From hiking to skydiving, to canoying or rockcliming, either you go on an organized trip or get equipment for free for your own trip, come to Outdoor Pursuits because we are going to do anything to help you get out there.
University of Northern Colorado · Episode 142-Outdoors Pursuits
Andrew:
Hello and welcome back to Bear in Mind, my name is Andrew Galster and I am joined by…
Caitlin:
Caitlin Gast
Andrew:
and
Will:
Wilson Shultz
Andrew:
in the studio with me today. Caitlin and Will are members of the Outdoor Pursuits team here at UNC. Being the shut-in that I am, I had no idea what that was but quickly got to learn about the connection out into nature that we have right here on campus. Caitlin and Will have recently returned from an expedition out to California and are here today to tell me a little bit more about that experience, as well as all of the other bits of mischief that the Outdoor Pursuits team gets up to. Caitlin, Will, welcome.
Will:
I'll go first. My name is Wilson Shultz and I am the graduate assistant for the Outdoor Pursuits program.
Caitlin:
I'm Caitlin Gast, I do a fair amount for Outdoor Pursuits. I'm a trip leader, climbing wall supervisor, gear shop attendant, love it there.
Andrew:
God you guys sound busy.
Will:
Definitely are.
Andrew:
So I think we're going to just launch right into it so i heard there was a trip over Spring Break. I know nothing about it if you could please enlighten me.
Caitlin:
It was awesome! It was to Catalina Island which is off the coast of California. We went with a group of eight students then Will and myself and it was awesome.
Will:
Yeah really fun. It was a seven day-ish trip, about four of those we were actually backpacking on the Trans-Catalina Trail which goes from basically one side of the island to the other and it was just gorgeous the entire time. So we were super psyched to be able to get out there and have some fun with some folks.
Andrew:
That's super cool and this was over it's Spring Break?
Will:
That’s right yeah.
Caitlin:
Yes
Andrew:
Wow! Ok, so how does it how does a trip like this form? How does this happen?
Will:
Sure yeah I mean it always kind of starts with just like an idea somewhere that somebody wants to go so in this case our program coordinator, Luke Colin just decided “hey Catalina Island, looks like a really awesome place that people might want to go” and so from there, you start looking at routes, how to get there, what trips going to look like, and kind of keep moving into more specifics after that.
Caitlin:
Yeah we want to challenge people that come on our trips but also make it accessible so this one was open to pretty much anyone, we had a few first time backpackers, first time campers which was awesome to see! They really threw themselves into it which was just an amazing time honestly, but yeah.
Andrew:
Ok, so I have been out in nature just a tiny bit in my life, and I know that there's kind of levels to like backpacking and camping, so what could a student expect going on a trip like this?
Will:
Kind of depends on the trip for sure, but a lot of our trips are geared towards beginner backpackers, hikers, skiers, climbers, kind of for whatever activity that we're doing.
Andrew:
You guys do everything
Will:
We do it all! We really try to do it all and we're always kind of looking for ways to expand as well so yeah I mean they can really expect just like, some very knowledgeable folks leading the trips that are able to kind of give them the skills that they need to get outside and basically interact with the wild or whatever kind of experience that we're doing. What we kind of believe is a “proper way” to kind of do that so that involves like learning about “Leave No Trace” practices and just like how to properly set up a tent to keep yourself healthy, keep yourself clean out there, it’s all super important. That's kind of what they can expect at least from a longer trip like this, but we can also talk about you know shorter trips that kind of stuff as well.
Andrew:
I never would have even thought about all the type of learning you would do on that trip I, you know, in my uneducated mind I was like “oh they just go out there and look at the pretty nature” which i'm sure…
Will:
It's a little bit of that, there’s definitely a little of that.
Andrew:
But I’m understanding it's more than that then.
Caitlin:
I mean just engaging with those leave no trace policies for sure, a lot of people like don't know but, I mean I'm an environmental science major so really getting people out and like engaging them with that material how we should leave nature better than we found it and just getting those people in on these policies is huge. And then just learning again like how to set up that tent is like yeah it's awesome and just teaching them how to do that it's very very cool.
Will:
We also like to we like to cook out there…
(laughter)
Will:
You want to eat out there? Yeah just backpack nine miles and you guys fend for yourselves.
Andrew:
Yeah yeah yeah go pick berries or something.
Will:
No so yeah we'll teach them how to use like camp stoves, how to properly sanitize everything, make sure that it all looks good, and also teach them like “hey you can make really good food that fuels you and taste good out there and it doesn't have to come from a dehydrated bag” which i think is really one of the awesome parts of this program.
Andrew:
So let me get this straight so you guys were out there in this beautiful part of the world, in nature, eating good food, having good times…
Caitlin:
It was really really cool Will has a bit of a background than I do with backpacking, so just like seeing how to make those meals and like seeing what would fuel our body best after those like high energy intense days, was just really cool and then learning like that and then seeing all the participants learning that too and getting to apply that to their life if they want to go out on their own… just a plus of the job honestly.
Will:
You know a lot of these trips you come out running students to… they have at least some of the skills to actually go out and do it on their own without Outdoor Pursuits obviously they're welcome to come back and keep doing these trips with us but you know once they graduate if they've done enough trips with us hopefully they have enough knowledge to be confident going out in the wild and going on a backpacking trip themselves.
Andrew:
Wow yeah that's cool! I knew this was gonna happen when I like scheduled this but, I'm getting jealous…a little bit. I haven't been camping in so long and it sounds like I missed an opportunity.
Caitlin:
Yeah!
Andrew:
So we talked about how newer students were part of this trip… let's say I'm an old vet I've been rock climbing out in nature, camping, backpacking all the time. Is there trips that you guys do for students like that as well? Or is it also is something they could do on a trip like this?
Will:
I'd say it's definitely a little bit of both. Students that are veterans are absolutely welcome to come on their trips. I will say they might not learn enough but they're still going to go through the lessons they might get refreshed on some of the stuff they already know and it's also just like a kind of an inexpensive way for them to get out and do this stuff that is typically, you know kind of has that financial barrier you know so maybe somebody for their spring break when “hey I don't really have the gas money to drive all the way out to California and do this trip, but OP is only charging three hundred and fifty dollars for it so why not just pay that fee flat and then I get you know food I get transportation and I get all the gear that I need for free if I don't already have it myself which you're always welcome to bring your own gear on our trips as well.
Caitlin:
But we rent out that gear for free, like any time of the year as well we've got the backpacking, we've got camping, we've got anything you need to get outdoors.
Will:
Yeah and that's not even like if you're on one of our trips you can just come in and say “hey I’m going on my own personal backpacking trip and I need a backpack” and you will happily provide that for you for free.
Caitlin:
It's an awesome awesome program.
Andrew:
What were some of the highlights of your guys's trip?
Caitlin:
Honestly when we stepped onto the island, I could have cried it was so gorgeous, it felt like we were in Hawaii, I've looked at videos before going but just like being there with all these wonderful people like I have to shout out our participants, they were such an awesome group, but yeah it was just insane.
Andrew:
It's not the same is it? Looking at pictures and then being there.
Caitlin:
Exactly yeah
Will:
I was just gonna point out another highlight, just of the like gorgeous campsites there as well. Caitlin kind of already pointed out I do a lot of backpacking or have done a lot of backpacking and Catalina Island had some of the most gorgeous campsites that I had been to. Just views all around right on the beach, and with wildlife just teeming everywhere…
Caitlin:
Yeah there were bison on the island…
Andrew:
On the island?
Which was just crazy!
Will:
Like wandering around the campsite and everything!
Andrew:
Ohh wow!
Will:
Passed by our camps, I think Caitlyn's tent, there was one like sniffing your tent or something.
Caitlin:
Ohh yeah I was a bit scared one of the nights…
Andrew:
Was it terrifying?
Caitlin:
A little bit but I mean they're really really peaceful animals as long as you don't engage with them in a negative way. So that was really cool definitely getting to tell our participants “hey these are large animals but you know we get the pleasure of seeing them right there next to us.” It was crazy!
Andrew:
That's insane… that's so cool. Wow! And I'm sure the the connections you form on a trip like this are withstanding.
Caitlin:
Oh definitely. We had a lot of giggles on this trip. It was just an awesome group, everybody bonded, it was hard to not bond we had some pretty intense days but yeah just coming together as a group, especially Will did some like reflections at the end of the day a little bit of “Rose, Bud, Thorn” just really looking back try to go over the day see what brought us joy what we're excited for next and just coming together as a group, like that was awesome.
Will:
A hundred percent yeah. I like to hope that students come out of these trips with somebody else on campus that they can just say hi to if they see them in the dining hall or walking around or kind of wherever and, you know hopefully have a friendship that lasts if not just somebody that they go “hey I recognize you like how's it going you know what's what's life up to” kind of post-trip which is always nice to see budding friendships and stuff like that from trips like these you've just been super close contact for however many days like pretty much the only people you're spending time with for up to seven days on these Spring Break trips and you know less for a weekend or day trips but you're still just like… you're with these people in a super intense situation and that forms fast friendships really really well, which is awesome.
Andrew:
You love to hear it. I'm kind of heartwarming even. Yeah so I want to shift just a little bit here, so in case someone 's listening and they don't know, what is Outdoor Pursuits?
Caitlin:
We are really primarily interested in like engaging with students getting them to the outdoors and, like a very cheap way an accessible way more so. We are open to literally anybody and everybody as long as you're on campus, just want you to get outside in a positive way, engaging with nature, we're here to help you do it.
Will:
Yeah I’ll echo all that. We are a resource for students that want to get outside and get off campus and have a little fun in nature and maybe learn something along the way.
Andrew:
Nice nice… so I heard you mentioned day trips so, besides these lengthy and a seemingly amazing Spring Break trips and longer trips what other type of trips do you guys go on?
Will:
We'll do a ton per semester, so in our spring semester right now we'll do a lot of ski trips, so we'll go up to like Snowy Range, Eldora, Loveland, all those kind of smaller ski areas for students to either try it for the first time or just get a cheaper day pass and transportation up to the mountain if they want to go skiing. Now that it's getting warmer, we're doing a lot of day hikes...
Andrew:
That makes sense...
Will:
And coming up later this semester we have both a climbing weekend we're going up to Wyoming in Vedauwoo and believe it or not we also offer skydiving every single year in May. we'll take about ten students out and we'll push them out of a plane.
Will:
Yea pretty much
Andrew:
OK wait so now I gotta know so, you guys are skydivers?
Both:
No
Will:
I've never been, sadly, maybe this year.
Caitlin:
This is my last year so I'm thinking I'm probably joining.
Andrew:
I was gonna say that I'm putting the pressure on my challenge to you guys yeah fall from the sky.
Will:
But yeah we'll also, during the fall semester if you're listening to this kind of around there we'll do a lot of water trips as well, so you'll see us in kayaks and paddle boards and canoes all throughout those kind of warmer weather months. August, September, until it gets a little chillier, and then we'll move back to this hiking trips and stuff like that and just quick ways to get off campus for a day or a few hours even.
Andrew:
So that's super cool, that's super cool
Caitlin:
And then we do rent those out just like if you want to go on your own, we got the stand-up paddle boards we got the canoes, kayaks, and then we have snowboards for rent, we just want you to get outside come to us we'll help you do it.
Andrew:
I ventured down to Outdoor Pursuits once or twice and you know there's like bikes hanging from the ceiling, surfboards on the wall, like all types of crazy stuff and so that's all part of this like... rentals?
Caitlin:
Yes definitely. Pretty much anything you want to do outdoors we have access to it. For skis as well you get four free vouchers per year through Garretson's, and yeah if you have skied you know how expensive that is so it's just a really nice resource that we have.
Andrew:
I love to hear it. I'm imagining, you know, when you're telling me about going skydiving and like day trips and yeah stuff that's not even quite as intensive as like... well it's kind of intensive but not quite as intensive as like, a full spring break trip what type of like planning has to go into that?
Will:
Sure. One of the things that I really like about Outdoor Pursuits is that we'll plan a bunch of different stuff, kind of all at once at the beginning of the semester, but it's all kind of subject to change. If the student is, you know, super psyched on a hike or a certain trip that they want to do we're always kind of welcome to you know field ideas from our trip leaders and other students if they kind of want to add that to the roster. But a lot of that really is just kind of like “hey we want to go to this place like let's get the permits figured out let's see what we can do.” Not everything always comes to fruition but we're gonna try to make kind of whatever people want to do work because obviously we wanna get people off campus there's something folks are super excited about like, and we get more people coming to it then like hell yeah let's do it.
Andrew:
I just asked because you told me skydiving and I don't mean to like hang up on that, but I imagine that's like an administrative nightmare.
Will:
We've been doing it for a long time actually if you come into the outdoor pursuits shop you will see a picture of Andy, President Feinstein...
Andrew:
Are you serious?
Will:
going skydiving with Outdoor Pursuits so it's not something that like we really had to skirt around the administration like the administration obviously wants to do it there's psyched about it.
Caitlin:
Yeah
Andrew:
That's so cool I just met Andy for the first time yesterday.
Caitlin:
Oh awesome!
Will:
Nice!
Andrew:
Yeah he came in here for an interview and I would not expect him to be jumping out of planes.
Will:
He's a surprisingly... I mean not surprisingly... but he's a big outdoor guy you know so he's kind of one of our biggest proponents which is awesome see him coming around the climbing wall, and asking about trips, going skydiving once in a blue moon, I guess. So you know we’ll see if we'll get him to sign up again this year but yeah it's awesome to see just kind of like the campus interaction from the administration, from the higher ups, that are also just psyched about what we have going on.
Andrew:
I'm assuming then that administration is really supportive of all that you guys do at Outdoor Pursuits.
Will:
Absolutely, you know contracting is always a... you know... I won't say nightmare, but it's not always fun, so it's nice to kind of have the university backing us up and trying to help us get those permits and those contracts figured out and basically give us the go ahead for cool larger trips.
Andrew:
That's nice. So, I’m a student, right? And I have to wonder about some things from a student perspective, if I were to go on like one of these trips... so if I'm going to go on a trip, day trip, seven day trip, skydiving, whatever... how is that gonna affect my like school life? Am I gonna have to leave classes to disappear for a little bit?
Caitlin:
We try and make it so that like your school life is not impacted by this and like the weekend trips are just like a chance to get away from the campus and just like, breathe and connect with nature a little bit. So Spring Break we left on that Saturday, hopefully you at all your school work are done, but then we got back on that Thursday, give you a little bit of time to readjust before getting back into school life, but we really do not try to impede with your school life just add to your life in general.
Will:
We hope to be a large part of that “life” part of the “work life balance” thing so you know, still encouraging students to get their work done, still encouraging them to make time for all that but also saying “hey you need to you need to live a little bit of life outside and be out in nature and kind of reconnect with yourself and the world when you're not like heavy into school work.
Andrew:
Part of that like college experience... I love to see it. So also as a student, as I'm sure most students can attest, I am super poor. Like so, so brutally poor.
Caitlin:
Yeah
Andrew:
At Outdoor Pursuits, are there still things that I can partake in even though I might not be able to afford like a longer trip?
Caitlin:
Definitely! Like I mean these day trips for the hikes and stuff are only fifteen dollars, like that really doesn't even cover like half of the casting, you know, so if you don't have that access, we're happy to do it and then like Spring Break you can add that to your student bill so it's technically not even real money, you know, you're just handling that later but yeah even ski trips though, we try and make them really affordable they're not even like the full life ticket price so we really just try make it as affordable as we can because we want as many people to come as we can.
Will:
Yeah and as Caitlin kind of already talked about a little bit earlier, all of our rental gear is free so if you don't want to shell out fifteen bucks for a hike, but you wanna go out on your own and do your own hike but you don't have hiking boots, you can come in and get a free pair of hiking boots for the weekend or a snowboard or a tent or a backpack or a paddle board, any of these things that you want to do it's all free as long as you sign our waiver pretty much.
Andrew:
Oh so dope! Because I'm not gonna lie, it was a hold up for me personally from doing Outdoor Pursuits cause you know, my cash is tight a little bit but I wanna get outside. But it sounds like there's, things you can do without their pursuits that won't...
Will:
Break the bank, yeah.
Andrew:
Shake me upside down by my ankles yeah.
Will:
It's like one of the really cool things working for an outdoor recreation program, specifically for universities because it really does help get around that financial barrier that is so tall within the outdoor industry these days you know. So many things are crazy expensive they will break the bank but basically working for a program like this that provides all these things at low or no cost is just like, super inspiring it just makes me feel really awesome about being able to give students these experiences especially if they never had it before or just struggle to kind of make it work themselves.
Andrew:
So you guys rent out this equipment, right. What is the like most bizarre or specialized piece of equipment that you think?
Will:
I always love renting out our paddle boards because you have to give it like a big like hand pump to these folks and be like “alright, go for it!”
Andrew:
A little manual labor before you hit the lake or whatever.
Will:
Definitely. Not an easy thing to pump up by hand but, that is kind of one of the funnier ones cause it comes in this kind of like small like backpack size package, and then it becomes this like massive blown up board when it actually does go out and I always find that to be pretty funny just being like “alright bye have fun!”
Andrew:
They’re like lugging it out...
Will:
And they come back and it typically it's like somebody being like “oh my god that was hard to it's hard to do gosh” and like “wish I had like an electric pump” which you can bring if you do have your own, but we sadly do not provide those.
Caitlin:
I would say that the canoes are honestly the funniest time trying to get on top of the cars it's always just “is this gonna work?” One time it was a Kia Soul and I was like “I'm not really sure about this...”
Andrew:
“I don't have a lot of faith right now!”
Will:
I guess one other thing that I'd like to I'll point out about kind of rental gears that we also rent out like, lawn games, so we've got like giant Connect Four and Giant Jenga if you wanna play some corn hole with your buddies but you don't have a set or you don't want to go out and buy one, we'll rent that out for you for a weekend for free if you're having some sort of events or something or just want to like get outside and use it. I think people don't realize that we kind of go outside of those specifically you know outdoor gear items and actually do stuff that you can use on campus we also rent out like hammocks...
Andrew:
Ah cool!
Will:
And stuff so if there's a pair of trees you want a hammock on in campus like grab a hammock from us for just like the day or the weekend or a couple days like where we have it.
Andrew:
There's so many good spots to hammock on campus too it's like they designed it for that
Will:
Almost like...
Andrew:
Like you wouldn't believe! Just in case me and my buddies wanna go get Giant Jenga tomorrow or yeah tomorrow where can we find Outdoor Pursuits?
Will:
Yeah we're a little tucked away, not gonna lie. But we are kind of to the left of the entrance of campus recreation so we're actually attached to Harrison Hall, kind of in the back there. So if you are looking straight at campus rec to the left of that, you'll see the little parking lot back there and we've got a big sign says “Outdoor Pursuits” right out right out front of our door so, it's hard to miss but yeah.
Andrew:
Oh there's like the little loading dock!
Caitlin:
We've got ten minute parking, so pull on up say hi to us we'll get you going.
Andrew:
I do have one more question for you guys, and it's a little more serious. I unfortunately suffered a pretty gnarly injury that kind of limited how much stuff I can do outside, right?
Will:
I’m sorry to hear that.
Andrew:
And well you know it happens to all types of people right. Are there any things that someone like me who maybe isn't as physically able at the moment, to like be outside is there any services you could offer for someone like that?
Caitlin:
Honestly we try to do a lot of like adaptive especially at the climbing wall we have an adaptive climbing night which is really really fun you can yeah belay yourself up the wall through a...
Will:
It's a pulley system basically, you just do a bunch of pull-ups to get up the wall but you're sat in like a wheelchair accessible chair. We also have accessibility options for the visually impaired and just a ton of different accessible options at least over at the climbing wall but, when it comes to our trips we do like to make accessibility options kind of when we can. Obviously not everything is going to be... not everything is going to be perfectly accommodating for kind of everyone's need but you know if that's something that you know, there's a certain trip that you want to get on but you're not a hundred percent sure like you can absolutely talk to you know one of us I’ve got an office right as you come in to Outdoor Pursuits, and we also typically have folks working at the front desk of our gear shop who will be happy to answer those questions and whether that's a trip of ours or a trip that they want to do, we are we're here to basically offer advice for folks and that kind of extends outside of accessibility as well for folks that are just like “hey I'm looking for a cool hike to go on what do you recommend?” Most of our folks will have some stuff off the top of their head or at least can do some research and kind of help you out with that so we'd like to be a resource center for that as well.
Andrew:
I mean here in Greeley I don't know where the bikes are. Well cool, so just to just to recap a little bit, sounds like you guys kind of cover all your bases you know so no matter what constraint you have there's no reason you can't go get outside with UNC it sounds like.
Caitlin:
Definitely we want you to be there we're gonna make it as accessible as we can yeah as accommodating as we can to get you out there.
Will:
Chances are it's also gonna be as fun as possible.
Andrew:
you'd love to hear it
Will:
We're gonna have a great time out there as well so yeah we have a big group of really, really awesome trip leaders who are just psyched about what they do and just want people to have a lot of fun while they're out there so, definitely come chat with some of them because they're some of the most like just best people on campus in my opinion.
Caitlin:
Thanks! that was really nice!
Andrew:
Personal shout out yeah. Well I've kind of exhausted all the questions I have for you guys but if you have any like final notes you want to give me I'd love to hear them.
Caitlin:
We want to see you there come on over!
Will:
Pop in...
Caitlin:
We're looking for your face honestly.
Will:
Come to the climbing world that's in the rec center you'll see it like right when you're popping by the weights, it's there it's accessible for everyone, I think is the only thing we didn't talk about kind of during this whole thing but, yeah we have staffed hours at our gear shop from eleven to six Monday and Friday, eleven to five Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then at the wall we are open Monday, sorry Sunday through Thursday, four thirty to nine P.M. so you can always come by and say hi to some of our staff members they'd be happy to help you out chat with you and you know try to help you get more into the outdoors.
Caitlin:
Yeah!
Andrew:
Cool, cool. So come to outdoor pursuits or else!
Caitlin:
Yeah exactly!
Andrew:
Yeah we are personally gonna come and get you.
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