Sacred Seattle

Wel­come to Seat­tle! We’ll pick you up in the morn­ing either at the air­port or down­town Seat­tle (we are flex­i­ble) before head­ing to our shop 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 to Duthie Moun­tain Bike Park, our cen­tral hub for local trails cre­at­ed by Ever­green Moun­tain Bike Alliance, the largest moun­tain bike club in North Amer­i­ca. This moun­tain bike park is the per­fect spot to get start­ed and warm up. We’ll explore the best com­bo of trails then con­nect to the adja­cent trail net­work — Grand Ridge. We’ll enjoy a beau­ti­ful climb and descent into the val­ley floor of the Issaquah Alps for a well-deserved lunch.

After lunch, we’ll hop in the shut­tle for a 10-minute ride to Rag­ing Riv­er. This new moun­tain bike park is host to Washington’s most pop­u­lar trail — Pop­pin’ Tops — a fast and flowy roller-coast­er ride that always brings out the smiles. With over thir­ty jumps on the way down, you’ll want to get in a sec­ond lap. Back to the van for a moun­tain bike tra­di­tion to enjoy trail­head “soda pops”! After recap­ping a great first day, we’ll head to the impres­sive Thomp­son Hotel in the heart of down­town Seat­tle — where you’ll stay for the first three nights. Once every­one is set­tled in, we’ll head our for din­ner, drinks and an in-depth look at the amaz­ing week ahead!

After a hearty break­fast down­town, we’ll head to the moun­tain bik­ing tri­al net­work of Tiger Moun­tain. Tiger has been host to legal moun­tain bike trails for over 30 years. As a test bed for dif­fer­ent trail build­ing styles, it’s the start­ing point for much of the access to build new trails through­out the region. 

We’ll ascend a com­bi­na­tion of trails and if the air is clear, we’ll be greet­ed to epic views of Mt Rainier, the city of Taco­ma, South Puget Sound and the Olympic Moun­tains. You will, no doubt, have the oblig­a­tory Tiger sum­mit con­ver­sa­tion with oth­er rid­ers, “what’s your line down”? OTG! then?

From the first punch out of the gate on top, you will have Mt. Rainier in your scope but it will dis­ap­pear almost imme­di­ate­ly as you ride deep into the woods. Diag­o­nal roots, per­fect­ly built cor­ners, flow when you want flow, kick­ers when you want to get off the ground. If you open up your rid­ing, you can see what the trail builders had in mind and you start to trust there will be that back­side when you need it. 

But if you put your guard down, the Tiger will bite! Every­thing on the hill is chal­leng­ing. The com­bi­na­tion of routes is endless! 

A full day on tiger will leave an impres­sion. We’ll head back to Seat­tle to enjoy a din­ner with a view and deli­cious local cuisine.

Enjoy break­fast at the hotel and get your fill of pre­mi­um Seat­tle coffee. 

Today we’ll head out to the Mid­dle Fork Sno­qualmie Riv­er for a change of pace. The for­est ser­vice road gives us access to a deep riv­er val­ley with peaks tow­er­ing thou­sands of feet above us. We’ll begin our ride on dou­ble track that will take us past water­falls, crys­tal clear riv­er pools, sheer gran­ite cliffs, and tow­er­ing old-growth trees.

We’ll climb to the very edge of the wilder­ness and have a pic­nic lunch in the sub­alpine before cross­ing a riv­er and hit­ting sin­gle­track all the way back down. The trail is remote and the veg­e­ta­tion is lush, the per­fect land­scape for an adven­ture. This trail will take us through a piece of for­est that is home to some of the largest trees on earth — you’ll swear you’re in Juras­sic Park.

Today will begin in the ear­ly morn­ing. We’ll load up our bikes and lug­gage and head to what the locals call, “The Dry Side” of the state. 

We’ll dri­ve over Sno­qualmie Pass and head for the Tean­away Val­ley. 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 ride above the tree line, we’ll gain views to the north of Mt. Stu­art. After a tra­verse around the back­side, we’ll have a long descent all the way down to the green­er forests near the Tean­away River.

After our ride, we’ll check into our accom­mo­da­tions at The Hotel Roslyn — a beau­ti­ful, new hotel in the heart of Roslyn — the set­ting of the TV series North­ern Exposure.

For din­ner, we’ll walk a block for din­ner at Base­camp Books and Bites. This place is awesome!

After anoth­er tasty break­fast, you’ll have options for how you’d like to spend the day. For some, sit­ting and relax­ing by the lake will be the tick­et. If you have more legs and would like to ride, there’s a local favorite called Rat Pac. Or per­haps you’d like a change of pace and decide to head to a beau­ti­ful local lake for a cold alpine swim. Oth­er activ­i­ties include going shop­ping, bour­bon-tast­ing or check­ing out the his­toric town. 

Roslyn has a won­der­ful­ly cozy, hap­py vibe to it. It’s too easy to fall in love with this small town. When it’s time to wind down you will have your pick of restau­rants and see what Fri­day night in Roslyn looks like. You might be sur­prised by what the town with the old­est bar in the state can turn into. One word: fun!

Today’s ride is not one you will find in any guide book. This is a very spe­cial route that very few have tack­led. We’ll start with a shut­tle most of the way up Table Moun­tain. Once out of the shut­tle, you will still have a hard climb to make it to the top of the ridge. The ride will take you through mead­ows of alpine flow­ers. The view will span to Mt. Rainier in the south­west, Glac­i­er Moun­tain to the north, Stew­art to the north­west and count­less oth­er peaks reach­ing hun­dreds of miles.

This incred­i­ble route has a lot of descend­ing, how­ev­er, it’s not all “free” as there are sev­er­al dou­ble climbs through­out the ride. After tra­vers­ing the exposed cliffs carved from Mis­sion Creek, we’ll find some tech­ni­cal sin­gle­track and turn up the speed. We’ll descend along a ridge and make our way to the east end of the orig­i­nal Blewett Pass road where we’ll find our shut­tle van and enjoy a deli­cious lunch.

After lunch, we will hitch a ride back up most of the hill and set­up for a sec­ond ridge run. While short­er than the morn­ing ride, we still have a climb from the top of the road to the alpine region. 

The wicked fast descent will take us back into the Tean­away Riv­er val­ley from two days before. Hop in the van, shut­tle back to the lodge and get ready for anoth­er fun evening.

Enjoy break­fast at the lodge, 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 on Rag­ing River. 

We’ll climb to the top of the moun­tain and find the back­side of the trail net­work to dig deep into the skill pack for a chal­leng­ing descent.  After a steep climb back to the ridge,  it’s time to head down. We will start with a small part of the climb­ing trail we used to gain access to the ridge then test out a brand new down­hill trail that will take us back to Pop­pin Tops. From here you can decide if you’d like to descend the awe­some flow trail for a true test of skills. 

Lunch will be a deli­cious BBQ in the park. 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!