Day 14: “Ketchum Alive”

We were surprised to wake up to cold weather (low 40s) and our hands became numb while we packed.

I wore my down jacket and pants for the uphill start of our ride and before you know it my hands thawed out. Brent’s fork bag mount broke on the bumpy dirt road but he managed to strap it to his rear rack and we continued down the long hill into Sun Valley.

Despite it’s worldwide fame, I didn’t know anything about Sun Valley. Apparently it was started by a railroad exec in 1936 as a way to sell more train tickets and they also created the world’s first chairlift by adapting a banana boat conveyor system.

It’s evolved several times and the part where we first saw it, was super fancy and high priced. We were going to eat at a bakery but when we saw that avocado toast is $24 we just drank a coffee and did some people watching. We clearly didn’t fit in.

We headed to the more reasonable town of Ketchum and had a delicious breakfast at Kneadery. I like to learn how towns got their name and I found out that Ketchum (named after a early settler) used to be called Leadville (metal mining) but the Postal Service rejected the name because it was too generic & common (e.g. Leadville Colorado).

Since we are going into the wilderness again for 4 days, we stocked up on freeze dried meals and visited a brewery too.

The music festival (called “Ketchum Alive”, featured a fun band from Missoula Montana and the scene reminded me of a similar event on our last years visit to the ski-town of Revelstoke British Columbia.

After a small pizza at “Wise Guys” we went around the corner to Leroy’s ice cream. While in the long-ish line we met a local lady Madison and her friends. We had a nice chat and her answer to my question “what’s the best thing about living in Ketchum?” Was “easy access to nature”. I agree.

We treated ourselves to a stay at Best Western (Tyrolean theme).

Next we ride into the wilderness again for four days.