I live on the edge of a big city it is considered a “metro area”. If you add up all the different connected cities it’s 2.2 million people.
I hate the city I work in. Where I live is pretty nice.
Lots of bike paths, parks, hiking trails, laws are enforced, everyone is nice, everything is clean, and well maintained. 5 minute drive from my house is a pretty cool trail I hike a lot. I do a 5 mile figure 8. It’s pretty steep up hill for almost 1.5 miles, steep down hill for about a 1 mile, steep uphill 1 mile, then steep down hill for 1.5 miles. It’s all in the trees, I see deer and coyotes if early morning or late evenings.
5 minutes away there is also a pretty famous stealhead river. Lots of salmon and trout fishing nearby.
I have killed some really nice bears an hour away. This area also used to be some of the best blacktail deer hunting around. Those days are over, but there’s still deer. One of my best friends elk hunts about 1.5 hours away. He kills a bull most years. 2 bulls over 300 inches last 5 years.
I elk hunt 5-6 hour drive from home. My buddy and I kill bulls pretty much every year. It’s close enuff that can do 3 day trips over there no problem.
Archery season is a month long!
I’m 1.5 hours from the beach, basically at the start of the foothills of the cascade mountains.
I’m only about 5 minutes away from where there’s no more neighborhoods, and everyone is on some amount of acreage.
I’ve been doing my job for a long time. I’m set up where I can do the paperwork part of it at home if I want. If all my work is done I can head out of town on a Friday afternoon, and be at the beach, or central Oregon by dinner.
Where I am at is a pretty good place to live for me.