Thursday, September 30, 2021
Slow day; although my knee hadn’t acted up at all over the many miles in Iceland, it swelled up and got quite sore after yesterday’s walk. So discretion was the order of the day. Rory and Pravan did a walk recommended by Hal F. on a high ridge above Taylor Canyon while we took a walk along the Woods River Trail, a paved multi-use path that runs for almost 30 miles from Ketchum to Hailey. The section we walked was lovely, though not always as close to the river as we would have liked.
And yes, the sky really is that blue.
We bailed out at one of the ski lodges called River Run at the foot of Bald Mountain; I tailed it back for the car and picked up the crew…and we all headed for lunch. The weather was glorious: mid-fifties, but with the extraordinarily bright sun and the high altitude, it felt like it was in the seventies. Sue had read that the restaurant at the Sun Valley Club had a nice terrace, and she had that just right!
We dropped Emily at home for a swim while we met Rory and Pravan for our first tour of town. Ketchum has a surprisingly lively arts scene (with a museum and community theater) and many galleries. Sue and Pravan found a store called Maison et cadeaux run by a lovely French woman; Sue was enchanted by some of the things for the grandkids and left with her purse a good bit lighter.
The day was young, and Rory made the excellent suggestion that we retrace their steps at the beginning of the hike to Adams Gulch. The late afternoon light was memorable.
The trail isn’t more than a mile and a half from town, and there were more mountain bikers than hikers.
By late afternoon it was in the low sixties, and we ate on the terrace at a wonderful restaurant, Rickshaw, that features dishes from across Southeast Asia (and has the good sense not to include Burmese cuisine). All the food is meant for sharing, and we had a great international feast.
After coffee at home, we drove up to Rory and Pravan’s airbnb condo (which was very nice) on the back side of Dollar Mountain and did some star gazing. It has been a very long time since I saw the firmaments ablaze like this. Rory had a great little app called Nite Sky which not only helped us identify constellations and planets, but even the international space station as it moved across the sky.
Wonderful day!