A Pain In The Yurt

I have been here for almost 1 month and am already seeing myself change. I believe that I will share with you a flash back, just one of my adventure packed days I have had! This one is especially original.

Saturday, June 22.

I had been in Idaho one full week, I was feeling a little homesick and cooped up so I decided to go Kayaking-to clear my head and get some time alone. I borrowed a one man kayak and got dropped off downriver from the Depot (where I live) I was told it was a 45 minute paddle back "yeah, that sounds pretty nice. I can do that easy." I thought.
I'm glad I went alone because for the first 10 minutes I spent straightening myself out and trying not to capsize.....it was not very graceful or relaxing. I was a bit frightened of going under, but so was Hamster.

Eventually we levelled out and I could paddle nicely, after that it was a beautiful morning! It was the most fun I had had all week, being out on the river at 8:00 am was a wise decision. The air was cool and there was a slight breeze blowing at my back, the sun was just peaking over the tree line, casting shadows. 

My exit snuck up on me, I didn't recognize my house from where I was coming from so I paddled right past it and had to paddle back up stream....it was pretty intense for that early in the morning. There wasn't a bank I could come up next to to step out of the kayak, so I pretty much crawled on top of the front bit and scooted, slowly to shore. It was not very pretty if you have ever tried sitting on top of a kayak while it's in the water you know that it's very wobbly. For the second time that morning I thought I was going to end up falling head first into 3 foot deep water. (It wouldn't have been dangerous, just enough to be annoying and inconvenient) I escaped that misfortune thankfully, but headed straight for the next one. 

In the backyard of the Depot there is a authentic Mongolian Yurt, it is a insulated one room tent that the nomadic Mongolian families live in. ( I encourage you to look into them, I am considering purchasing one to live in.) I went inside to be alone and for the experience of sitting on a bamboo mat in the center of a yurt (which before that day I didn't know they existed) 

The door closed behind me so I got comfortable and got out my journal, I wrote about my morning...I would have stayed longer but my stomach started to sing, I figured it was time for a banana and a bowl of granola. I packed up my things and headed for the door, to my surprise I couldn't push it open, and little did I know that yurts don't have doorknobs on the inside. " Wonderful" I thought. I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out if there was any kind of lever to make the door swing open, I even went so far as to think that there might be a secret passage way underground that would lead to a room in the Depot. It had only been 30 minutes so I was stupidly optimistic about the situation. 

Me being too cheerful about being trapped.

I settled in again to write, completely confident that someone would happen upon me in the next hour.....and after two hours came and went, with not so much  as a bird on the roof as a visitor I began to wonder  if I should do something. It was beginning to be less enjoyable at this point.

Me, beginning to be myself again. Less cheerful.

I had eaten my snack, drank all my water and nature was calling....I was trapped and couldn't answer that call. But that got me to think, my phone was just about to die but I had just enough juice to make one call, and I gambled with it. I had one of my leaders phone numbers but the day before she had announced that she had misplaced her phone. With this knowledge I made the call and hoped for the best. It rang and rang and with every passing ring my hope dwindled a little more until I was instructed to leave a message-which I didn't bother to do.  I'm sure I looked pathetic sitting on the dusty floor, at a complete lost of what to do when my phone began to vibrate, I dropped my phone on the ground in my scurrying hurry to open it while standing up, I scooped it up and opened it in one fluent motion and planned a rescue. 

Lesson learned, never get closed inside a yurt alone-unless you want to be left there indefinitely. It was a pain in the yurt.....