Leavenworth Washington and Mountain Biking Freund Canyon
After Oakridge, Oregon and Bellingham, Washington, the next stop on our awesome OR/WA Mountain Bike Road Trip was Leavenworth, Washington. Leavenworth is an adorable "Bavarian" mountain town in the Alps-like Washington Cascades. Leavenworth is on the east side of Stevens Pass (both the ski resort and the physical feature) on Highway 2. I drove Highway 2 across the state during college when I was traveling between my hometown of Reardan and Bellingham, so I've been through Leavenworth lots of times, and I've stayed there with friends and family several times.
While the Bavarian theme can be a little cheesy, Leavenworth is an amazing town. In the Leavenworth area, there is great camping (I've stayed at Lake Wenatchee State Park), epic backpacking and hiking (the PCT runs by Stevens Pass), Icicle Creek and the Wenatchee River flow through town, so there are swimming, floating and rafting opportunities galore, world class climbing, great food, wineries and beer, and more! The drive along Highway 2 from Everett in the Seattle area is beautiful and is almost worth the trip by itself.
Greyson and I met my parents at Stevens Pass to caravan the last segment of the drive to the rental house. We stopped at a couple of points along the way to stick our feet in the gorgeous (and cold!) Wenatchee River.
Obviously of interest to us this trip was the mountain biking, which Leavenworth is also on the map for. Nearby Stevens Pass offers lift serviced biking (sadly, only on weekends so we missed out by arriving on a Monday) and the epic, 24 mile, 3,000 foot climb and descent on the Devils Gulch Trail is on my bucket list, and there are many more trails in the area. We weren't sure which of the trails we wanted to tackle! Luckily, two of my best friends from college, Morgan and Tommy, met us in Leavenworth, and Tommy is an avid mountain biker. He recommended Freund Canyon.
Mountain Biking Leavenworth WA // tahoefabulous.com
The trailhead for Freund Canyon is up a gravel road, off of Freund Canyon Rd, parallel to the Chumstick Highway.
Freund Canyon/Rosy Boa Trailhead // tahoefabulous.com
Freund Canyon turned out to be an amazingly fun, featured, and flowy trail with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains that are so beautiful, you are slightly distracted from the brutal climb.
Photo by Greyson Howard
It was pretty hot by the time we got on the trail, which did not make the 1,950 foot climb any easier. The climb wasn't technical at all, just unrelenting. I'm in much better mountain bike shape than I have been in the last couple of years, but it still took me over an hour to do the ~4 mile climb.
Elevation Profile via Strava
The hour of suffering (Type 2 fun!) was truly cancelled out by the incredible downhill. We lost those ~2,000 feet in about 3.5 miles of fun berms and jumps, well built out of Washington's amazing dirt. This is one of my favorite trails I've ever ridden (even though I don't jump my bike, except when I get a tiny bit of accidental air), and I was woo-ing it up with pure joy. Some of the berms are built so that you're turning into the steep, downhill side of the mountain, which felt a little disconcerting (what if the berm collapses and I fly into space?), but for the most part I felt comfortable letting off by brakes a little and flying down the trail. Greyson and I were talking about it later, and decided that the downhill part felt a lot like resort riding without the crowds. It was definitely a very "built" trail.
Trail Map via Strava
Trail Stats:
Location: Freund Canyon Rd., Leavenworth, Washington
Mileage: 7.8 miles
Elevation gain: ~1,950 feetDifficulty: Intermediate
Click here for my Strava route.
We spent a couple of days hanging out in Leavenworth - swimming in the river, drinking beer, eating good food, watching turkey vultures, ospreys and a bald eagle from the deck of our rental cabin, and we even had some very special guests on the morning we left - a mama bear and her two cubs up in a tree. Greyson got some great pictures with his nice camera.
Mama bear. Photo by Greyson Howard
Baby bear. Photo by Greyson Howard.