Forest Service Cabin No 41

No 41 is a Forest Service Cabin sitting on 1-1/2 acres and has become our dream escape. We fell in love with the Sawtooths, White Clouds and the Hemingway Wilderness areas while renting a cabin in Ketchum for a month one October, driving back and forth over the “hill” going on hikes. After finishing the famous trophy hike, “Alice Lakes” Dermot and I decided we had to figure out a way to have our own place here so we could spend Springs and Falls hiking and retreating into the wilderness. After a lengthy search we came upon a listing for a Forest Service Cabin located between Pettit and Alturas Lakes, in the heart of many beautiful hikes. After reading (a lot!) about what it meant to own a Forest Service Cabin we walked to the edge of the diving board and jumped in. We purchased 411 in early 2018 and the odyssey began.

With a Forest Service (FS) cabin you literally only own your home and lease the land from the Forest Service and being in a Dark Sky Preserve there are lots of rules and regulations. More about this later. Our cabin, like many was equipped only with electricity, a wood burner for heat and an outhouse, no indoor plumbing. Their original use intent was for weekends and short stays, encouraging folks to get outside and play. Since we live in Wisconsin our intent was to spend at least 4-8 weeks at a time so some modifications were needed to make this work. (The road trip is part of the fun!)

A formal process exists to get any exterior work done on these gems and there are many restrictions. We had to have an archeological survey done prior to digging the well and septic and a historical survey also had to be completed. Our plans for the exterior which included a small shed for storing tools and recycling and tearing off and rebuilding the porch all had to be drawn up and approved by the FS. The outhouse had to be kept, for historical reasons and a tree had fallen on it so some repairs were warranted.

We teamed up with Keith Reece at Sawtooth Valley Builders and a year after meeting all FS requirements the design and planing process the real work began. (The construction season is short; after snowfall, the road to the cabin is not plowed and only accessible by cross country skiing or snowshoeing.) Small but mighty, we call our cabin Wau Ke Na meaning woods by the lake, is all of 700 square feet and we were determined to remain within this footprint with our modifications.

We built out a small kitchen, bathroom from the common room on the first floor and a built in twin daybed. In the sleeping loft we carved out a closet with washer and dryer. In addition to the design elements, we replaced the roof, the crawl space was dug out and insulated and heating was installed, the failing existing and original porch was rebuilt to withstand the weight of snowfall, up to 5-6 feet of snow falls in winter turning the place into “Narnia.”

While many retirees dream of globe trekking you will find us 3-4 months of the year wearing our hiking boots and hitting the gorgeous hiking trails of the Sawtooths, White Cloud Mountains and the Hemingway Wilderness with our dog Willa.