July / August, 2009 - Still camped in the national forest outside Ketchum,
Idaho, we left our dream campsite along the creek and moved to another
one with a spectacular mountain view. The welcoming committee here was
a moose. He came two nights in a row and quietly munched the grasses
down by the river.
A fisherman and his son
came by one morning
and said they had been
fishing this river for 25
years and had never
seen a moose. We
suggested they come by
at dusk, as the moose
seemed to like visiting at twilight. Our new friends came by at the appointed
hour, but the moose was on a different schedule that night. He must have had
something else going on earlier, because he didn't make his appearance until
an hour after our friends had left.
We were in a stunning setting with the Harriman Trail running
behind us on one side and the most amazing mountain view
soaring into the sky on the other side.
We rode the trail up to Easley Hot Springs where a swimming
pool and hot tub have been built to take advantage of the
springs. Further on, the trail winds through the forest and
meadow. I wanted to ride it the remaining 10 miles up to
Galena Lodge, but the weather had other ideas.
A magnificent storm swept in during the afternoon and
blanketed the whole valley with black clouds. I was way up the
trail somewhere on my bike, hoping to outpace the downpour
coming back. I made it back just in time, but Mark had gotten
nervous that I'd be caught out somewhere, so he had climbed
onto the roof of the buggy to see where I had disappeared to.
When I got back the sky darkened even more. The sun peeked through
the clouds for a moment and gave us the most unusual lighting all
around the trailer.
We were both enchanted. What a magical moment. As the lightning
started in the distance and the rain began to fall on the horizon, we
were overcome with a delicious, eerie feeling. We could see
Ketchum getting pelted by rain in the distance, but our little oasis had
a tiny spotlight of sun.
The worst of the storm passed to the north of us, but it affected
the weather for the next week.
We woke up the next morning to find the mountains embraced
by clouds and covered in ice and snow. The warm daytime
temperatures had vanished. We would get a few hours of
cloudless skies and bright sunshine each morning, but by noon
an echo of that storm would begin to well up in the mountain
peaks. By mid-afternoon each day we would be engulfed in
overcast skies.
Ketchum / Sun Valley is a town for the Rich and Famous, and we stopped
noticing Porsche Carerra 4's after the umpteenth sighting on our first day
in town. Fortunately, for the wealthy car enthusiasts in town, the Sheriff
has a great affection for raw power. One morning we found ourselves in
the midst of the unusual Sun Valley Road Rally. The Sheriff had agreed
to shut down a few miles of Route 75, the Sawtooth Scenic Highway
heading north out of town, so the townsfolk could race their cars.
This was a charity event, and entrants paid $1,500 a run to drive their
cars as fast as they could past the Sheriff's speed trap. He then wrote up
a fake ticket showing the speed they were going when they passed the
radar gun. For three hours the cars went off at five minute intervals.
Twice each hour for 15 minutes the road was temporarily opened to
regular traffic.
Mark had a field day watching the Ford GT's, Vipers and Porsches parade past the spectators to the starting point beyond the top
of the hill. We would hear each car in the distance first, and he would try to guess what it was by its whine. Then the car would
crest the hill and start its descent towards the radar gun. An announcer would tell us the type of car and the speed it was going,
and we had fun guessing the speeds before they were announced. The Toyota Prius was a big surprise at 107 mph, and the
vintage (1956) Ferrari with its equally vintage driver was cute at 117 mph. A Bentley and souped up truck joined the fun.
However, the big surprise came when a middle-aged mom with long
dark hair stepped out of a Porsche after it was clocked going 181 mph.
She got a round of applause, but left us all even more shocked when
she handed the keys over to a young blonde, gave her a hug and sent
her off to the starting line. When the Porsche showed up again, the
radar read 183 mph. The crowd went wild, and the young girl emerged.
We discovered that she was the mom's 22-year-old daughter, and that
the boy she was handing the keys to was her 23-year-old brother. When
he came roaring by at 188 the crowd went ballistic. Finally, dad got a
turn at the wheel. We were hoping he would show us all how it is done,
but he didn't quite match his son, coming in at just 186 mph. The young
boy in that Porsche shared the crown for the day with a Ford GT that
also reached 188 mph.
All that fast-paced excitement had to be countered with something a little lower key.
We went in to Sun Valley to watch the 1941 movie, "Sun Valley Serenade," starring
Sonya Henie. There is a free showing every afternoon. The movie theater is the
"Opera House," a cute building in the middle of the Sun Valley Resort complex.
This movie was originally made, in part, to promote
Sun Valley as a winter destination. Who better to be
the star than the utterly charming 3-time Olympic
figure skating champion of the day, Sonya Henie.
The producers put together a first-rate show, with
Milton Berle and Glenn Miller's band taking supporting roles.
The story tells of a young Norwegian refugee who beguiles
her unsuspecting sponsor into falling in love with her.
As you listen to "In the Mood" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
performed by the master himself, the movie unfolds with scenes of Sun
Valley, appearing as it did when it first opened.
Trains brought visitors into town from far away places, and horse-
drawn sleighs took them to the resort from the train station. Sun
Valley was a bright light of pure fun and fantasy at the end of the
Great Depression, and its promotional movie is bewitching.
Besides Henie's dazzling performance as a piquant and mischievous flirt,
some of the most intriguing scenes are on the ice where she performs
with a partner and supporting cast on a sheet of ice covered in a thin
layer of water. The scenes were shot at night, and as the skaters glide
across the ice, their reflections make them seem to be dancing on water.
We left that movie with smiles on our faces, caught up in the charm of Sun Valley as it once was. We had gotten the idea to see
the movie from the Visitor Center's list of "50 Fun Free Things To Do in Ketchum / SunValley," and when we checked the list that
night there were still quite a few to go. No need to leave Ketchum/Sun Valley just yet.