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drewdwn
09-08-2012, 03:34 PM
I'm looking to move to the north side of Raleigh NC near falls lake. Ive had enough of the short boating season in Wisconsin. Does anyone have any info about the lake or city or anything relating to the city? Thanks

wolfeman131
09-08-2012, 09:44 PM
I travel to Raleigh a bit for work and think it would be a fantastic area to move to. The greater Raleigh-Durham area is loaded with stuff to do as you have a lot of tech, research and higher education jobs/activities. The airport (RDU) is one of my favorites to get in/out of.

Let me know if you make the move before college hoops season start. I know a guy that can get his hands on floor seats to Duke games @ Cameron. :)

JGP54321
09-08-2012, 11:07 PM
I have lived in Durham most of my life, still travel there quite often to visit my parents but had to move away after school for my job. The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area in my opinion is awesome, obviously a little biased, but I am trying to move back currently. Like Wolfe said, there is a ton to do, great school systems, great weather, good sports, and good water. It also has shown a lot of progression recently with new development, business, and restaurants. You'll definitely have a lot less snow, and probably make fun of us when it does snow, but you'll have a much warmer and longer summer as well, and humid. You're also only 2-2.5 hours from the beach and 3-4 hours from the mountains. Like I said, I'm biased but would recommend Raleigh to anyone.

Falls Lake would probably be my least favorite of the lakes around though. It tends to be pretty shallow and pretty small. I would recommend Jordan Lake in Durham/Chapel Hill if you want to stay close. Also, Kerr Lake (where we are) and Lake Gaston are also great choices, both about an hour north of Raleigh on I-85. We personally have chosen Kerr because it is rarely crowded.

Hope this helps and if you do end up moving, be sure to stock up on Duke gear and get Drew or someone to find you tickets to Cameron, second to none for college hoops. They arent easy to come by and not too many people part with their tickets very easily. GO DUKE!

Boonejeepin
09-08-2012, 11:17 PM
Kerr Lake (Buggs Island Lake if you are from VA) is a great lake. My uncle has a house on the water there and I really miss going there during the summer.

NCSUmoomba
09-09-2012, 11:07 AM
I live in Durham and frequent Falls Lake. It and Hyco Lake are my two favorites for riding. The southern portion of falls lake is narrow and clean water is usually pretty easy to find, if the boat traffic isn't too bad. There are several ramps to choose from and all of them are in great shape. The thing that is great about Hyco is that it is a power plant cooling lake, so the water temps stay above 70 from about March to November. The only bad part is there is only one boat launch and the ramps are total crap. I know that some other lakes have been mentioned, and I will give you my opinion of them. Kerr Lake is great, I grew up going to Kerr Lake every weekend, but it is huge. If you like to sail, that is the best place to go around here. However, it can be diffcult to find good places to ride since the lake is so large. It does have lots of camping an such, which is nice, but it can get really crowded and choppy on the weekends. As far as Jordan, personally I hate that place. It is pretty big and open as well, so there aren't a lot of good places to find clean water, and the open spaces can get pretty choppy quite easily. There are some places that are good for riding, but they can get crowded quickly. There are also some random unmarked shallow spots, one of which claimed my prop once. Since Jordan is conventient to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Apex, and others, it can get really busy on the weekends. If you ride weekday evenings, you can pretty much find glass anywhere.

North Raleigh is a sprawling suburbia hell, and traffic is a pain at rush hours. Otherwise it is a pretty good place to live. Downtown Raleigh is really neat, but it takes so long to get there from the fringe areas, it can be frustrating. It takes at least 30 mintues to get from the Falls Lake area to Downtown. It is by no means a big city, but it seems to be too big for its transportation infrastructure. I prefer Durham, as it has all of the same features of Raleigh, but less busy, less traffic, and a little more gritty. Downtown Durham has had a HUGE revitalization over the past 10 years, and it is really amazing there now. Lots of cool bars, a hadfull of great breweries, excellent restaurants, tons of food trucks, the Durham Bulls, and such. Being from the north, you may be a hockey fan, and the Carolina Hurricanes call Raleigh home and has some great NHL action.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I would be happy to answer them. I have lived here my whole life (I'm 35) and have lived in Durham and Raleigh. I hope this helps.

tarheelskier
09-09-2012, 11:30 PM
Drewdwn, greetings from North Raleigh. I have lived here for 20 years, and see no reason to go anywhere else. As has already been mentioned above, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, is really an outstanding place live, work, play, raise a family, etc. Its been said, that Raleigh is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to vacation there! Seriously, it is a great place for a lot of reasons.

As far as boating, most of the major options have been mentioned above. I agree with Brian's take above. Jordan Lake is really too wide open for good riding. Falls is narrow, and you do need to know where you are going, but there is some excellent water to be found (see my skiing pics in the Sept pic thread). Falls is controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers so there are no homes on the lake. Hyco, Kerr, and Gaston as mentioned above, are the best options for lake homes in this area, and each is about 1 hour from N. Raleigh. At home, we use Falls, as we are just a few minutes from 2 different boat ramps, but we are also partial to Lake Gaston. We spend several weeks there each summer, and the best thing about this lake is the water level doesn't fluctuate. There is a dam on each end keeping the water level constant.

Anyway, if you have any other questions, let me know.

bkearney
09-10-2012, 10:34 AM
Agree on Falls. We are 1/2 way between Falls and Jordan and never go to Jordan. Too big, to wide. We tend to put in at the Wildlife boat ramp... it gets you access to the lower part of the lake. We do not go out on holidays, and weeknights it is pretty empty. There is no gas on the lower part of the lake, but it is easy to gas up before you get there.

As for hte city, it is a great place to raise a family. They will tell you it is 3 hours from the mountains, and 3 hours from the coast. That is 100% true, but it also hints at the fact there is nothing here folks want to come see. So.. great to live in, not great for when visitors come into town.. unless you take them out on the boat.

Traffic does suck from North Raleigh, but having lived in DC and driven 66.. I kinda laugh when I say it.

As for Hockey, the youth leagues are great here. The fat adult leagues are pretty good. And, with any luck, the NHL will play this year.

As with the other folks, please send along any questions/comments you may have.

--bk

drewdwn
09-11-2012, 04:41 PM
Thanks for all the info. We are looking to move to the north side of Raleigh to be close to Falls Lake. I am a personal trainer and have found some good oppurtunities on that side of town. We will take a vacation there soon to check it out before we make the move. We are excited about Raleigh and seems like everyone has good things to say about it. I think I might even upgrade before we move lol

bkearney
09-12-2012, 10:01 AM
Make sure you have easy access to 540. If you are in north raleigh, and need to get out to cary or the park, you want quick access to that road.

drewdwn
09-12-2012, 09:08 PM
Thanks for the tip. That's what we where thinking. I can't wait to board more months out of the year and get the perfect tan!

bkearney
09-12-2012, 09:28 PM
Keep in mind, the top part of falls lake is shallow and full of stumps. You dont want to go too much past that point around just north of rollingview.