Bitmap to Vector…

Im trying to find an easier way to do this. Here’s the original scanned drawing:

Here are my best stabs at making a selection, inverting, making a path, exporting the path to Illustrator, then smoothing it out in Illustrator. The problem is there are a LOT of points so it needs to be simplified somehow:

another attempt, a bit smoother:

and one even more smooth:

So there has to be an easier way… Anyone? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?