Living in the mountains again!
After 8 years of living and training in the Midwest, Brian and I had an awesome opportunity to head out west to the Methow Valley for some quality training in the Mountains! This is the view from my current training camp residence, Brian and I are staying in a Yurt below Lucky Jim’s Bluff, which towers above. The “yurt” is incredible, it is a glorified tent really with only fabric between myself and the wildlife on the other side. As a child in New York City walking alone in China Town and riding the Subway in Soho never seemed scary…wild animals, however, kinda freak me out! I have run into Bear, RattleSnakes and even had a Wolf Pack out my back door a few nights ago. I am also getting more comfortable with the idea that there are Cougars around here! I can’t help but run along the rocky outcroppings thinking that there is a Couar watching me from above. Apparently it is rare to see a Cougar but I am not putting it past this City-Slicker who seems to find the wild animals when I least expect to!
The yurt is where Chad and Alieta Gregg have lived for the past 5 years! It’s been cold here in the mornings sometimes registering around 44F inside the Yurt when I wake-up. I can’t even imagine how cold it can get during a winter below 0F night! Cad and alieta have done a wonderful job of making the yurt feel like a home. When they moved to Seattle for new jobs, they were gracious enough to let us stay in there home away from home! Alieta talks about her abrupt change from life in the suburbs to life in the yurt and how much she has grown to love yurt living. After being here for a couple of weeks I totally get it!
Life inside a 300 SQ/FT Yurt! There is quite a bit of space for a single round room! The windows are plastic and roll up during the day while the walls are reinforced by a wooden criss-cross pattern.
Nothing beats morning Yoga in the yurt while looking through the amazing circular sky light! I will also say that although it has only rained here in the Methow ONCE in the past 3 weeks, listening to it fall on the roof of the yurt was one of the most pleasant ways to wake up.
Training is the focus here in Washington and we have been getting in a ton of it! With endless miles of trails in the mountains and the Methow Community Trail down the road from the yurt, Brian and I have been able to log some of the best training sessions of our careers. The change of venue and scenery has proven to be a good stimulus for me in terms of keeping things new. The training methods we are using are also new which also keeps my body guessing. As Brian mentioned a quote he heard that summed up our experiences here “Madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” I will second those feelings and welcome the change!
