The Yurt

This post is a little late in comming but I've had other things to do so now seemed like a good time. Originally the Yurt trip was going to be couples, except for S who organized it. C said and I quote "not on your life - but you can go if you want" so that was him out and in the end T decided he'd rather do the powderkeg race so it was just us girls, me H, S and her friend V and 3 dogs (2 V's and 1 S's).

The prep for this trip was weird cos normally someone else is carrying my gear and there's usually a car parked right outside our tent. My normal rucksack wasn't big enough so I had to borrow T's which is huge but I just managed to cram everything in. Sleeping bag (C's), mattress pad, pillow, extra clothes, food and snacks. Having packed it all in I tried to heft the thing onto my back, it was v heavy and I re-packed in and it was still heavy!

We drove down in V's truck, our Yurt was in the Uintah Mountains and you have to drive into Wyoming (Evanston) to get onto the Mirror Lake Highway. The car-park is just down from the Bear River Lodge which is where C and I stopped for lunch on the bike a couple of years ago. So we parked up and skied in, the pack doesn't feel too bad when you're leaning forward on skis and although we were going uphill I only fell over once. It took about 2 hours to get to the Yurt and we were lucky it was a pretty large one (sleeps six). We quickly unpacked and spent the next hour or so trying to get the wood stove going. The people who'd been in there before us hadn't bothered to leave any kindling so S had to go out and chop a bunch of logs, she got it going but it wasn't drawing very well and so each time we opened the door to put logs on we had to ventilate the smoke out of the Yurt with the front door and the fanlight in the ceiling! The snowpit was pretty much played out so H got some fresh snow from behind it. Once we got the snow melting and the fire roaring the place was downright cozy (even after finding that the lamps had been left on full so the propane ignited out of the bowl when we lit them!)

After dinner, veggie curry with rice, salad and cake for pudding, and some very good beer, we washed up and then played a card game called phase 10 which has elements of games I've played before and was a lot of fun. Then we started thinking about bed - C's sleeping bag has a drawstring on it and when I pulled it, well lets just say I know how a sausage feels! I slept like a log and in the morning H and I went for a quick pre-brekkie ski up to Lily Lake, got back in time for pancakes and sausage (veggie but you wouldn't know it) We had to be out by 11 as that's when the next group were supposed to be comming in. So we washed up and swept the place out, sorted the fire and dumped the ashes, packed and got ready to go. We left around 11.30 so when those others were comming in I don't know. But they will have found a nice tidy Yurt, fully stocked with kindling and we turned the propane lamps off (!!)

On the way back down it was downhill all the way, I must say that pack really gives you momentum (I fell over again - backwards this time)and the drive to Evanston was uneventful. Found out an interesting tidbit. Did you know it's illegal to bring beer into Utah? I didn't. Mind you the gnat's pee they serve in bars in this state could hardly be called beer! The trip was a lot of fun, good friends, great weather, stunning views and I would definitely do it again.