I'm a senior in high school in Nor Cal and have been looking at schools in Portland, Seattle and Tacoma and was wondering if any wheelers might be able to give me a heads up about the wheelin in those areas and also life in general for a college kid. Thanx.

What school you looking at going to? I know Portland is a rad place to live going to college. Its rains all winter long, its always cloudy, and parking sucks in Portland. It is only an hour and 15 minutes to the ski resorts(where I live). The coast isnt much farther in the opposite direction. There are plenty of lakes around and the Columbia river is right there so you can go wakeboarding all summer long. Surfing is miss and miss more but we still have fun in out full wetsuits with booties and hats. Girls are white from the lack of sun, generally highly educated, and some have lots of tattoos. There is the dragstrip to go race all the ricers legally a few minutes away. Basically I love it there, and if I could live in Portland and still afford my hobbies I would in a heartbeat.

O yah, wheeling! Its all muddy trails in the rain, and the snow snow snow. Not the Cali kind, but thick, wet heavy stuff. boggers and iroks are kings most of the time. wheeling you probably need a trailer your rig if you plan on having a really good time. But if you are light on the go pedal and don't go to extreme all the time you can drive and back. Everyone else can correct me, but I bet living in Portland all the decent wheeling areas are 30-60 minutes away.

thanx 4 the advice I was looking at portland state, university of puget sound and university of washington. You made it sound like portland is expensive so should a starving college kid be worried.

Its not expensive at all compared to places like Alaska, California, Wyoming etc. But I spend 3000 a month on parts so paying 1000 a month on a small crappy shop is not my style. Of coruse I dont have a shop here, but plenty of room for my stuff... I am also looking to buy a house, so portland is out of my target market. If you are renting, then its great!

Another thing, if you live here you have to brew your own beer. I dunno, but everyone does it. I think its a rule somewhere in the Oregon state law books...:smokin:

PSU is a good school, so is U of O...but UW is the best school in the PNW. They all have great undergrad programs, but UW has some of the best grad programs in the nation. U of O honors is pretty good too.

Life in the PNW is awesome. If you can make it through the winters (which are pretty mild compared to the midwest), then you will be well rewarded with the summers. But don't tell anyone about it up here, we want to keep this a well guarded secret. :D

I was mainly looking at U of W and Puget sound. Are there many wheelers in tacoma or seattle that I could learn the ropes from.

Dont be a husky have to live in seattle were it rains all the time. Be a duck the valley is awesome doesnt rain as much. I am wanting to move back down there sick of the rain in the middle of the summer. You can always be a Idaho Vandal that is a great school with tons of wheeling 10 min from the campus.

Dont be a husky have to live in seattle were it rains all the time. Be a duck the valley is awesome doesnt rain as much. I am wanting to move back down there sick of the rain in the middle of the summer. You can always be a Idaho Vandal that is a great school with tons of wheeling 10 min from the campus.

Fuck the Vandals... Cross back over to Washington and be a Couger. :flipoff2:

how do you really feel about the vandals

I wasn't looking at Idaho, because it didn't have a good program in the degree I wanted.

You can always be a Idaho Vandal that is a great school with tons of wheeling 10 min from the campus.
x2 to U of I being a good school, but the wheeling part is not completely true, to my understanding they've shut down the majority of Moscow Mountain to Vehicles, so it's only Bicycles and hiking trails.

seattle is awesome. Reiter Trails is only an hour away plus you got tons of wheeling in the cascades. Everyone bitches about the rain, but its really not that bad. I have a lot of friends attending the UW right now

I went to Western. Better fishing close by, and Mt Baker an hour away for snowboarding.

Yeah, I had my college priorities straight.:emb:

Although I shoulda gone to Central for better wheeling. :D

Western Washington university up in Bellingham is good. I go to Central Washington University in Ellensburg. If you dont like the rain and the city bullshit/hippies, you want to go to CWU. Not sure what you are going to school for, but staying out of seattle/lower puget sound would be top on my list of priorities when choosing a Washington school.

What are you planning to study?

I want a degree in history and depending on where I get in I was gonna go for a double major with oceanography.

x2 to U of I being a good school, but the wheeling part is not completely true, to my understanding they've shut down the majority of Moscow Mountain to Vehicles, so it's only Bicycles and hiking trails.

I heard that Moscow Mountain was completely closed down to vehicles. :(

Also, go up to Seattle and spend some time around there this fall or winter. A lot of people complain about the rain and it bothers quite a few people, but I never minded it. Just another way of life. Probably a bit different than North California. ;)

Go to the school that best fits your education.. and there will be wheeling around.


Don't f-around with your education. Get what you want/need since your going to be paying out the ass for it, and probably (truthfully) won't have a ton of time to go wheeling after the first couple years or so (after you get all the BS classes out of the way and really start working on your degree(s)).


Any school in the PNW will have wheeling *reasonably* close by, and ton's of wheelers to show you around, so don't worry about that.


If you can, plan on two rigs. Reliable transportation (that what ever "special friend(s)" would be willing to seen in. I.E. cheap, reliable and clean). Then your wheeling rig so if you bust it playing during the weekend you don't have to panic and rush to get it fixed when you should be doing other things. Allows you to tinker on it more as well. I know it was nice for me when I was in college (another WWU guy here). But like I said, go to the college that best matches your degree/career goals.

Oregon State in Corvallis OR have a great oceanography program and a huge wave lab. I am currently going to school at OSU for a mechanical engineering degree.

There really is no wheeling within the immediate vicinity of Corvallis. But you can drive a couple hours and hit up Tillamook State Forest for some good trails. The Oregon dunes are a lot of fun. Central Oregon is high desert and has a bunch of OHV trails. Snow wheeling kicks ass in the winter if you go up high enough in elevation.

If you don't mind rain and gloomy weather 9 months out of the year then you should be fine. And summers are really nice here.

I was mainly looking at U of W and Puget sound. Are there many wheelers in tacoma or seattle that I could learn the ropes from.

lots of wheelers in the PNW.

Im 30 min North of UW and I love the area we have all 4 seasons but not to the extreme. The UW is one of the best schools in the country and theres good wheeling. I am 45 min from reiter pit we have, trails, rocks, mud, sand. Than theres walker valley thats 1 hr 15 min from me its an ORV park with some pretty decent trails, than Naches with Moon rocks, drunky rocks and funny rocks thats about 2 1/2 hours from me. I went there for the first time this weekend and WOW i had a great time. REAL rocks and some cool trails. Rim Rock is 3 1/2 hours away has hill climbs and off camber ridges and mud. Liberty 2 hrs away its a ORV park i do belive, and it has some cool trails mud and some rocks, Long off camber ridges.

and thats to name most of em Im pretty sure there are some more but cant think right now trying to recoop after a long wheeling weekend. Hope that helps

There is a bunch of wheeling around corvallis i was there about two weeks ago and we went out all weekend in the hills and found some pretty decent stuff. I go to U of O. there is some wheeling around here. check out local clubs and they can point in more specific direction

It would also help to know what you are going to major in. Different schools specialize in different fields.

Moscow has almost no wheeling. Other than snow wheeling. But the U of I is a great school, and this townis pretty decent too.

I want a degree in history and depending on where I get in I was gonna go for a double major with oceanography.. Thats what I want my major in.

. Thats what I want my major in.

My bad...
I got nothin for you. My cousin majored in history at Stanford, and last I knew, all the decent oceanography programs were in California or Florida.