Last day of vacation already? After arriving back in Kelowna on Thursday, plans were for me to head towards Rossland with a group to ride the Kootenays and Revelstoke for a couple days. Unfortunately the weather turned, and Kelowna had the highest recorded rainfall ever in its history, as in torrential down pour, aka major wetness! That pretty much squashed my plans until the skies got a little brighter…well that and the fact that when two of the guys did go, they were in incredible shape and would have ridden me into the ground. 
I did risk exhaustion with the group on Sunday however, as we headed up to Revelstoke to ride Keystone Standard Basin. I had never ridden this trail, but had read fantastic reviews that indicated that it was a must do, and had even gone so far as to call it an undiscovered epic.
The forestry access road climbed us well up into the sub-alpine cut blocks that are so famous in BC’s backcountry. I was surprised to see about 8 other vehicles up there, but was quickly reminded that this was the first clear day in many, so people were like bees to honey. We geared up and hit the trail, anxious and unsure of what to expect.
The first 5 minutes was some of the hardest riding that I have done all summer. as we climbed the first section of trail our heart rates spiked from resting to maximum while we gasped for the alpine air. Thankfully this trend did not continue too much longer, and the trail turned into a wonderfully rolling track. It is estimated that the trail is17.5 km out and another 17.5 km back of epic singletrack that crosses steep alpine hillsides, rocky scree slopes, streams, and meadows filled with wild flowers. At the turn around there is a log cabin situated by a beautiful mirrored lake, providing spectacular reflections of the surrounding hillsides. The trail itself was perfectly tacky providing the perfect amount of traction, while it rolled along climbing and descending, before repeating the pattern all over again. I wish now that I had lugged my SLR camera along instead of the small pocket point and shoot, though I would have cursed it the whole way while on the trail. Never before have I ridden such a beautiful trial, that had so much natural flow and classic cross country riding. 
Check out more photos here
No comments:
Post a Comment