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I am a single parent currently living in Georgia, right out side of Savannah and work as a PA for the army at Fort Stewart. What I like about the area we live is it's green with woods and open spaces everywhere, theres plenty of creeks, ponds, lakes to fish and I can even fish brackish water in the marshes. My 16 yr old son and I enjoy being outdoors; we can be fishing, kayaking, hunting, trapping, riding dirt bikes and atv 4 wheelers easily within minutes. If I didnt have to work I'd spend as much time outdoors as around the house fixing stuff or surfing the net. My son also enjoys being with kids his age and is not into any vices (smoking, drinking, drugs,etc). We both attend church and I am a christian. Although we are black, sadly enough most black people, I run across dont enjoy the activities we do (not trying to generalize but we find more whites when we are out in the woods or in the water).I like it here well enough but am considering somewhere new. I grew up in San Francisco and spent much of my youth camping, fishing, hiking in northern california coast-yes the coastal redwoods. After college, I worked as a park ranger for a few years (should have never quit) before changing careers then movingto Nebraska. Finally, I moved to Georgia where I lived north of Atlanta (north Georgia is beautiful); last few years have been here on the southern Georgia coast. From what I have read Boise sounds nice. Both my son and I feel as comfortable being with and doing spending time with whites as much as we do blacks. His current friends are few (I try to be selective who he spends time with) but are mostly white, couple blacks and couple hispanics. A good high school and colleges within convient distance is important.
So what do you think, is Boise for me? I prefer living in a laid back enough smaller city or right outside the city where people are outdoors oriented-I'm open minded as they dont all have to love guns and hunting or drive a 4WD truck like me.Only possible georgraphical feature I'm not too sure about is that it seems to be surrounded by bare mountains, but as long as you dont fry during the summer because of lack of tree cover, I'm ok.
Last edited by outdoorman; 04-25-2012 at 03:05 PM..
Hello, I have lived in Idaho most of my life and my husband and I are avid outdoors people. We hunt, fish, raft, ski, boat, snowmobile, 4-wheel... etc.. Boise itself is a city... but the mountains are less than one hour away so it is not tough to get out and enjoy all that the area has to offer. The pubic school systems are pretty diverse. I have two daughters who enjoyed sports and many activities and are attending college on scholarships. It does get a bit hot in the summer months of July and August... but is a very dry heat, so not humid like you might have in GA. We have two good military bases (Gowen Field and Mountain Home) in the area. Good Luck! Idaho welcomes a great sportsman and stewards of our beautiful outdoors with open arms
As someone that grew up in north Florida (Jacksonville), I've found the Boise area to be amazing in comparison for most outdoor activities. The biggest difference is the huge amount of public land, which is in short supply in the south. Combined with the four season climate, Boise has far superior options for most outdoor activities (e.g. hiking, rock climbing, camping, mountain biking, kayaking, river fishing, ORVing, skiing, snowshoeing, etc.). The only area in which I consider Georgia/Florida to be better is in saltwater fishing and of course the beaches!
From what you described Boise might be a good fit, it has a pretty good university (Boise State) right in the city. Of course, many other cities in the west might as well. Some people in Boise whine about the summer heat, but I consider it pretty reasonable compared to summers in the south. It is hot, but way less humid.
Thanks for the information both of you have given. I hadnt thought of snowmobiling, that would be a welcomed new experience by both my son and I ( I took my boys skiing a few times when they were younger and they really took to it). Also, I realize I will miss the salt water fishing but before moving to Savannah all I did was fresh water so I'm fine with it. Zedd- the areas I've lived in Georgia have plenty of public lands (WMAs, State Parks, National Forests, Lakes & Rivers, even Wooded Military Reservations) but are you saying most of the land immediately surrounding Boise is public open land? If thats the case, you got my adrenaline pumping. Also can anyone tell me the closest public hunting to Boise?-any info on what type of game; how heavy is hunting pressure, etc
Last edited by outdoorman; 04-27-2012 at 09:15 PM..
I looked up climate stuff for you and was really surprised that Omaha and Atlanta have very similar weather and that San Fran has some serious nice weather. I knew San Diego was great like that, as if a thermostat had been set, but not San Francisco.
I looked up climate stuff for you and was really surprised that Omaha and Atlanta have very similar weather and that San Fran has some serious nice weather. I knew San Diego was great like that, as if a thermostat had been set, but not San Francisco.
Yes, moving from Omaha to Atlanta was surprise-both hot and humid during summers so no adjustment between the two during summers. Nebraska winters can be cold with snowfall/some black ice on the roads. San Francisco on the ocean and bay is very cold and foggy during much of the year, except indian summers.
The valley in which Boise is located is mostly private land. However this area is border by mountains to the north (Boise National Forest), mountains to the south (lots of BLM range land), and high desert to the east (BLM high desert). There are also some WMAs in the area. Interestingly, roughly 60% of Idaho is public land. To my knowledge, all of that land is legal for hunting, subject of course to Idaho Fish & Game regulations.
Outdoorman, I live in IL but am researching Boise as a future? son in law is considering grad school there. I did learn tonight that the African-American population there is only about 1.4% of Boise's 200K+ population (about 600K in the metro area). My younger daughter is adopted from China, and the Asian population there is over 3% (that daughter is heading to OK after graduation). Boise seems like a great place to live (it was in top ten best places to live in 2 lists less than 5 yrs ago. For you, though, the low A-A population might be a bummer since your son would have much less opportunity to meet fellow blacks. My Chinese daughter hasn't minded not knowing many other Asian kids (she is marrying a causasian from OK and her friends are nearly all white, one black, none asian other than her Indian roomies. So if the racial imbalance isn't too bad (and there may be a larger percentage of minorities at the state's military bases) I'd say Boise is worth checking out! Good luck!
I missed your original post about possibly coming to the Boise area, but read it when it moved to the head of the list when someone else posted on it yesterday. I am an avid dirt biker who moved to the area last year when I retired. Below is a short list of a couple of riding areas near Boise that I put together for my sons when they come to visit next week. You might find it useful to see what sort of things are available.
If you look at the sizes of some of these riding areas, you'll notice that they are not small. Several are over 100,000 acres and if you want even larger ones, they're also available if you don't mind driving a few hours. Some of these are high desert riding, some are hard mountain forests riding, and most are somewhere in between.
I spent over four years researching various places to live all around the country, and Boise was our first choice by far. We came out here and stayed for a month just to look around, check out the housing market, go shopping, eat at restaurants, and generally try to see what it would be like to live here. Now that I've retired and we've been here a bit over a year, my wife and I know we made the right choice.
Here's the info I sent to my boys:
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I found a cool website (ATV Trails, Motorcycle Trails, Motocross Tracks, California ) that has listings of many of the riding areas in each state. The listing for Idaho is thinly populated, but still shows some good ideas of what's semi-nearby to me. Each listing has info about the particular riding area (some mention bears and wolves, oh my!), and some have photos or videos. I thought it would be neat if you could see some of the stuff that is available within an hour or two from Boise. The first day will be at Hemmingway Butte, mainly because it has the most flat area for re-learning how to ride a dirt bike, plus lots of easy and semi-easy trails). After that....well, here's some suggestions. Comments welcome....
Late note: If you want to combine a fishing trip with some nice motorcycle trail riding, you can go up by the Salmon River. Here's a video of the bike portion...
Hi we are fam from offutt looking to relocate and settle in the Boise area my research still shows low AA population,and an overwhelming percentage of registered sex offenders in Boise Meridian Nampa And even large numbers in Eagle....did you and your family relocate to Boise? If so is there a "black/AA " community? and have topical noticed any racial issues or racial tensions profiling hate crimes etc. ? We are raising a preteen male and a young female toddler....any areas suggested...? If at all? Thanks ~HTown Southern Bell
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Idaho is great -
