Lost & Found

After a decade of living alone in the Idaho wilderness as the “Texas Yeti,” Patrick Taylor thought his days of radical reinvention were behind him. Then a stranger named Todd invited him on a late-season raft trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River — and everything changed.

"Lost & Found" is the story of what happened next: meeting Ela online during COVID, moving to a small town in Poland at 65 on a one-way ticket, and learning to build a new life brick by brick with someone who had also lost everything. It’s a candid, hopeful memoir about starting over after loss, finding love later in life, and discovering that the next chapter can be the best one — even when you don’t know exactly where it’s leading.

Part wilderness adventure, part love story, and part practical guide to intentional living, this book shows what happens when you stop clinging to the old life and say yes to something new.

For readers of Wild, Educated, or anyone navigating midlife reinvention, second acts, or finding connection after loss.