Hoover and the Motorcycle - 08 August 2026
Above: The Duc at City Park, Cokeville, WY. 05 August 2026.
Out and about on the Duc (2021 Ducati Multistrada V4 motorcycle). Between 03 August 2026 and 05 August 2026, I motorcycled an 825-mile loop (Park City, UT, Sun Valley, ID, Jackson Hole, WY, Park City, UT) to attend two Hoover Institution donor events.
As I rode the spirited, purring Ducati through Twin Falls, Idaho, on the afternoon of August 3, 2026, I reflected on the horrific mass shooting that had struck the newly opened Twin Falls In-N-Out Burger just two days earlier, on August 1. Parallels between the Twin Falls tragedy and the Charlie Kirk assassination drifted through my mind: both acts were carried out by young men, and both unfolded against the backdrop of two Mormon cultural milieus. Correlation, of course, is not causation, and I have no wish to stoke conspiracy-theory claptrap. Still, as an eighty-year-old cultural Mormon raised in Provo, Utah—the very site of Kirk’s assassination—I found it almost unimaginable that, twenty years ago, violence of this kind so close to home, culturally and geographically, would not have seemed possible.
The ride from Park City to Sun Valley stretched 325 miles. After a week of record triple-digit heat along the Wasatch Front, today’s temperatures remained surprisingly mild, never climbing above 85 degrees. The air, however, hung thick and smokey—the drifting byproduct of Oregon forest fires not far to the west. Once in Ketchum, I checked into the hotel, napped for half an hour, and then settled in at the Pioneer Grill for a prime-rib end cut.
After the Hoover luncheon at the Sun Valley Club on August 4, 2026, I pointed the Ducati due east for the 240-mile run to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Along the way I paused to take in Craters of the Moon National Monument—a vast volcanic expanse of black lava fields, cinder cones, and otherworldly formations spread across the Snake River Plain in south-central Idaho.
Above: Craters of the Moon National Monument, 04 August 2026.
Out and about on the Duc.
After a quick fuel-and-hydration stop at a Maverick in Idaho Falls, I continued riding the intrepid Duc through the scenic Swan Valley, tracing the meandering Snake River and the shores of Palisades Reservoir toward Alpine, Wyoming. The latter half of that beautiful, winding stretch found me happily leaning the Duc from side to side, curve after curve, behind a “rabbit”—a white F-150 holding steady at sixty-five in a fifty-five zone.
I rolled into Jackson Hole in time to meet my friend Kilimanjaro (Bob Flath) for dinner at the Bistro, a short walk from my downtown hotel. Regrettably, I learned, checking email too late, that Hoover development maven Shelley Carson had invited me to join her and a Montana-based Hoover Overseer for dinner that evening. It would have been a pleasure for Kilimanjaro and me to team up with Shelley and her guest. Maybe next time.
Kilimanjaro, a retired endodontist living in Jackson Hole, received his nick-moniker after I found out that he had once hired a twelve-porter support crew to assist him in his solo climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro has a lot of great travel tales. He told me at dinner that he had just visited his fiftieth state, Arkansas. He had high praises for the Walton family funded Christal Bridges Museum, in Bentonville. TIMDT and Mwah (sic) had visited that fabulous museum just the year before. Before moving to Jackson Hole six or seven years ago, Kilimanjaro was an active participant in Park City at LSDM.
The weather today (04 August 2026) mirrored that of the day before: clear skies softened by a haze of smoke, temperatures never climbing above eighty-five degrees. Once again, the vibration and steady hum of the Ducati at speed worked its familiar palliative magic on my psyche. Long-distance riding on a high-performance motorcycle remains, for me, one of life’s enduring uppers.
Next day, 05 August 2026, after the end of an "in place" luncheon put on by Hoover Institution and the Four Seasons Hotel in Teton Village, WY, at about 1:30 PM, I started my ride back to Park City, UT, 260 miles distant via the Star Valley, Cokeville, WY, and Evanston, WY. I made one of my all-time favorite motorcycle riding stops, halfway home, at the city park in Cokeville, WY (image above).
Cokeville is the site of the Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis which occurred on May 16, 1986. Former town marshal David Young and his wife Doris entered the school armed with guns and a homemade gasoline bomb, taking roughly 150–154 students and staff hostage in a classroom and demanding a massive ransom. After a standoff of about 2½ hours, the bomb detonated accidentally while David was briefly out of the room, injuring Doris and 79 hostages who required hospitalization for burns and other injuries. David then shot his wife and himself. All the hostages survived; the only deaths were the two perpetrators. Many survivors later described the outcome as miraculous.
Seven miles east of Cokeville sits Pine Creek Ski Area, a small, family-run ski hill carved out by local ranchers and cowboys who simply needed something to do through the long Wyoming winters. It offers 1,425 feet of vertical across 640 acres and more than thirty trails, served by a single quad chair and a beginner magic carpet. The base lodge is the old Cokeville train depot, resituated after being hauled up the mountain.
Pine Creek delivers one of the all-time great ma-and-pa skiing experiences. Local ranchers and their kids still run the lifts and tend the slopes. I’ve skied there twice—once watching my friend Stockli snap a collarbone in the process. These little family hills are a pure hoot, wrapping the day in a special blend of excitement and down-home warmth that the mega resorts simply can’t match.
When you’re not motorcycling through Cokeville and pausing at the city park in summer, the little town turns into a perfect winter two-fer: ski Pine Creek one day, overnight at Beaver Creek Lodge high in Logan Canyon, then drop into the six-lift sprawl of Beaver Mountain the next. Just watch the weather—near the lodge sits Peter’s Sink, which periodically claims the title of the coldest spot in the nation.
My friend Guzzi once pulled off a legendary same-day ski double—Pine Creek in the morning and Park City’s Canyons that afternoon—likely a first that will never be matched. I love these obscure corners where beauty still holds the high ground and the few people you meet stand solidly rooted in the land. As Emerson put it, “the land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false and fantastic in our culture.”
I returned home to Park City around 6:30 PM.
Hoover Events in Sun Valley and Jackson Hole
Here are very selected takeaways from attending Hoover Institution events in Sun Valley and Jackson Hole. LSDM stalwart Kilimanjaro (Bob Flath) joined me as a guest at the Hoover do at the Four Seasons Resort, Jackson Hole.
Sun Valley Resort, 04 August 2026
Abbas Milani, Head of Iranian Studies, Stanford University - Re: Iran War. "Iran is weakened. IRGC is emboldened. Strange tautology."
Four Seasons Hotel, Jackson Hole, 05 August 2026
Sir Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow Hoover Institution, Stanford University - Re: Iran War. "We've (the US) been throwing Ferraris at Priuses. This is unsustainable." Context: Asymmetric warfare.
Andy Hall, Stanford/Hoover, Substacker about to start at Anthropic on year leave of absence from Stanford - "No significant use of AI yet for voters to make voting decisions... but the issue is rapidly gaining visibility."
Allison Okamura, Professor of Engineering, Stanford University (Hoover fellow): Working on 3D printing hearts for transplant. "Autonomous (!)" robotic heart surgery on the horizon."
General Sir Nick Carter, former Chief of Defense, United Kingdom, Hoover fellow): "Don't write off tanks yet." Context: Growing use of drones as asymmetric weapons.
Combining the thrill of the ride with dinner with friends and the topical talks of apex Hoover academics is a good way to spend three days.