Kevin Schaum

29 Jan 2013

A Weekend in Vancouver

Last summer, Jen and I flew up to Vancouver, BC for a quick weekend trip. It turned out to be a great little adventure.

We stayed downtown, and visited the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Lynn Canyon Park, VanDusen Botanical Gardens and we ate some delicious Korean and Japanese food downtown.

First Nation Artifacts and the Museum of Anthropology

Totem Poles at the Museum of Anthropology

Jen, Happy to Be Checking Out the MOA

Me, Outside the MOA

Amazing Artwork at the Museum of Anthropoly

Amazing Artwork at the Museum of Anthropology. This piece was an effort to bring together styles of Papua New Guinea and First Nations of BC

The Rose Garden at UBC

UBC Rose Garden

Lynn Canyon Forest

Jen at Lynn Canyon

Lynn Canyon

Jen and I at Lynn Canyon

Vancouver Harbor at Sunset

Hedge Maze at VanDusen Gardens

Jen Found Some Flowers

A Snail at the VanDusen Gardens

We had a great time escaping the record breaking heat in Colorado and exploring Vancouver for two days. Vancouver is definitely the kind of place I can spend a few days and imagine myself

living permanently. Between the culture, the water and the mountains, it’s probably my favorite city in North America.

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31 May 2012

A Quick New England Trip

Tags: Beach, Cape Cod, New England, Travel, Trip Report
Posted in Ramblings | Leave a comment

Following the mini blog theme from a previous post, here is a quick recap of a recent trip to New England as told by Instagram.

: I took an early morning flight from Denver to Manchester, Hampshire to meet up with a coworker.

: We were headed to a conference at the base of Mount Washington

: There was a campfire

: I got to drive to the top of Mount Washington

: The views were great

: My work was done, so I headed to Boston

: And got on a ferry headed for Cape Cod to meet up with my friend Jay and his wife Barb

: Cape Cod is a special place

: We rode bikes to the Pamet River

: And also the Little Pamet

: As well as the pond where the pilgrims camped their second night in the New World

: Here is one of Jay’s dogs- Xander

: And here is the view from Jay and Barb’s living room

: There were some amazing sunsets (no filter)

: Another amazing sunset (no filter)

It was my third business trip to New England this year, but my first time visiting Cape Cod. I’m a fan.

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20 May 2012

Southern Colorado Backpacking Road Trip

Tags: 14er, Backpacking, Colorado, Great Sand Dunes, Hiking, Road Trip, Sangre de Christo
Posted in Ramblings | 3 Comments

To finish of Erik’s trip to Colorado, we finished with a road trip to Southern Colorado to go backpacking, climb a 14er and check out Great Sand Dunes National Park.

We started out by visiting Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

: Garden of the Gods

: Kissing Camels at Garden of the Gods

As we continued heading south, we got some amazing views of the Sangre de Christos mountains.

: Sangre de Christo Mountains

: Sangre de Christo Flowers

We started at the South Colony Lakes trailhead and headed up to the lower South Colony Lake to set up camp.

: Erik hiking up to camp

: There were nice flowers along the way

: Hiking up to South Colony Lakes

: Our first glimpse of the Crestone Needle

The next morning, we started our climb up Humboldt Peak.

: Erik above the tree line

: Looking down on upper South Colony Lake and the Crestone Needle

: Looking Up at the Crestone Needle

: Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak

: Panorama of Crestone Peak (right) and the Crestone Needle (left)

Because of the low snow this past winter, there wasn’t much snow on the summit ridge, and what was there was easily avoidable. Despite high winds, we made good time, ascending over 1,000 feet per hour. Not bad for Erik’s first 14er! We made it to the summit a little before noon.

: I <3 Jen

: On the Summit of Humboldt Peak (14,064 ft) with Erik!

We didn’t spend to much time on the summit because the pressure was dropping and the wind was picking up. We quickly headed back down to our camp, packed up, and headed down. We made it 6+ miles from the summit to the car in less than 3.5 hours, which included breaking down and packing out camp. Not bad!

We then headed to Great Sand Dunes National Park- only about 10 miles away from the South Colony Lakes, but a 4 hour drive around the Sangres to get there.

: There were some good view along the way

: Great Sand Dunes National Park. Crestone Peak and the Creston Needle can be seen high above.

The next day, we did a bit of hiking on the dunes and then headed back to Boulder.

Erik was impressed at the size of the Western US and was excited to learn that the San Luis Valley is the same size as Connecticut, where he has been studying abroad from Sweden.

: The San Luis Valley

All in all, it was another great Colorado road trip and adventure!

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14 May 2012

RMNP Hiking

Tags: Colorado, Hiking, Longs Peak, RMNP
Posted in Ramblings | 2 Comments

My friend, former colleague (on an orchard…it’s a good story) and roommate in New Zealand Erik has been in town visiting from Sweden. He was up for an adventure, so we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park this past weekend to do some hiking.

Here’s the trip report, as told by Instagram:

We hiked to 4 different lakes within the park, starting at the Bear Lake Trailhead.