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  1. #1
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    Living in Logan, Utah

    My wife just interviewed for a job at Utah State University in Logan. She won't now if she's been offered the position for another few weeks to a month, but she said the interview went very well and she liked the place a lot. The complicating factor is that I will hopefully be offered a job before that where we live now in Western Massachusetts. The question is basically whether - if I am - we should stall for time to see if USU offers her on (and potentially me something to entice her to go). The crux of this is how much we'd like to live in Logan. We have a three year old, so want to set down roots for the next decade or two.

    The pros and cons from what I can tell:

    Pros:
    1. Near the mountains with the canyon butting up against the city.
    2. Relatedly, good snow and skiing - Beaver seems fun as a little, not too crowded home mountain and all the big Utah hills are just over what I'm driving to Vermont now.
    3. People in the university seem pleased with the schools
    4. Non-Mormon community apparently is pretty tight, esp. around the university
    5. I've got friends there already.

    Cons:
    1. Farther from family
    2. Air quality - which is supposedly improving but still not great compared to some other places.
    3. Lack of diversity and being non-mormons in a mormon area?
    4. Not a great job market if the university didn't hire me too.

    So tell me about Logan? Anyone live there or spend a lot of time there? Do you like it? Wouldyou want to live there?
    Last edited by MarcusBrody; 11-10-2019 at 01:18 PM.

  2. #2
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    Never been there except driving through but there's been a few threads about living there, they're mixed in with other stuff in this but here ya go: https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...rchid=21291957

  3. #3
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    Logan Peak, Wood Camp Cirque, Garden City Bowls. Logan is beautiful. The terrain can be steep, and there are a few yurts that people enjoy. Friends who have lived there tell me that there is definitely the isolation/living in a bubble feel. Clean College town vibe, for sure. Something like 85% of the 50,000 inhabitants are white/Mormon. There is a lot of statistical information on bestplaces.com
    To me it sounds like a really cool place to spend the year

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by iceman View Post
    Never been there except driving through but there's been a few threads about living there, they're mixed in with other stuff in this but here ya go: https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...rchid=21291957
    Hmm, the link isn't working for me. I found a couple of threads, but the newest was from 2008. I might have missed some of the more mixed in stuff though.

    Quote Originally Posted by schindlerpiste View Post
    Logan Peak, Wood Camp Cirque, Garden City Bowls. Logan is beautiful. The terrain can be steep, and there are a few yurts that people enjoy. Friends who have lived there tell me that there is definitely the isolation/living in a bubble feel. Clean College town vibe, for sure. Something like 85% of the 50,000 inhabitants are white/Mormon. There is a lot of statistical information on bestplaces.com
    To me it sounds like a really cool place to spend the year
    Yeah it sounds pretty good to me too. I was actually the one who was initially excited about a job there. I applied to something I was nearly overqualified for and didn't hear a peep. My wife was convinced to put in her application and they call her up and fly her out. So is life. ha . The bubble part doesn't really bother me, though being out of driving distance to family wouldn't be ideal.

  5. #5
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    Another thing: Anyone mountain biked around there? It seems like there is a lot of potential but maybe not actually that much in existence. Is that true?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by MarcusBrody View Post
    Hmm, the link isn't working for me. I found a couple of threads, but the newest was from 2008. I might have missed some of the more mixed in stuff though.
    Weird the link doesn't work but looking at what it turns up, most of the threads are pretty old. Logan hasn't been too popular here for 10 years or so, for whatever that's worth.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by iceman View Post
    Weird the link doesn't work but looking at what it turns up, most of the threads are pretty old. Logan hasn't been too popular here for 10 years or so, for whatever that's worth.
    Obviously, it must just be people keeping their secret Shangri La to themselves.

  8. #8
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    Gotta be.

  9. #9
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    I'd assign rating for Logan of +3 Ogden's.....

    But, really I don't remember how the Ogden rating compares, but I have some experience in that area.

    Having non-Mormon kids in Utah seems like a big factor and especially outside of the Salt Lake City zone. That would be my biggest issue if I were you. The biking and skiing is mediocre when compared to the rest of Northern Utah, but it's def not like you're living in Iowa.

    If I HAD to live in Logan I would probably get a Powder Mountain season pass, a snowmobile and do a few trips to SLC. Maybe even grab an Ikon pass too. Just depends how much you care about resort skiing. Snowbasin would be cool too but it's getting more and more crowded on the weekends from what I hear.

    For biking, you have all the Ogden zone nearby and Park City can't be that far away. Logan itself doesn't seem to have a TON of trails to choose from so you'd probably want to branch out when possible.

    Bear Lake is close too so you could get in to boating and buy an F-250 and be a TRUE Utahan.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hott Butt Mud View Post
    Having non-Mormon kids in Utah seems like a big factor and especially outside of the Salt Lake City zone. That would be my biggest issue if I were you. The biking and skiing is mediocre when compared to the rest of Northern Utah, but it's def not like you're living in Iowa.
    .
    Yeah that's obviously one of our biggest concerns. USU is so big, though, that it seems like the non-Mormon school and social life is based on those connections. At least that is the claim of our friends who would obviously like us to move and become one more non-Mormon family in the area. ha

    Thanks!

  11. #11
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    Logan could use with some Non-LDS dilution.

    The Beav is a damn fun place that is close by, especially if you can find a good group to ski sidecountry with.
    I have been in this State for 30 years and I am willing to admit that I am part of the problem.

    "Happiest years of my life were earning < $8.00 and hour, collecting unemployment every spring and fall, no car, no debt and no responsibilities. 1984-1990 Park City UT"

  12. #12
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    Always hear rumblings of a Cache county road to powder mountain. If that ever happened PowMow would likely be closer to Logan than the Beav.

    Mountain biking is decent and seems like it’s getting better. Not a ton of trails, but enough to keep you entertained for a while.

    Backcountry skiing is good in the area and would most likely take you awhile to figure out. It’s not like the cottonwoods with unlimited internet beta. You’d want to get with some locals who could show you around.

    The inversions are bad. Cold as hell with thick, soupy pollution fog that’ll keep you from seeing the mountains until a storm can push it out.



    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

  13. #13
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    I have some friends who have lived and still live in Logan. All non mormons. The only ones that seem to survive past a few years were married when they moved there. My one single buddy couldn't wait to leave once his two year contract ended, but that's because it was slim pickings on the dating scene for a nonmo. There's two bars in town and one sounds like it has a real methy feel. Place is a ghost town on Sundays.

    Quote Originally Posted by zion zig zag View Post
    Backcountry skiing is good in the area and would most likely take you awhile to figure out. It’s not like the cottonwoods with unlimited internet beta. You’d want to get with some locals who could show you around.
    There is some great backcountry skiing in the area but the locals up there that I've skied with are pretty tight lipped. One even asked me not to post about it on social media which was hilarious to me since most SLC skiers don't travel much ime. Just about a 3 hr drive to Jackson. Beavers a fun ski hill with an old school ma n pop feel.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hott Butt Mud View Post
    I'd assign rating for Logan of +3 Ogden's.....

    But, really I don't remember how the Ogden rating compares, .
    No one does. Just this last week, in the same thread, by the founder of the Ogden, we were told that Ogden itself was like +2 Ogdens, while modern metropolises like Atlanta and Dallas are -4 Ogdens, while somehow the iron belt of the UP is a pleasant +4 Ogdens. It's all subjective and fucked up. Brit and Yeti hashed it out to no avail I think.

    Good luck Marcus, sounds better than Iskendrun.
    I still call it The Jake.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hott Butt Mud View Post
    I'd assign rating for Logan of +3 Ogden's
    No

  16. #16
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    More?

  17. #17
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    Logan is a nice little mormon college town.
    I don’t know why he’s rating it on the nasty side of the scale.

  18. #18
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    Maybe the inversions.

  19. #19
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    Was already mentioned, but proximity to Tetons is pretty dang good.


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  20. #20
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    The Bear River Range has outstanding Backcountry skiing.
    And the Wellsvilles too, steepest mountain range in the world so I've heard.
    Tyson Bradley's book details a bunch of it.
    Never skied there but heard it was nice.
    Angie's restaurant is super good!
    And CAMPMOR is in town for a cheap gear hookup.
    Fishing is top notch of the fly flinging variety.
    Blacksmith Fork, Logan River, Mantua, Bear Lake then lots of good water in Southern Wydaho
    Bear lake is the Mormon Rivera and has the best Raspberry Milkshakes from local grown raspberries!
    3 hr norte to the Tetons. 2 to Targhee? 2 hrs south to Wasangeles
    Could do worse. Surprised the MTB is so meh you would think it would rock being at the foot of those hills.
    Lovely pastoral valley but I have never been there during winter inversions which I hear can be worse the SL,UT.
    Moe's can be a stronger variety outside of the SL/Ogden corridor of sin but college town is going to help I bet.
    Kids can complicate things but it sounds like you have beta and a local in so that is a good thing.
    Not sure what you do for a living (teach?) but there are some tech companies in that little burg too, and a hospital.
    Lots of kids in mormon hoods means high need for pediatric dental and orthodontic services as well
    Bunny Don't Surf

    Have you seen a one armed man around here?

  21. #21
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    Wasn't there a mag from up there that used to post BITD?
    I remember a set of Blue Bros in Trip Reports from that hood?
    I think the CTE is starting to kick in
    Bunny Don't Surf

    Have you seen a one armed man around here?

  22. #22
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    Twoplanker lived there for a long time but there's a thread where he was trying to sell his house, and also he's on insta all over the world on his motorcycle so I dunno.

  23. #23
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    Try to get a house a little higher than most to get out of the pea soup, but I'd verify this idea with locals as I only know this idea works slightly in SLC. (And greatly if you are much higher up)

    See Napoleon Dynamite for cultural reference, too.

  24. #24
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    Thanks for all the info!

    I'm a data science professor at the moment (though I'm more a computational sociologist than computer scientist). My wife is finishing grad school. I'd prefer to stay an academic - both because I like my job and for the flexibility of the schedule for travel during parts of the year - but I'm not necessarily wedded to it if I found something else interesting.

    I'm a bit baffled by the only OK mountain biking too, but if no one is building, I guess mountains aren't enough on their own. I like to dig, so hopefully there would be some places that would accept some new trails going in if we did end up there.

  25. #25
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    I have a few friends who have moved to that area recently and really like it. Not big bikers though. That's all I got for ya.

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