Bavarian Bike & Brew

I love when everything comes together! Trey and I were headed north from Bend- Oregon to Olympia-Washington for just a one-night stay, when we found-out that a large ‘Oly’ contingent would be at the Bavarian Bike & Brew in Leavenworth WA that same weekend! This turned out to be a great ‘2-for-1’ deal for us because we were already headed to Stevens Pass Bike Park, which is just northwest of Leavenworth by only 35 miles. Truth is, we have always wanted to attend the Bavarian Bike & Brew ever since we left ‘Oly’ over 4 years ago.  

Nick and Rachel

Our desire stemmed from seeing photos of all our friends having such an awesome time riding bikes and camping in the forest. Initially, we were going to stay at the base of Stevens Pass and camp up there. But, we wanted to be where we could point our fingers and ring our cowbell at riders flying down Freund Canyon trails! Luck would have it that we found a spot to camp right next to a 20ft gap jump! The jumps were optional for the XC racers…but mandatory-fun for us. Some of the bigger gaps were blocked-off with caution tape. But that didn’t stop Trey from hitting up everything else that was around there. Stevens Pass was my first time back on my big bike since knee surgery in January 2015 (write-up for another day). So, I have been in reserve-mode for quite some time and giddy to get back to another season of riding bike parks. (If you want to read more about our time at Stevens Pass Bike Park go here)

Oh Odin

Getting to the Bavarian Bike & Brew was a bit of a fiasco. First off, we missed the turn into the forest and ended up on someone else’s farm. You have to imagine our monster rig pulling onto your property. It’s plastered in gigantic WorldBikeParks.com stickers and has another hundred or so other smaller stickers from every place that we have been to. Our rig screams “It’s Party Time”. We both parked and rolled down our windows to assess the possibility that perhaps we were the first ones to arrive. When a little red tuck pulled up next to us. A woman opened her door and asked, “can I help you?” 

The beautiful Kerry

So, needless to say we were not first to arrive but actually lost. Fortunately, we were not all that turned around and we were able to get back on course fairly quickly. As soon as we got on the right dirt road, we saw 3 of our friends walking their dogs!! And we knew that we had arrived! 

The Gibb's Organic Guys and Nick

Lee & Erin (Dude & Odin)

The problem now was that we were on a narrow dirt road, where if someone wanted to pass us, it was not going to happen! I absolutely hate when this happens. It makes me extremely nervous. So, once we hit a fork in the road Trey pulled off to the side and I took the left fork to scope out possibilities to camp or turn around. 

I got to the end of the road and there was no place for Trey and the road conditions were only getting worse. I made a U-turn and drove over a piece of rebar sticking out of the ground. It was blending into the background and just looked like a stick. The rebar jammed up into my fan and now my car was stuck and making a hideous loud screeching sound. In a panic, I jumped out of the car, just as a group of riders came by and three guys were able to help me maneuver my car back and forth. They managed to pull the rebar out of the ground, one of the men seemed like he knew something about cars. He checked my fan and said that I was pretty lucky! 

Kerry and Nick being cute

I caught up to Trey who was walking around, he found a group of our FOCF friends just down the road to the right of the fork. So we only drove a little bit further and snuggled in next to a crossing for the racers and a bunch of dirt-jumps, perfect! It was an awesome weekend filled with friends, riding, and laugher oh and a tear (you know who you are) We are always so grateful when we come through Washington, our friends are always up to some kind of party and ready to take us in at the beats notices (and you know who you are too) We rallied up at Stevens and rode there for three days, coming back to camp with friends every night…

Erin getting ready race day