Runners, bikers and paddlers — and some people doing all three — will compete at and around Pearrygin Lake State Park on Saturday (June 14) in the multi-sport Sun Mountain Lodge Winthrop Traverse, a new event in the valley that finishes at the Winthrop Barn.
Solo, tandem and relay teams will compete in the five-stage, 46.2-mile event. The competition begins at noon, and the first finishers are expected beginning around 2 p.m. Sam and Alison Naney are the race directors, and will be assisted by Mike Pruitt at Pearrygin Lake and Paul Clement at the finish line.
The segments of the competition are:
• a 3-mile run around the state park
• a 14-mile mountain bike circuit starting at Pearrygin Lake that includes Bear Creek Road, Lester Road, Golf Course Road and the Rex Derr Trail
• a 3-mile paddle around Pearrygin Lake
• a 25-mile road bike course beginning at Pearrygin Lake and including Bear Creek Road, East and West Chewuch Roads and U.S. Forest Service Road 51 to Falls Creek Campground, and ending at the Forest Service offices in Winthrop
• a 1.2-mile “trek” from the Forest Service offices through North Village, then through downtown Winthrop to the Barn.
Competitors can pick up their race packets from 5 – 8 p.m. on Friday (June 13), or from 8 – 11 a.m. on the day of the race, at Sun Mountain Lodge. There will be a race information meeting at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the lodge.
Registration costs are: solo, $105; tandem, $160; team, $240; company teams, $350. Registration is open until 7 p.m. on Friday. To register, go to www.recreationnorthwest.org/winthrop-traverse.
The event, organized by Recreation Northwest, is the first of a series of similar competitions that will also be staged in Olympia on July 26; in North Bend, Wash., on Sept. 6; and in Bellingham on Sept. 20.
The competition “celebrates the life cycle of wild salmon with a symbolic tribute to their journey,” according to a Recreation Northwest press release. Recreation Northwest is a Bellingham-based nonprofit that organizes a number of events around the region.
