It's the New Year!

And there was fun planned.  Ever been to a yurt? 

I have!  A friend owns property just outside a small town just east of the Cascade mountains about a two hour drive from Seattle with a yurt.  The yurt is really hard to describe to anyone who hasn't been there.  Think of it as a more open small cabin with thick canvas walls.  This one does not have running water nor a bathroom besides an outhouse.  It does have a small kitchen set up and a wood burning stove which is used to heat the whole yurt.  It is large and airy inside with a loft structure built inside.

I joined a couple other couples for a stayover to welcome in the new year.  We brought food to heat up and wine and games to play.  The road to the yurt is not drivable with snow so that meant we'd have to hike our gear up the .8 mile.

Snowshoes!  I got to try snowshoes and it was super fun.  I did a trip to and from the car twice and marveled at what a fun workout that was.  People run in those?  Wow.  that is impressive.  We hunkered down for the night and had a great time chatting, drinking, eating and playing a board game.  No electricity and just candle light really does change what sort of pass times are available.

Frankly i prefer celebrating an East Coast New Year's celebration (ie at 9:00 PM west coast time) but we made it to 2013 and enjoyed watching the fireworks going off in the small valley below us.  It was just beautiful.  The wood burning stove needs to be tended and added to around the clock, so no one slept all that well but still.  It was warm and quiet and we had no need to hop up immediately with plans.

After a leisurely breakfast, we kitted up to go snowshoeing again.  The area this yurt is in was affected by fires the previous summer and we wanted to see the area which had been more affected. It had been foggy on our hillside but as we snowshoed up to the top of the hill (rather steep in places), the fog lifted and we even got a bit of sun.  Gorgeous.

Snowshoeing must certainly burn a lot of calories because after just an easy hour of it, I was ready for a second breakfast.  We headed back to the yurt for more food and got ready to leave.  it was just a quick mountain getaway and a great, memorable way to bring in the 2013!





2012 had a lot to offer.  I hit a new running mileage high for the year.  1817 which is just a 100 miles over the previous high in 2010.  Even better I did this with no unplanned breaks because of injury.  I had some fantastic races with Ragnar and approached my 10k pr from 5 years ago.  Even better? I can't wait to see what 2013 will bring.