Looking back on it, I actually had quite a few good rides/races this season. It's hard to pin down a favorite, but Kokopelli Trail Race, and Cascade Cream Puff would definitely be in the running for highlights of my season.
Both were really tough, but in slightly different ways.
Kokopelli Trail Race was an unsactioned, unsupported (in fact the governing rule of the race is: *no outside assistance*), mountain bike race running the length the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT. 142 mi. on a singlespeed mountain bike. ~18 hrs. One of the hardest things I've done on a bike, but it was a frickin' incredible ride.
Cascade Cream Puff is a 100 mile mtn. bike rice in Oakridge/Westfir, OR. 100 mi. 18k ft. of climbing over three laps on an incredible course. Some of the best singletrack I've ridden. That one took a little over 12 hrs, but it was a *hard* 12 horus. I also went home with an unwelcome souvenir from that one, in the form of nasty poison oak rash all over the place. Took at least a couple weeks for that to go away.
Then there was a non-race ride/hike trip that me and a couple friends took in the local mountains. We left Redlands at 10:30 p.m. and rode mountain bikes from Redlands up to the old South Fork Trailhead, at the top of Poop Out rd. Arrived at the trailhead around dawn, and summitted San Gorgonio peak, on foot, via Dollar Lake Trail. Returned via Dry Lake trail, and then climbed back on the bikes and rode home to Redlands, on the Santa Ana River Trail. Don't remember the mileage or vertical gain #s, for that one, but it took around 17 hours. We weren't going at race-pace, so it wasn't quite as grueling as KTR or the Creampuff, but it was a long night/day, and a hell of a lot of fun.
And of course there's Everest Challenge. But there's little I can add, that others probably hadn't already said about that one. It's definitely a tough one. Actually, I think Everest Challenge might be the toughest of all of them, mentally, just because I don't find grinding along on pavement quite as *fun* as a trail or dirt road out in the woods. I enjoy the challenge, but I don't get quite the same high on a road-bike that I do on my mountain bike, out in the middle of nowhere.
So, yeah, I had pretty good season.
