Will is one of our favorite people. He spent the summer fighting fires out of rural Montucky and has recently embarked on a 6 month off-season of travel and climbing. Our schedules couldn’t have been more opposite. We started our trip from AK, he started fire. We landed in Hailey, he packed up his truck and headed south. Luckily for us however, his journey did bring him through Idaho and we got to spend the better part of a week with him, hiking, shooting guns, drinking beers, soaking in hot springs under a full moon (celestial) and climbing at one of the most stunning places on earth The City of Rocks.

Backstrap from Will’s deer shot only days earlier.

Backstrap veggies and rice. Hard to go wrong.

Among other deliciousness, we had homemade goat cheese and fresh canned smoked salmon that Emmie packaged in Valdez. Nice work Emmie!

Unfortunately our camera was M.I.A. for some of the most memorable moments of Will’s visit. We didn’t have it when he was working the moves on the iconic “Crack of Doom” at The City, nor when we set up camp on the snowy North side of a mountain looking out to a nearly unbelievable sunset so rich in color it had us remarking out loud in disbelief. It also wasn’t there to document Will’s ’84 Toyota pickup with custom camper shell and 50’s era hand crank coffee grinder. Oh well. Maybe next time.

One evening we drove to a hot spring north of town and shared some Montana beers under the brightest full moon any of us could remember. The sky was so crisp and the moon so large we just soaked and stared into the night sky.

Will is probably on his was back east to visit family at this point, so safe travels Will! We are already planning a christmas break meet up (hopefully also including Kassy and Alf!!) somewhere in the desert southwest. The desert has been calling ever since leaving Moab this summer, so if a quick trip to Red Rocks sounds good to you we plan to be there some time between Christmas and the first week of the New Year.

Hope everyone is ready for some snow! It’s looking like we wont get much here in Hailey but the temps will be dropping near 3F this evening just in time for the outdoor/indoor 1st Anniversary Party at the Sawtooth Brewery! I will be working outside from 5-midnight so stop by for a huge selection of Sawtooth Beers, live music and a cart food extravaganza!!