Revelstoke's Keystone Standard Alpine Dreaming (Part 1)

Keystone Standard Basin

BikeFest Revelstoke is a celebration of Revelstoke's trails and the mountain biking scene. It was held this year on the August long weekend. Not needing much excuse to visit Revy and bike its trail treasure (as we did in the previous Pinkbike writeup) we were stoked to book it out of Vancouver and head halfway across the province.

Keystone Standard Basin was our first ride. We rode here for the first time in 2002, when it was one of the worst kept, secret alpine gems in the region. Finally the trail was outed in a "Kootenay Rockies" guidebook as being located North of Revelstoke. Once you've been here, ridden the trail and soaked up the experience you can understand why the secret got out. Since then we've been back 3 times (2007, 2008 and now, 2014). The Keystone Standard trailhead is located 50km up Hwy 23, then 15km up the logging road (route description here). You get to the parking lot at 1750m and a short jaunt up a trail into the alpine. If you hit it right you'll be riding through alpine flowers; we did!

With the increased use by bikers this trail has seen some maintenance by local volunteers but still has kept its character as an out-and-back gem characterized by easily accessed alpine singletrack and stunning views. We were joined by longtime local Doug Sproul who was part of the crew that worked on the trail.

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Trailhead, Horseflies were fierce!

Once in the Alpine the flowers were going off! Hard to concentrate on riding with these views. Monashees in the background.

Doug ambling along cruising to Keystone Peak.

Heck yeah the Pivot in the alpine.

Rerouted section of trail.

Great rock bridge put in by a crew that Doug was a part of four years ago!

Classic Keystone shot by some of Doug's rock work.

Another classic trail shot with view looking south to the Monashees.

Old school hiking switchbacks!

Trail that seems to wind on forever even on the descent back down.

Nice to ride by the verdant meadows.

Sir Sandford in the Adamants is the big cheese of the Adamants.

PB representing!




Where to Stay

Previously we've always stayed at the Wadey Campground, but with the long weekend, Singletrack 6 and baseball games going on we opted to stay at the comfort of the Best Western Plus. It was nice to enjoy the air conditioning, swimming pool and buffet breakfast each day! It seems that Best Western delivers outstanding quality at least in Revy both in Summer and Winter. That fact is recognized by others as rooms book up early in busy times of the year, so plan and plan ahead if you want to treat yourself to one of their monster, comfy beds!

Thanks to Sarah W and Ryan for the hospitality. Many thanks and applause to both Samantha and Serenity who both kept such superb composure when basically the entire Trans Canada corridor lost internet connectivity the day before the long weekend!


Front Desk, Bikes in the Truck in the parking lot! FOOD!

Stay tuned for Part 2 in a few weeks' time.