So many shirts to choose from….

Didn’t buy anything but really, really wanted this bowl, purpleheart with an inlay of real turquoise.

After breakfast I head further into the Sawtooth, it is an amazing place, I head off on an old unmanaged forestry road towards the town of Atlanta, rumoured to be the most remote town in the lower 48 states, it is 40 miles from the nearest paved road.

No Google maps reception out here so I follow the directions I was given carefully (the visitor centre lady at the highway said “Drive until you’ve about given up and you’ll just about be there.”) and drive for what seems a crazy long time, at least an hour, down a dirt road until finally I come around a bend and there is a town, unbelievable. I poke around, have a snack at the cafe and hike a bit, then head back out again. I have never been anywhere like Atlanta, it is odd and wonderful and twilight zoney and, as promised, amazingly remote.

Kim, my Airbnb host insisted I stop in Stanley at the Redfish Lake Lodge for breakfast, I do so and it is awesome.

I arrive at the Inn at Elsmere in Hailey, the innkeeper has no record of my reservation and is full for the night, she calls around, everything else is full as well, Hailey is not a big place. I phone Hotels.com, they admit their mistake and offer a free night in the closest vacancy, which is in Boise, 3 hours away and past the Sawtooth. I give Hotels.com a piece of my mind, thank the innkeeper for trying and head out to try and find wifi downtown.

Hotels are all booked for sure so I try Airbnb because you never know, even in a small place, Airbnb has several listings but they are either crazy money or full, I prepare to sleep in the car or under the stars.

Suddenly! I get a response from an Airbnb request, she tells me she is booked but understands the pickle I am in and would be willing to let me stay in her spare room!

I head over to the address and meet an amazing lady, she takes me in and gives me coffee. She is wonderful, a children’s book illustrator. I am exhausted at this point and fall asleep almost immediately.

In the morning my hostess is up when I pop my head out of my room at 6:00 and offers coffee, we end up chatting a couple hours she give me tips for food and things to see in the Sawtooth and sends me on my way.

Amazing.

After visiting the moon I am starting to get tired, I come to the sad little town of Carey, ID (there are quite a few sad little towns like this when you don’t drive the interstate) and am getting tired.

I pull over and search Hotels.com for a room nearby, I find one in Hailey and book it. Then I notice that Hailey is the start of the Sawtooth Nation Forest, I actually know this place, where Hemingway did his outdoorsy stuff (and where he shot himself) and home to Sun Valley (famous ski retreat of the rich and famous). I almost drove right across the bottom of the park without noticing.