Bindweed Farm: True Confessions

I have a confession--I have never stayed in a yurt--well, until this weekend. With the help of some good friends we remedied that situation and I am no longer a yurt virgin! One of my most adventurous friends, Trish, flew in from Oregon on business and invited me to share a ski trip with her. She also invited my other most adventurous buddy, Kath, whom you will recognize as Bindweed's number one unpaid employee. We left early Sunday morning and headed north to West Yellowstone. After hitting a great bookstore, The Book Peddler, and stopping at Ernie's Sandwich Shop for lunch we strapped on our skinny skis for a tour along the Madison River. It was just gorgeous to be in the snow--although the snow levels are at a record low, there was enough for a good ski.

Then we swung around south and headed for Harriman State Park in Idaho. Harriman is mecca for cross country skiers. We have spent many weekends at the Bunk House with friends but have never tried the yurts. They are great!

We had a short ski into the yurt with our first load. We found the door unlocked and it was warm and tidy inside. You remember Kath, my most adventurous friend.

And this is Trish, my other most adventurous friend. (In the past year she has really been jet-setting. Back and forth across the states and to Patagonia and Qatar twice!) She organized the trip. She lives in Eugene. She loves the Ducks. We love her.

The yurt has bunk beds that sleep six. Kath and I shared this bunk. The bottom is a futon, so it functions as a sofa during the day and folds down into a double bed for sleeping. There is a large picnic table with benches and chairs and just out of the shot, is a little counter with a gas stove for cooking.

There are windows and a huge skylight so it is very bright inside. At night there is a little propane lantern but for cooking and trekking to the outhouse we needed our headlamps. The dark object on the left of this shot is a wood stove and it cooks! We had a fire lit within minutes and were down to our tank tops shortly. Very cosy.

Now, these girls know how to "rough it". Even though we had to pack in everything we went in style. Trish brought two gorgeous bottles of wine, hummus, cheese, gormet crackers, granola and homemade poppyseed bread. She also packed in everything she needed to make her usual morning coffee: fresh ground Sumatra, milk, honey and a battery powered frother! She also packed in her laptop to share a foreign film and found that she had internet access in the yurt--amazing. (We were so busy catching up we did not watch the film but did use the laptop to view some of the photos of Patagonia.)

Kath is a true back-packer and supplied us with all the things we did not know we would need, but truly appreciated--matches, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, table cloth, napkins, wine opener, beer, Kalamata olives, etc., etc., etc. Total Boy Scout. If you are ever stranded on a desert island, make sure you have Kath with you!

I stuffed my backpack with nuts, figs, oranges, apples, chocolate and a nice little red lentil cocount curry and the fixings for saffron rice. (Trish got the saffron for me in Qatar.)

We had a great meal and talked deep into the still night, warm and snug in the yurt. We awoke to two inches of fresh powder and hit the trails on our hippy skies.

Harriman State Park is a gorgeous place and we had the perfect morning with clear brilliant skies and no wind.

There is a large population of swans that winter in the park. I was so sorry not to have my sketchbook and a little camp stool with me. To heck with skiing, I could have sat for hours in the sun watching the swans and scribbling.