Revelstoke Trail Rebels

Revelstoke Trail Rebels
Monday & Tuesday May 11-12, 2009

After driving for our mandatory 4 hours, we pulled into the Omak Motel for the night. No camping tonight. I needed a real bed after three nights under the stars. Unfortunately, this town exists solely for the rodeo so our choices for accommodations were limited. We became a bit concerned because the first two we passed looked condemned. We have definitely lowered our standards but camping seemed more hygienic than those two establishments. The town “drag” was coming to an end and our hopes of finding something were diminishing. I was resolving myself to having to camp another night. Lo and behold right before the highway entrance we saw a Days Inn and the Omak Motel. Both looked like they had been built in the last decade so we pulled into the parking lot. Visions of a warm soft bed and a hot shower were dancing in my head. Well, at least the shower was warm and I did not have to get up in the middle of the night with my “pedzel” light on and walk to the pit toilet. Although I did not sleep very well I still did not get out of bed until 9:00 am. Something about being retired!!! Therefore, our venture into Canada did not begin until noon because I had to get a load of laundry done and Roby had to practice his guitar. We have become quite adaptive to living on the road.

As we neared the border we realized we had to be consistent with our story if they asked us where we were from. That dilemma again. How do you explain that you don’t really have a home but have an Arizona mailing address and your driver’s license and vehicle tags are from Hawaii? We decided to make it easy and just tell them we were from Hawaii. Of course we had to recall our address just in case, which took us several minutes to remember. Thankfully it went smoothly with the border guard only asking us what was the abbreviation for Hawaii.

Once over the border it was like we had stepped into Wonderland. For the next forty miles we drove through the Okanagan Valley aptly named the wine country of Canada. We passed what seemed like hundreds of small vineyards and fruit orchards, not to mention huge lakes. I believe the entire ride to Revelstoke which took a good 6 hours was following a lake or river. They are definitely not lacking for water. If this was not enough the mountains make the Colorado Rockies look like “hills”. (sorry MaryKay). We stopped for a quick lunch at a park along a lake. There were so many parks and lakes; I can’t remember all their names. They had a park literally every 50 feet. In fact this entire region of Canada is a continuous National Park. Definitely an area we would recommend to anyone who wants to see spectacular scenery. However, I would advise to wait until at least late July or early August.

We arrived in Revelstoke early evening and ventured through town looking for a place to call home. It appears that camping in Canada is not going to work out for us. I am a real trooper but the weather has not been cooperating. 38 degrees at night is our limit and we were going to be hitting 32 and rain was expected. We definitely hit shoulder season so we had our pick of hotels. Although the dollar is up against the Canadian Dollar it is not that great. To our surprise the rooms at the Revelstoke Lodge (not really a lodge, more like a roadside motel-can you say Norman Bates) were very nice. The exterior was very deceiving. We finally got our soft fluffy king size bed for a mere $50. I made sure I was not going to lose out on a good night sleep so the Tylenol PM came out. Sweet Dreams!!!

That evening we went looking for a restaurant which turned out to be more difficult than expected. Many were closed and the few opened had no people in them. We decided on Emo’s a pizza parlor. We were hoping to catch the last half of the basketball game but forgot we were in Canada so the only thing on the TV’s was hockey. We got the scores off the internet when we returned to our room. We turned in early hoping to wake to blue skies and sun; okay we would settle for no rain. Noon arrived and we ventured out to Macpherson Mountain for a bike ride. The owner of the local bike shop recommended the area as the only spot ready for riding this time of year. We definitely caught the season a few months early, but we got lucky and the weather cooperated. For some reason every bike ride we do, our warm-up is always a huge hill. Thankfully it was mostly a jeep style road so plenty wide. At the top we ran into a “warming hut” used primarily by cross country skiers. Unfortunately we could not continue on the route due to too much snow on the trail. Yes, snow!! We turned around and found the second half of the single track trail –TNT to Black Forest- we wanted to catch at the top. In hindsight it was probably a good thing we did not do this single track from the top because it was hell but exciting. This ride has been the biggest challenge I have had on a mountain bike. This trail would even have been tough for our friend Troy who is an awesome rider. I spent a good part of the ride walking my bike. One section was so steep and tight I almost wasn’t able to even push my bike up it. You had to watch out for not only tree roots, branches, and stumps, but piles of snow strategically located at the bottom of downhills. Oh yea-don’t wear Teva shoes while mountain biking in Revelstoke in May. Needless to say this ride resulted in my first true biking injury. As I was expertly trying to avoid a tree stump with my bike I failed to see the large tree roots in the way. My bike tire washed out from under me. “knee meet tree stump/tree stump meet knee and then hip” I couldn’t have planned it any better-perfect head on contact just like two athletes hitting knees during a play. I am pretty proud of my double bruise and wear them with honor!!