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THE EVOLUTION

WE HIT THE DIRT AND DIG UP THE HISTORY OF MOUNTAIN BIKING TRAILS AND COMMUNITY IN REVELSTOKE.

By Bryce Borlick.

Keep your head up and look where you want to go. It’s one of the primary lessons taught to aspiring mountain bikers. But today we’re going to do the opposite and have a look back at the history of mountain biking in Revelstoke. There’s a lot of ground to cover so kick your pedals and lose your multi-tool, we’re dropping in three, two, one…

First off, we need to travel back about 100 years, back to a time when the Keystone, Cartier, and Joss trails served industrial purposes. The trail through Keystone Basin and onward to Standard Peak was part of the late-nineteenth century mining boom, while the trails to Mount Cartier and Joss Mountain were built around 1920 to access the fire lookouts at the top of each. Like many other fire lookouts, Cartier and Joss were abandoned by the 1960s and their trails were adopted by avid hikers. It’s only been in the last decade or so that the torch for this alpine trio has been unofficially passed on to mountain bikers.

Although the Columbia Valley saw huge infrastructure projects in the mid-twentieth century, it wasn’t until the ‘70s and ‘80s that recreational singletrack started to appear, particularly in the Lower Begbie area. Dog Patch, River Run, Sex on the Beach, and Richard Liqueur were originally cut for equestrian use, which is why the trail routing has a distinct old school flavour. Further up the hillside, the Backside, Bluff, Quarry, and Lookout trails were built by Kip Wiley and Mike Cummings in 1990s, mainly to access the climbing areas. Over on the west side of Highway 23 Macpherson’s forestry roads officially became Nordic ski trails in 1993, and they also served as rudimentary bike trails for the rudimentary bikes of the day.

Finally, in the late ‘90s a small group of dedicated mountain bikers, including Bart Larsen of Begbie Brewing Co., cut Revy’s first bike-specific trail. Without much knowledge of how buff a bike trail really needed to be, the crew toiled away until it seemed, yup you guess it, Buff Enough. Root Canal was also completed that same year. Two years later, Revelstoke held its first mountain bike race — the Mount Mackenzie Challenge. The Big Easy and Faultline trails, which comprised the course, were completed just hours before the start of the race. In the second and third years of the race, the name was changed to the Mount Mac Challenge to give the club the flexibility to host the race on Macpherson if necessary.

“Faultline and the Big Easy were completed just before the race,” recalls Keith McNab, who served as president and board member of the Revelstoke Cycling Association for many years. “It was a tough course, soft and fresh. The expert class racers normally did an extra lap. So, they went out for their third (and final) lap and most of them ended up quitting halfway through. They took a DNF instead of finishing the race.”

Buoyed by the success of the race and by the general growth of mountain biking, the Macpherson network grew and in 2002 gained what, arguably, is its defining trail: Tantrum. This five kilometre long north-south traverse not only provided a great new riding experience it also served as a backbone for other trails to link into, like Super Happy Fun for example. The following year, another classic trail was born just to the south. In its first few months of use, it was simply referred to as “the new trail” until that informal name was shortened to T.N.T. In 2006, two trails near the Nordic parking lot — Rob’s Latest Creation and The Parking Lot Trail — were linked by a particularly dark and narrow section of new singletrack. On one of the first rides, the new section was described as ‘like being in the Black Forest,’ and that name was pinned to all three sections.

And what about the ‘Tantrum’ name, you ask?

“Larry Nellis used to own where Terra (Firma) is now. He ran horse tours until his son Doug took over. He had built a paddock on Crown land, and nobody cared until we built a trail through the paddock,” explains Keith. “We started riding the trail and a couple guys left the gate open and his horses got out. Doug went into the forestry office and basically had a tantrum. The forestry guys said, ‘You’re in the wrong, they’re in the right, you gotta take the paddock down.’ And that’s why it was called Tantrum.”

Speaking of forestry, it was BCTS forester Rob Mohr who planned and organized the construction of most of the Macpherson network and if you look hard enough you can still find his flagging tape marking out not only the classics but also potential new routes. By 2009, Berm Donor, Toad School, Dusty Beaver, and Stimulus were built and a vision of a long gradual descent tantalized trailbuilders. Once funding became available for such an ambitious project, Rob’s carefully chosen line was built through Macpherson’s complex contours, with some debate over whether or not it should be bidirectional. Called Flowdown, it opened in 2012 and instantly became Revelstoke’s most ridden trail, a title it still holds today.

All this talk about Macpherson — but what about downhill? It’s actually apropos for us to have

OF REVOLUTION

Photos, this page and previous. Working on a trail through the wildflowers. Pictured is Revelstoke resident Dave Pearson. Photos contributed. ignored downhill thus far because downhillers were largely ignored through the early 2000s and left to quietly cut their own rogue trail network on Boulder Mountain. In 2004, the they joined the RCA skeptically, and Bike Club was built that summer. Again, the name stemmed from simply being referred as the trail that ‘the bike club’ built. The mid-2000s were a productive era on Boulder, with Boondocker, Gravy Bacon, Man Purse, and Cash Advance added to the maps, and a few other trails popping up that you won’t find on any maps. These steep natural lines embodied the riding on Boulder until Loggin’ Leftovers, Iron Lotus, Man Quads, and Rooster provided smoother options in the ‘teens.

Through all those years, Revelstoke’s most famous trail prodigy was just a twinkle in eye of the bike community. High up on Frisby Ridge, the Ultimate Frisby trail was a staple of the downhill community since its creation in 2005, but riders who had also sledded the upper Frisby alpine meadows knew that the area had greater potential. In the summer of 2010, work crews battled snowstorms, remote work sites, hordes of winged insects, and an incredibly short building season to create the Frisby Ridge trail. Officially opened in 2011, it put Revelstoke firmly on the map as one of the B.C.’s premier mountain biking destinations. In 2017, the UFC Connector linked the ridge trail to the downhill trail, and in 2018 Frisby Vistas took riders an additional six kilometres along the ridgeline for a truly epic experience.

“Dave Pearson was always on the crew, so many memories,” reminisces Rob Parkin, one of Revy’s original trailbuilding contractors. “One day, working on a trail, we had a helicopter circle our worksite and land just over the ridge. Turns out they were just doing geological work. But when asked by another trail crew working close by, we told them that we had ordered pizza for lunch and got it flown up.”

By that point Revelstoke boasted challenging cross country riding, great downhill trails, and amazing alpine routes but what it lacked were the stepping stones to help new riders progress into these expert options. In 2017 the RCA, with Matt Yaki at the helm, addressed this by adding Beaver Tail, Eager Beaver, Leap Frog, Miller Time, and Serenity Now to the Macpherson network. Instead of functioning as standalone trails, these additions created loops and better utilized the existing trails around them. The Rotary Skills Park, built in 2018, further anchored the Griffith Creek FSR parking lot as the unofficial hub for Macpherson.

In the last few years, trail planning and development has been focused on the east side of the Columbia. Prior to the development of Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s bike park, Crowbar — an unsanctioned route built sometime in the mid-2000’s — was the go-to trail in the area. But ever since RMR cut the ribbon on their signature 5620 flow trail, the options have grown yearly. The bike park now offers 12 trails and the Sunnyside network compliments this with it pedalaccessed downhill flow trail, Haulin’ Daze.

“Thinking back, trail work was the best of times and the worst of times,” reminisces Rob Parkin. “Little bit cliché but that’s how it was — glorious days in majestic settings with great people, laughing and working away.”

GRASSROOTS START FOR LOCAL WOMEN'S SHELTER

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE REVELSTOKE WOMEN’S SHELTER SOCIETY HIGHLIGHTS HOW THE SOCIAL RESOURCE ORGANIZATION WAS CREATED TO FILL A NEED IN THE COMMUNITY.

By Emily Kemp for the Revelstoke Women's Shelter Society.

Rita fiddled with her car keys nervously. It was a sunny summer’s day in Revelstoke, 1987, a Saturday, and the mountains stood in glory all around her but she was too on edge to take in their beauty.

She’d been doing this for a while, volunteering her weekends to support women while juggling a full-time administration job during the week. This impromptu social service had come about as a community effort. Local GP Dr. Neil Leslie and mental health nurse NormaJean Miller both had clients dealing with domestic violence and saw a lack of services for women in town. Heads were put together and a volunteer organization was galvanized with 33-year-old Genevieve Singleton at the helm as coordinator and women like Rita, 27, filling the roster. Revelstoke at the time was going through changes. Construction on the dam had finished in 1984 and work had dried up, including at the railway. The population that had boomed now dwindled and work to revitalise the downtown was underway.

Rita stood near the front of her car on a residential street, looking at the family home in front of her for movement. The woman there, Linette, had called the number from a poster about the shelter distributed around town. She had left the message, with the answering service, that her husband George wasn't home. George was an electrician and a heavy drinker. Rita had noticed that alcohol was frequently an issue with the calls she attended and lately George had been taking his frustrations out on Linette and the boys.

Rita got the message on the shelter pager and had driven straight there in the car she shared with her partner Jack. She knew he’d be furious; they already had arguments over the risk this brought to her. What if someone saw and came looking for her?

The door opened and out came Linette, both hands grappling a heavy suitcase. Rita lurched forward into the small front yard and grabbed it, the weight of it pulling her to one side as she hurriedly walked back to the car. She dropped it and strode to the driver’s side, opening the door and pushing the button for the trunk. She ran back and as she loaded the suitcase the front door opened again, this time with Linette ushering two young boys down the stairs.

They hopped into the car, the boys twisting in their seats, and Rita headed to the King Edward Hotel where she would put them in a room, funded by grant money and a discounted agreement with the owner. During her stay Linette would have received phone counselling but likely would have returned to her partner. Women generally leave an abusive partner around seven times.

In 1989, the women's shelter was incorporated as an official organization. A four-bedroom house was secured and staff were paid. B.C. Housing provided funding for its operations. Today, over 30 years later, the shelter runs 24/7 with a small team of staff. It continues to get government funding and raises funds for its support programs for women and men. It also educates the community on healthy relationships and what abuse looks like.

Rita and her story about Linette is fictionalized from the oral account of a shelter volunteer. Other names are real. Due to the difficulty of recounting history, this article may have some inaccuracies.

Volunteers helping with Christmas hampers, Food Bank c. 1980s.