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Visitors, Locals Enjoy Sheep
Beer & Bike Fest Promises Fall Fun BY JONATHAN KANE
A
t Idaho’s 11th annual Crosstoberfest, held this Friday and Saturday at Old Cutters Park in Hailey, bicycle racing marries a beer fest. In the eyes of many, it’s nothing shy of a match made in heaven: bicycle racing meets beer, they fall in love and decide to throw a party! The annual Idaho Crosstoberfest is just such a celebration.
Olson started by
Hoops symbolize holding onto life for the Basques, while dancers lift a warrior above their heads and dance around him in a show of military might.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
doing mobile bike repairs and then opened the Power House bike shop. Combining two days of cyclocross races with a craft beer festival, Crosstoberfest— as it’s simply called—will be celebrating it’s 11th year this October 17-18. While cyclocross racing has been popular in Europe for over 60 years, the sport is essentially just catching up here in the U.S.—but it’s doing so swiftly. Cyclocross is America’s fastest growing cycle sport. Cyclocross events traditionally take place in the autumn and early winter and consist of short races (usually lasting less than an hour) where the competitors make laps on short tracks (usually less than two miles long) that contain challenging terrain that varies from dirt to pavement to grass and includes obstacles that occasionally force riders to dismount and carry their bikes. Crosstoberfest Idaho was the brainchild of Billy Olson, a former professional road bike racer. Olson is the owner of Power House Pub and Bike Fit Studio in Hailey, considered to be one of the best—
T
erry Kohlman, a public defender from Wisconsin and his wife Kathy have been wanting to see the Trailing of the Sheep Festival ever since they saw it on CBS’ “On the Road with Charles Kuralt” 15 years ago. But plane service was such that they couldn’t get here from there, they said, “without driving a long way.” With improved air service, the Kohlmans finally achieved their dream this past week. And they weren’t disappointed. “It’s every bit as wonderful as we thought it would be,” said Kathy Kohlman. Over four days, the Kohlmans learned from chef Jim Roberts how a leg of lamb has the perfect amount of fat and meat to make moist sausage and meatballs. They savored lamb strudel topped with tomato preserves at Vintage during the free Lamb Tastings. They examined Laureale Neal’s felted wool handbags at the Sheep Folklife Fair. They tapped their toes to the Polish Highlanders, Basque dancers and bagpipers and danced to the Oklahoma swing of Hot Club of Cowtown. And they joined thousands of others from at least 23 states and British Columbia watching 1,500 sheep surge down Ketchum’s
Main Street like an ocean tide. The Trailing, which began as a simple parade of school children following sheep through downtown Ketchum 18 years ago, has taken on a life of its own with even the spectators contributing to the spectacle. On Saturday, Mountain Home residents Rich and Diane Weideman outfitted three Chinese crested dogs and one Chi-Chi in sheep’s clothing and paraded them around the Folklife Fair. And on Sunday Sheri Crew, of Newport, Ore., donned her country folk dress as she has done for the past four years and paraded her 115-pound Polish Tatra sheepdog along the parade route, allowing spectators to pet its lush, self-cleaning coat. ”I just love the festival with the Hot Club of Cowtown and the Basques and the Polish Highlanders,” she said. Festival-goers found an array of things to tease their senses, from the screaming bagpipes of the Boise Highlanders to the tasty samples of sheep cheese that Kendall Russell of Lark’s Meadow Farm had named after the likes of “Ella,” whom he described as “the best jazz singer who ever lived.” And they got the opportunity to hear plenty of stories, which Festival Director Mary Austin Crofts noted was the main reason the festival was started. “When the music has quieted and the lamb has been eaten, all we have left is our stories and we have 18 years of them recorded and stored on archives at the CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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