Guy,
I lived in the Bay area for about 10 years, 26 years ago, I got out about the time things started to get weird. I mean people in 3 piece suits at Haight & Ashbury, that's just wrong.
I have been in Portland for about 26 years and love it here. Contrary to what some of the folks have said, I find most people in Portland, as well as the rest of the state, to be pretty open when it come to firearms. I never have anybody give me a bad time about guns or hunting, maybe it's just the way I talk about it, I don't know.
Oregon is a shall issue state, so unless you are disqualified you will get a permit if you want one. After you get the Oregon permit, bop across the river to Vancouver and get one in Washington also.
Oregon is actually 2 states. East and West.
Most of the east side is high dessert, long vistas, heat, cold, snow, lots of mountains with skiing and great fishing and hunting. Tends towards the browns and grays.
The west side of the state is coastal, coastal mountains, valley's, rivers, mountains and great hunting and fishing with skiing, if you are into that. Tends to be pretty green.
Both sides have their own beauty, and I enjoy both, a lot.
There are 2 public pistol ranges in Portland and several private ranges, sounds like you might be interested in Douglas Ridge or The Estacada Rod and Gun Club, both have rifle ranges. Just across the river in Vancouver is a public rifle range.
The hunting is for most of North America's big game, deer, elk, bear, pheasant, quail, grouse, chukar, you name it we have it.
About the Elk. We have both Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain, one lives in the more open country but the Roosevelt, the bigger of the two, lives in the western part of the state and spends most of the time in forests and brush so thick you would have a hard time getting a D9 Cat through it. I have never met anyone who has shot one of either uphill from their vehicle, lol.
The fishing is exceptional, in a single day you can fish for, and catch, trout, steelhead, salmon, sturgeon, and many other types. We have everykind of fishing you can imagine from deep sea to pristine mountain lakes and streams.
There are many people who think the next world record walleye will come from the Columbia River.
The weather is divided along the east/west lines as well. As you would imagine, the high dessert doesn't get as much rain as the western part of the state but they get more snow and the summers are much warmer.
Portland, I heard a couple years ago, gets more hours of rain than any other major city in the lower 48. Not more inches, just more hours. We spend weeks at a time in a cool drizzle that we call "Oregon Sunshine". You can tell the foriegnors, they are the ones with umbrellas. People who have been here for a while have moss on their backs and usually walk around with no umbrella and smiles on their faces. The people who were born here all have webbed feet, and moss on their backs.
Most people in the state are friendly, open and helpful. Sure, we have our share of idiots, but so does anywhere.
The summers in Portland are usually pretty nice, we average 9 days a year at 90 degrees or higher. The winters are pretty mild, most years we will get some snow but it seldom sticks around for more than a day or two. The winters do tend to be wet.
The coast is quite moderate in climate, some would say it tends to be cold, but my favorite weather is 50 and raining. The coast range gets snow but the roads are almost never closed, at least not for long.
All in all, this is a pretty special place to live. Come on up and look around. If you need a guide, let me know, I'll grab my fly rod and show you some places.
DM
if I could make my living there, I'd move in a heartbeat.
