Ben and Alonna » mountain biking http://www.benandalonna.com Living vicariously through ourselves... Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:51:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 en hourly 1 Welcome to Colorado http://www.benandalonna.com/2011/01/welcome-to-colorado/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2011/01/welcome-to-colorado/#comments Sun, 16 Jan 2011 05:42:31 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=3319 Occasionally in life, things just fall into place. That’s how I feel about our recent move from Idaho to Colorado, and I couldn’t be happier with how everything has turned out.  Here are the highlights:

Colorado!

  • A new job : After 3 months of searching, I accepted a position with Seagate in Longmont, Colorado.  The new job has gotten off to a great start.  I’m excited about the work (ASIC Verification for SSD drives), I like my boss and coworkers, I’m happy with the pay and benefits, and the location is perfect.  And an added bonus: part of my team works in Shakopee, MN only 20 minutes from my parents’ house.  This means I can occasionally work remotely from that site while visiting family and friends.
  • A new home : At the last minute, we found a rental condo in a NE Boulder community called “Gunbarrel”.  We are loving this area – we have easy access to both Boulder and my job in Longmont, yet are surrounded by farms, open space hiking and biking trails, and great mountain views.  While the rental is only temporary, we’re thinking about sticking to this area when we search for a new place.
  • Boise House – SOLD! After only 3 days on the market, we accepted a full-price offer on our house in Boise.  We credit this to the perfect combination of a nice house in a great location, setting the right price, a lot of preparation, presentation and staging, and a good dose of luck.
  • Enjoying the Rockies : With a little bit of summer left when we arrived, we were able to get in some mountain biking and hiking.  With winter is in full swing, we’ve been hitting the slopes, and Colorado snow has not disappointed us!
  • Family Time : We spent Christmas here with Ben’s Mom and sisters Kim & Beth.  We had a blast – snowshoeing, snowmobiling, sledding, and snowboarding.  I’ve also been able to see my family a lot this fall and winter.  Mom & Dad visited in October, I spent Thanksgiving, New Year’s and my birthday in Minnesota.
  • Every day life, with a view : I hope this never wears off – every day I am impressed by the beautiful scenery here.  Just driving to and from work puts a smile on my face.  We always knew there was something special about Colorado, and we were right.  Plain and simple – this place just feels like home to us, and I don’t expect to ever leave.
  • Article on Briefcase to Backpack : Read about my feelings upon returning from our trip around the world.
  • Travel Photo Book : Check out this photo book I made of our world travels.

Here is a collection of photos from the past few months.  I hope everyone is in as good of place as us and enjoying your life to the fullest.  Here’s to a happy 2011 & beyond!

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2011/01/welcome-to-colorado/feed/ 8 Goodbye Idaho http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/09/goodbye-idaho/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/09/goodbye-idaho/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:25:52 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=3285 Unfortunately, moving on in life means leaving something behind. Here’s a few things that Ben and I will miss the most about Idaho:

Goodbye Boise, we'll miss you

Goodbye Boise, we'll miss you

Thursday Night Mountain Biking
For 7 years we’ve been mountain biking on Thursday nights with a fun group of friends, usually followed by pizza and beer.  Thursday night will never be the same again…

HP Lunch Volleyball
Summer at HP means volleyball! During lunch I ducked out of work to play sand and grass volleyball.  Any volleyball skills I may have, I owe to these guys.  They’re awesome players and friends, and I will never forget them.

Friends and Coworkers
Ben and I have gotten to know a lot of really great people here in Boise.  The hardest part of saying goodbye is knowing that we’re losing the potential of spending more time with them.  To all of our friends and coworkers – we will miss you!

Alonna’s Soccer Team
I’ve had a blast playing on a women’s soccer team in Boise.  Anything we lack in skills we’ve more than made up for by running our butts off and never giving up. Go Bombers!

Ridges to Rivers trail system
They just keep getting better – the hiking and biking trails in the Boise foothills are awesome.  I don’t think we’ll have any trouble finding great mountain biking in Colorado, but having nice trails within biking distance of our house is a huge benefit of living here.

Beautiful Stanley

Beautiful Stanley

Stanley, Idaho
Idaho has it’s share of gorgeous scenery, and our favorite by far is the Sawtooth Mountains.  Stanley is a small quiet town with beautiful views and home of the famous Fisher-Williams epic bike trail.

Boise Greenbelt
Our house is within walking distance of a 25-mile long paved path along the Boise River, called the greenbelt.  It’s perfect for jogging, walking, or biking through town.

Society of Women Engineers – Southwest Idaho Section
I’ve been lucky to work with a group of women engineers dedicated to encouraging girls to pursue math and science careers.  I’ve learned a lot by being a part of this group and made some great friends along the way.  Keep it up ladies!

Living 5 Minutes from the Airport
I don’t think this concept exists in Colorado.

Clear skies and long summer days
Boise weather is perfect – it’s almost always sunny and clear, with dry desert heat.  Also, being situated on the edge of Mountain Time Zone, Boise gets sunlight well past 9pm in the summer.

Off to our Next Adventure

Off to our Next Adventure

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/09/goodbye-idaho/feed/ 1 Re-adjusting to Life in Boise http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/08/re-adjusting-to-life-in-boise/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/08/re-adjusting-to-life-in-boise/#comments Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:31:03 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=3230 I know, I know, we’ve been quiet lately. Returning home from our year of traveling has been a bit of an adjustment. While it was exciting to return home to our things and see our friends and family, putting the trip behind me and returning to work was harder than I expected. But after 4 weeks on the job I’m starting to get the hang of it, and feeling pretty good about life again! Meanwhile, Ben and I have had a great summer… here’s a few highlights.

Mountain Biking

The first bunch of photos is from our annual camping trip to Stanley, Idaho with our HP biking group. The rest are of me and Ben biking around the Boise foothills. We’ve been biking A TON this summer – it’s so nice to have great trails so close to home.

Giving Back to the Couchsurfing Community

While traveling, Ben and I took advantage of couchsurfing.org to stay with some really nice people around the world who offered us a free place to stay. Now that we’re home, we’ve been hosting travelers passing through.

Ben with couchsurfers Derek and Alex

Ben with couchsurfers Derek and Alex

We met Alex (right) at a hostel in Chile when he was returning from a research assignment in Antarctica. Later we saw him in NYC when we had a long layover en route to Istanbul. Now he’s traveling a bit before heading to D.C. and was able to spend a few days in Idaho.

Derek (middle) was our very first couchsurfer, and a memorable one at that! On his way to Boise he was in a bad motorcycle accident, and crashed into the river off of HWY-21 north of Boise. Luckily his injuries were relatively minor – a punctured lung, broken foot, lots of bruises, and a totaled motorcycle. Derek stayed with us for a week before flying back to New Hampshire where his parents live.

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/08/re-adjusting-to-life-in-boise/feed/ 1 The Blue Mountains, Australia http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/05/the-blue-mountains-australia/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/05/the-blue-mountains-australia/#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 07:01:13 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=2843 The Blue Mountains are a 2 hour train ride from Sydney and full of great scenery and hiking. We spent a few days in the small town of Katoomba to enjoy the area. I had thought that “Blue Mountains” was just a name, but looking out over the valley the mountains really are a misty blue color.

The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains

One of the days we hiked to Wentworth Falls, one of the more interesting waterfalls I’ve ever seen. We hiked across the top of the waterfall, then down really steep stairs to a middle level, and then across the valley on a path along the cliff. It was very cool.

Another day we rented mountain bikes and rode up to a lookout point called Hanging Rock. The biking was awful (rough gravel roads – not our style) but the views were great. The Hanging Rock is a huge rock barely hanging onto the mountainside. It looked like you could hike out onto it – but you’d have to be completely insane (see photos).

After the Blue Mountains it was back to Sydney for 2 nights before our flight out of the country. We were lucky to have lined up couchsurfing for these two nights. Our hosts were a young couple from Russia who have lived in Australia for 2 years and travel a lot as well. We had such a great time staying with them and we learned a little more about both Australia and Russia. Thanks so much Yulya and Tim for hosting us!!
IMG_0196_crop (1200x900)

Couchsurfing hosts Tim & Yulya in Sydney

Next stops: Hawaii for 9 days on the island of Oahu. After that, it’s hard to believe, but we’re headed back home to Boise, Idaho!

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/05/the-blue-mountains-australia/feed/ 3 New Zealand: Wanaka, Queenstown, and the Rain http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/05/new-zealand-wanaka-queenstown-and-the-rain/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/05/new-zealand-wanaka-queenstown-and-the-rain/#comments Thu, 06 May 2010 03:18:45 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=2786 Leaving the beautiful West Coast, Ben and I headed towards Wanaka on a scenic drive past mountains, rivers and lakes.

Driving to Wanaka Lake Wanaka
 

Wanaka

We immediately fell in love with Wanaka. Just 2 hours drive from the utlra-touristy Queenstown, we found it to be a low-key oasis with beautiful scenery, a cute and live-able town, and plenty of fun outdoor activities to keep anyone happy. If we ever decided to live outside the US (unlikely), I’m pretty sure this would be the place.

We stayed a few nights in Wanaka, enjoying a cool campsite with amazing views of the lake, jogging on a lakeside path, and mountain biking in the “Sticky Forest”. There’s also a lot of hiking in the area, and tons of water sports in the summer… as we’ve said many times on this trip, we’ll have to come back.

Lake Wanaka Camping with a view Biking the Wanaka Sunset
 

RAIN

And then came the rain. For about a week, we drove around the southern part of New Zealand looking for somewhere we could get out of the rain, with no luck. We missed seeing Fjordland, since the roads were flooded, and we would have loved to try some mountain biking in the Alexandra area. However, we did enjoy a little down-time, and we witnessed the streets of Queenstown flooded from the overflowing lake. On a trip like this, we’re bound to have a little bad weather, and until now we’ve been extremely lucky.

Autumn vineyards in the rain 7 days of nothing but rain Flooded Queenstown
 

Queenstown

After dropping off the campervan, we spent 3 nights in Queenstown and managed to avoid doing any overpriced “must-do” activities like bungy jumping, sky-diving or jet-boating. Luckily the weather finally cleared up, unveiling the beautiful mountain scenery in the area. On our last day we took an afternoon wine tour to sample the white wines and pinot noirs the area is famous for.

Ben enjoying the view in Queenstown Queenstown in Autumn Tasting grapes on our wine tour Pinot Noir
Queenstown

Leaving New Zealand…

Of all the places we’ve been so far, New Zealand is the one place I was really sad to leave. It’s such a beautiful country and we barely skimmed the surface. I’m definitely going back… someday!

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/05/new-zealand-wanaka-queenstown-and-the-rain/feed/ 2 Queen Charlotte Track, New Zealand http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/04/queen-charlotte-track-new-zealand/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/04/queen-charlotte-track-new-zealand/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:49:34 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=2724 Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand

Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand

Ben and I have searched the globe for good mountain biking, but have failed to find anything worthwhile outside of the US… until now. Yesterday we rented full-suspension bikes and rode one section of the Queen Charlotte Track near Picton, New Zealand. The scenery was gorgeous and the riding was awesome. We will definitely be mountain biking more during our next 3 weeks here.

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2010/04/queen-charlotte-track-new-zealand/feed/ 2 Moab, Utah 2009 http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/05/moab-utah-2009/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/05/moab-utah-2009/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 03:35:28 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=550 We went to Moab for a weekend and met up with Ben’s mom.  It was GREAT!  Seriously, I can’t tell you how much I love this place…

Alonna & Ben Robin - Dead Horse Point

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/05/moab-utah-2009/feed/ 3 Bogus Basin: Summer & Winter http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/03/bogus-basin-summer-winter/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/03/bogus-basin-summer-winter/#comments Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:03:53 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=459 Last Summer Ben and I went biking at Bogus Basin Ski Resort outside of Boise.  Ben had the sweet idea of taking photos of the exact same locations in summer and winter.  We forgot to look at the summer photos before heading up to Bogus yesterday – but we took a bunch of pictures anyway and some of them matched up pretty well.  So, here you have examples of Bogus Basin in the summer vs. winter!

Ben - Summer Ben - Winter

Ben - Summer Ben - Winter

Ben - Summer Ben - Winter

Alonna - Summer Alonna - Winter

Alonna - Summer Alonna - Winter

Trail - Summer Alonna - Winter

Bogus - Summer Bogus - Winter

Bogus - Summer Bogus - Winter

Chairlifts - Summer Chairlifts - Winter

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/03/bogus-basin-summer-winter/feed/ 2 Moab ‘08 http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/10/moab-08/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/10/moab-08/#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:00:10 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=238 Last weekend we took a road trip to Moab.  Ahh, Moab, I love that place! If you’ve never been to Southern Utah you should definitely add it to your “list” (if you have one, well, doesn’t everyone?).  The scenery is just amazing.  Bright orange and red rocks in all kinds of shapes and formations.  And usually the sky is bright blue which makes a nice contrast.

Moab - Castle Rock

On Thursday in Moab we biked the famous Slickrock Trail.  This trail is like a playground for bikes.  Bike tires stick to the slickrock (which actually is not slick at all, it’s really sticky) so that you can bike on slopes you wouldn’t normally think possible.  Of course, it takes a lot of skill, strength and bravery to bike up or down very steep slopes anyway… so mostly I just get off my bike and walk :)   But there are a lot of things I can do and it’s still a blast.  We brought one camera with us, but unfortunately it’s battery was still plugged into the wall at home charging.  So, no pics.  But it looks pretty much the same as our photos from last year.

Friday we took a shuttle to ride the Porcupine Rim trail.  The shuttle took us much further than we originally anticipated, so it was a REALLY long bike ride.  I’m not sure but I would guess at least 25 miles.  It was mostly downhill – we started way up near the La Sal mountains and biked all the way down to the river.  The views were amazing, especially the parts that were along the rim overlooking castle valley.  Overall it was a fun ride with great views, but a little too technical for my taste (big rocks, drop offs, obstacles, etc).  Here’s some photos:

On Saturday we were too exhausted to do anything active.  So we slept in and then drove around Moab.  It was nice because I’ve never really had extra time in Moab to just sight-see.  We drove on a scenic road near town and saw Native American Petroglyphs (picture carvings on the rock) and even some dinosaur tracks!  You would think dino tracks would be a big deal, with a big sign and roped off, etc.  But nope, just a little sign that pointed them out.  You could even hike up there to see them up close, which we couldn’t resist.  It must not have been a very big dinosaur because the tracks were smaller than I expected.  Here’s some photos from our Saturday excursion:

]]> http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/10/moab-08/feed/ 0 I like Mountain Biking, But Does Mountain Biking Like Me? http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/i-like-mountain-biking-but-does-mountain-biking-like-me/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/i-like-mountain-biking-but-does-mountain-biking-like-me/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:49:13 +0000 Bullet-Point Ben http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=53 This happened in one of the easiest sections of the Rock Garden at Table Rock. The biggest danger in mountain biking is going too slow.  Or too fast. (I prefer Red Raspberry of Courage, but calling it that assumes everyone has heard of the book the Red Badge of Courage – or at least [...]]]>
  • Red Badge(s) of Courage:
    img_0063.jpg
  • This happened in one of the easiest sections of the Rock Garden at Table Rock.
  • The biggest danger in mountain biking is going too slow.  Or too fast.
  • (I prefer Red Raspberry of Courage, but calling it that assumes everyone has heard of the book the Red Badge of Courage – or at least the term itself – and no one has.  Plot summary – Civil War boy soldier is wounded in a cowardly fashion, everyone thinks he must be very brave because of his injury and this shames him into actually becoming very courageous)
    • ]]>     http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/i-like-mountain-biking-but-does-mountain-biking-like-me/feed/ 1     2008.07.11-13 – Stanley Mountain Biking Weekend http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/20080711-13-stanley-mountain-biking-weekend/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/20080711-13-stanley-mountain-biking-weekend/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:11:25 +0000 Bullet-Point Ben http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=52
  • Day 1: Fisher Creek and Ladd’s Fajitas and horseshoes
  • Day 2: Elk Meadows and aluminum foil sculpture-food and more horseshoes
  • Day 3: Scones and packing up
  • Pictures…

    • ]]>     http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/20080711-13-stanley-mountain-biking-weekend/feed/ 1     Bogus Basin Bike Ride http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/bogus-basin-bike-ride/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/bogus-basin-bike-ride/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:12:46 +0000 Bullet-Point Ben http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=48
  • Sunday July 6th
  • Elk Meadows / Deer Point Trail at Bogus Basin Ski Resort near Boise ID
  • Approx 7 miles, probably 1K elevation gain.  Well maintained (new) trails, except 92/Shindig, which was a bit more of an adventure.
  • Several Trail markers were missing or mislabeled.  This is common on mountain biking trails and is “part of the fun”.  A wrong turn here means hours of suffering and the possibility of never finding your way back to civilization:
  • Alonna hikes back from taking the wrong turn:
  • Varied and interesting wildflowers everywhere:
  • Also lots of butterflies and bumble bees (not pictured).
  • Never really saw any people, except for two bikers headed the wrong way at the aforementioned fork in the trail.
  • Not much shade, probably because we were criss-crossing ski runs.
    • ]]>     http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/07/bogus-basin-bike-ride/feed/ 0     Bike Ride in Boise http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/06/bike-ride-in-boise/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/06/bike-ride-in-boise/#comments Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:19:08 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=47 Today Ben and I went on a bike ride.  We attempted to go “early” (10:30am) to avoid the heat, but it still felt like we were biking in a sauna.  The high today was 96 degrees – it seems a little early for it to be this hot in Boise (the high tomorrow is 102!).  But still, you can’t beat the clear blue sky which we see most of the year.  And the biking was still fun – we just took more breaks to enjoy the view…

    june_28_bike_ride-01.jpg june_28_bike_ride-02.jpg ]]>     http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/06/bike-ride-in-boise/feed/ 0     Thursday Bike Rides http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/06/geek-bike-ride/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/06/geek-bike-ride/#comments Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:27:15 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/?p=41 For the past four or five years, a group of friends at work have gone on weekly mountain bike rides in the summer, usually followed by beer and pizza. Here’s a photo from last week’s bike ride; we did the Corrals trail with a pretty large group.

    HP Bike group - Corrals

    ]]>     http://www.benandalonna.com/2008/06/geek-bike-ride/feed/ 0     Moab http://www.benandalonna.com/2007/10/moab/ http://www.benandalonna.com/2007/10/moab/#comments Sun, 14 Oct 2007 06:52:30 +0000 Alonna http://www.benandalonna.com/wp/?p=25 Trip Dates: October 12-14, 2007

    ]]>     http://www.benandalonna.com/2007/10/moab/feed/ 0