STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The real fireworks in Ketchum on the Fourth of July came not from pyrotechnics made in China but from Mother Nature herself.

Like the wolf in “The Three Little Pigs,” Mother Nature huffed and puffed, blowing through K-Town as lightning crackled overhead and the heavens opened, drenching the area below.

Members of Sun Valley Resort’s guest services hastened to the resort to help right festival tents that had blown over in the wind. And minutes later the sun reappeared chasing away every single cloud in the sky, making it possible for the second evening of the Baldy Bluebird Music Festival to go on as planned.

But those hiking the Bald Mountain Trail to the Roundhouse and to the top of Bald Mountain on Saturday morning ran across reminders of the storm.

A tree had fallen over the lowest portion of the trail, which parallels the Big Wood River. And several more landed across the path as it crossed ski runs in the vicinity of Frenchman’s.  A mudslide had even washed down the mountainside in one location.

Mountain bikers had a tough time of it, having to push their bikes far up the mountain slope to get around the downed trees. But hikers—many of them from out of town--took it in stride finding ways under and over the downed trees.

And, in the end, it was the perfect Cross-Fit workout.