We rose at 4am to depart our Fidalgo island home by sunrise
and head East over the Cascade mountains to our favorite lil' Bavarian town of Leavenworth for Jim's second year in a row of participating in a grueling, 24 mile mountain bike race...
To give it all on an incredible race course that starts off with 1800 feet of elevation gain in the first 4 miles, grinding racers up to the top of a high alpine ridge 
with rewarding spectacular craggy-peaked views, before bombing it back down into the forest through creeks and over rollers to the finish line far below.
At last years race just months after having back-to-back spinal surgeries for a rough water paddling injury, it was difficult and painful for me to even walk up the hill to where the start line was to watch Jim's race...
So this year at the last minute I decided to also compete in the 14th annual Bavarian Bike & Brew , in the 8 mile (1 lap) beginner class race simply for my own personal, huge sense of feel goooood accomplishment of being able to cross the finish line on my bike instead of in a back brace and a cane...
(Who knows what next year's race will bring:)
Jim loves this course because it reminds him of the kind of terrain he grew up riding back on his home alpine slopes of Mount Rainier.
With temperatures in the 80's, it just kept getting better ane better when we went exploring for a place to set up camp and found more than we hoped for down Icicle Creek Road...
*Not pictured are the 4 foot long snake and young bear that I saw close up, but fumbled with my camera in excitement and missed taking pics of either!
All in all another great weekend playing with friends in our adventure sport paradise home o' the Pacific Northwest. And an awesome endurance cross-trainer with only three weeks to go until Jim's 100 miles in one day, ironman efforts in Seattle's Mountains to Sound multisport relay race.
