Cascadia, Eurostyle

Willkom­men to Seat­tle! We’ll pick you up in the morn­ing either at the air­port, in down­town Seat­tle or in Issaquah before head­ing to our head­quar­ters to get you fit­ted on your Giant Trance (unless you opt to bring your own bike). Once bikes are tuned and ready to go, we will load up and head over Sno­qualmie Pass to the dry side, as “Wash­ing­to­ni­ans” call East­ern Wash­ing­ton.  We’ll put bikes down in Roslyn (Home of the 90s hit TV show North­ern Expo­sure) and get to riding.

We’ll begin our ride in a sub­alpine tran­si­tion for­est and make our way through white pines, pon­derosas pines and dou­glas firs. The dirt here is very dif­fer­ent with more sand and quartz mak­ing for loos­er ter­rain. As we hit the first ridge­line, we’ll gain views to the north of Mt. Stu­art and The Enchant­ments (a region of the Cas­cades known for breath­tak­ing alpine lakes). After a tra­verse around the back­side, we’ll have a long descent to the Cole Mines Trail which will be our path back to Roslyn. 

Post ride, we’ll hop in the shut­tle for an hour ride over Blewett Pass to Leav­en­worth.  Hold on to your hel­mets because you’re going to think you’ve been tele­port­ed to Bavaria.  Leav­en­worth…  We’ll check in to LOGE, in the heart of the vil­lage, home for the next 4 nights. LOGE was built for out­doorsy folks and is equipped with all the ameni­ties you’ll need. 

You’ll awak­en to the sounds of the Alpen­horn, or maybe just the alarm. After a hearty break­fast down­town, we’ll ped­al from the hotel to Ski Hill, the cen­tral hub for some of Der town’s most pop­u­lar trails. In the win­ter months, Ski Hill serves as just what the name implies com­plete with two rope tows, light­ed Nordic ski and skate trails and a his­toric lodge. Over the past 11 years, the Ski Hill Project, rep­re­sent­ing a part­ner­ship between Ever­green Moun­tain Bike Alliance and the USFS Wenatchee Ranger Dis­trict has con­nect­ed a series of trails that moun­tain bik­ers have worked to build for over 15 years. 

Once at Ski Hill, we’ll work on some skills before ascend­ing 4 the Boyz, a memo­r­i­al to four locals that lost their lives in two avalanch­es. We’ll quick­ly be greet­ed with our first views of the vil­lage below, with sur­round­ing orchards, views east to Wenatchee and tow­er­ing moun­tains. After an ini­tial descent, the climb begins.  We’ll climb 5 miles, first on an access road, but most­ly on sin­gle­track, with occa­sion­al views and only very short steep bits before we are ready for the real descent.  Fre­und Canyon is a “flow” trail with mas­sive wall rides and berms.  Think a con­tin­u­ous snake-like descent that alter­nates between wall ride and berm. 

After the clas­sic Fre­und trail, if you crave anoth­er lap, we will climb and dif­fer­ent route and either take a sec­ond descent on Fre­und or step it up and ride a more chal­leng­ing, knife edge trail, Rosie Boa. 

A day at Ski Hill will give you a taste want­i­ng more. If you’re legs are still up for it by Day 4, come back for Ribbed, Rosie or both!  We’ll ride back to the vil­lage to enjoy din­ner with a moun­tain view and deli­cious local cuisine.

After anoth­er hearty break­fast we’ll hop in the vans for a half hour trip east to Wenatchee where we’ll ride trails man­aged by the Cen­tral chap­ter of EMBA in part­ner­ship with the Chelan Dou­glas Land Trust. As the miles pass, the topog­ra­phy quick­ly tran­si­tions from moun­tain­ous ever­green forests, through orchards to scrub­land. The self-pro­claimed “Apple Cap­i­tal of the World” and home to Sage Hills, is named for the Sal­ish-speak­ing Pisqu­ose Indi­ans known as the Wenatchi People. 

The rolling hills found at Sage Hills, on the edge of Wenatchee offer won­der­ful views of the mighty Colum­bia Riv­er, the Wenatchee Val­ley and the North Cas­cades. Spring­time brings vibrant col­or to the area with wild sage, yel­low arrowleaf bal­sam­root, Indi­an paint­brush and pur­ple lupine.  Sin­gle track dirt trails lead over, around and through these beau­ti­ful rolling hills. 

We’ll head back to the vil­lage to enjoy din­ner with a moun­tain view and deli­cious local cuisine. 

After anoth­er deli­cious break­fast, you’ll have options for how you’d like to spend the day. Are you look­ing for adven­ture? White­wa­ter raft­ing the Wenatchee Riv­er may be right up your alley.  For some, sit­ting and relax­ing by the riv­er will be just the tick­et. If you have more legs and would like to ride, The NUT to Ribbed or Rosie, or both. Or per­haps you’d like a change of pace and decide to hike up Ici­cle Ridge Trail for a dif­fer­ent view of the vil­lage. Oth­er activ­i­ties include going shop­ping, wine, beer or spir­its tast­ing or check­ing out the quirky, Euro-themed village. 

Leav­en­worth looked to tourism and recre­ation as a major econ­o­my as ear­ly as 1929, when they opened a ski jump (yes, at Ski Hill). They haven’t looked back. With over 2.5 mil­lion vis­i­tors annu­al­ly, Leav­en­worth can feel a lot big­ger than its vil­lage pop­u­la­tion of 2,067. Leav­en­worth is home to the LW Nut­crack­er Muse­um (we’re not kid­ding), hosts an annu­al Okto­ber­fest cel­e­bra­tion and has some of the friend­liest locals. If you’re lucky enough to encounter a local, you’ll get a glimpse of what life is like in this Der town. 

Enjoy your final “Bavar­i­an” break­fast, pack up your bags and grab a cof­fee for the road. We are head­ed west back over the Cas­cade moun­tains for a final day of rid­ing. We are head­ed for a full ride at Rat­tlesnake or Duthie. 

Long time home to unsanc­tioned trails, years of advo­ca­cy have turned this once ille­gal moun­tain bike “secret” into a legit and above board des­ti­na­tion. Now host­ing the most pop­u­lar trail in the state, Rag­ing Riv­er will be a great test for all the skill work we have learned over the week. The climb starts from a park­ing lot that will give you a glimpse of how big the moun­tain bike com­mu­ni­ty is around here. But once we hit the sin­gle track, you find plen­ty of space. Most trails on this hill are one-way and spread out to a diverse net­work giv­ing every rid­er a clean line. As with most trail net­works in the region, you will start with a chal­leng­ing climb. Once on top, if the clouds give way, you will have views of Mt. Rainier to the South and Si to the North. If it’s a typ­i­cal PNW day, the trees are the view.

From here we will most­ly like­ly take the most flowy way back down, but we may add in a lit­tle tech thrill for some or all the descent back to mid moun­tain. From mid moun­tain, time for Wash­ing­ton’s most pop­u­lar trail, Pop­pin Tops. One lap on this trail an you will see why it gets so much atten­tion. Flow, jumps (not manda­to­ry), berms, views. If you have had your fill of climb­ing, we will con­tin­ue down Flow­state which is just like it sounds. 

Lunch will be at the bot­tom where every­one decom­press­es and relives the ride, by the tail­gates. When we’re done, it’s time for a big round of hugs and high-fives. We’ll shut­tle you to your hotel of choice, or the air­port. It’s been a slice!