Did a work party at the Yurt with MTTA. It was a fun day led by the wonderful volunteer Yurt managers and we got a lot done! The roofs got cleaned, the door got some new paint, we cleared a landing spot for a new propane tank, and laid the foundation for a new trail out to a viewpoint behind the Yurt, which will hopefully continue getting developed in the future into a nice sunset spot. It was cool to get to be part of not just helping to maintain it (important of course), but also getting to make it better. :-)

Took a few guests to see my favorite yurt.

The Friday of Memorial Day weekend I left work and got to the upper parking lot around 6 pm.  I hiked the road up. I wan't carrying much except food, clothes and water so I made good time, covering 5 miles in under 2 hours. It's slog for sure, lots of up. A few small patches of snow are sticking around but they'll be gone soon.

The yurt is remote, about 2.5 miles from the nearest hut. It's tucked in the woods without any views. Right around the corner there's a spot that probably has views but I was socked in the whole time I was there so wasn't able to see much more than trees.

I was the only one up that night. The yurt is impressively stocked with amenties. It's built to stay warm and I was nice and cozy that evening as a wintry mix fell outside.

I slept in the next morning, drinking coffee and waiting to see if the rain/snow mix would subside before my hike down. I started hiking shortly before 1 pm and it took about 2 hours to make it down (I was in no rush). I ended up hiking down in a mix of rain, snow and sunshine. I hiked down on the Lower Yurt trail, which I think saved me on some elevation up and down but wasn't as smooth and fast as the road. 

Quiet, peaceful trip, hardly saw anyone.

We stayed at The Yurt Saturday 4/27 - Sunday 4/28 (I think I booked this back in Nov)

Parking: we bought 2 day sno-park pass (1 Road Sno-Park is the name) for $50 online ahead of time. We pulled in around 1:00 PM to the upper lot. There were a handful of cars. There is a pit toilet at the lower lot.

Trail in: On our hike in, we took the road and followed the signs. We brought microspikes, but I don't think any of us actually used them. We just trudged through the snow fields we came across. There were quite a few giant patches of snow on this route. Our hike into the yurt, my garmin clocked 5.27 miles, 1749 ft ascent, 722 ft descent, about 3 hours.

The Yurt: it's been 5.5 year since the last time I stayed here, but it was everything I remembered it to be! The kitchen was well stocked, we did bring our own cooking oil but I think I saw some cooking spray in the cabinets. We all had a great time staying the night. 

Trail out: We decided to take the Lower Yurt Trail back. A lot of this trail was road, and there were actually less snow patches going this way (still a couple but a lot less). There is one section where you go through the forest, but as long as you follow the trail markers you won't get lost. For this route back, my Garmin clocked 5.45 miles, 300 ft ascent, 1342 ft descent, about 2 hrs 15 min

Thanks to the volunteers who take such good care of this place!

Intermittent snow starts about a half mile from the upper sno-park. I had snowshoes and used them a bit but ultimately got tired of taking them off and putting them on so I just trudged where I had to and it wasn’t so bad. Snow is soft so you will pothole but only ~8 inches. Yurt is clean and well stocked with TP, extra food, and full rain barrels.