is a reason people from Colorado travel here to paddle every summer and a reason paddlers from Cali don't make the journey to Colorado to paddle. Not much of a play park scene here if that's what you're looking for though. San Juan in Sac-town and Reno. That's it. San Juan dominates Reno though (when it's in). There is so much good paddling all around though, you'll quickly find yourself not missing the ol' playparks of Colorado.

Unless you want to surf, I'd try to get closer to the mountains than San Fransisco personally.

Hope this helps.