This past week I had the chance to fulfil one of my biggest (non-photography related) goals for this summer...ride the storied Keystone Basin Trail. The Keystone Basin Trail is located about an hour and a half north of Revelstoke and is widely regarded in the BC mountain bike community as one of the few truly epic trails. With 22 kms of super technical singletrack, big climbs, long descents; all set in the high alpine Selkirk Mountains...this was going to be my best day of my whole summer. To say that I was REALLY looking forward to this day would be an understatement.
I also convinced my friend Bevan to come along on this road trip. Bevan didn't really know that much about the Keystone Trail, but it didn't take much convincing. I just threw in the words “epic” and “gnarly” into a few sentences describing the ride and he was in. So the stars aligned...the weather was right, the snow melted in the upper alpine, I had the time to spare and a partner to ride with.
Bevan and I drove to Revelstoke the night before our ride and crashed on our friend Dan's floor. The plan was to wake up at 6am and be at the trail head 8am, which would give us plenty of time to complete the trail and make the drive back to Kamloops in the same day. We woke up at 6 am to bluebird skies and the promise of an amazing day. We ate breakfast and made the drive out to the trail head. The trailhead for the Keystone Basin trail sits just below the tree line, which meant that I had to drive the Volkswagen up a pretty rough logging road to reach it. It took about an hour and half to reach the trail head and I was starting to feel really excited about this ride. We stepped out of the car at the trailhead parking lot and were completely in awe of our surroundings. We were just below the alpine and surrounded by snow capped peaks.
We slowly started to gear up for what would surely be the best day of my whole summer. I had just put the front wheel on my bike and asked Bevan to toss me my front axle (the part that actually keeps the wheel on my bike). Bevan starts looking through the back of the car and says he can't find it. I panicked slightly, but knew that I would never do something as stupid as forget my front axle on bike trip. Then I started looking for it, while at the same time scanning my memoryof when I packed up the car the day before. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks...I had left my front axle on the ground in the parking lot of my apartment back in Kamloops.
I felt like I had just been slapped across the face. I was almost speechless. I mean, I had forgotten things before...like going up to Sun Peaks to snowboard and forgetting my snowboard boots...but this was different. I had come all this way and had waited all summer for this, and now I'm standing at the proverbial gates...only to be denied access because I had forgot a critical piece of equipment. I went from such a high to one of the worst lows I had felt in a very long time. If Bevan hadn't been there I probably would have thrown a complete fit and thrown my bike off the side of the mountain.
All I wanted to do at this point was go back to Kamloops and wallow in my own self-loathing. Thankfully Bevan took this all in stride. His reaction was basically “shit happens” and that there is nothing we can do except turn around and head back. So we made the hour and a half drive back to Revelstoke. We did the drive in relative silence except for my occasional outbursts of “I can't believe I F*%#king did that”.
We arrived back in Revelstoke to pick up a few things from Dan's place before heading back to Kamloops. Needless to say, Dan was surprised to see us back so early. I told him the what happened. His reaction...“Your F*&king kidding me”. It was pretty embarrassing to admit that I done something so stupid. At this point I was still set on driving back to Kamloops that morning, but thankfully Dan talked some sense into me and convinced me that since I had come all this way, I should at least see if one of the bike shops in town had a spare axle. So we inquired at one of the bike shops and after a bunch of searching around they found an axle that would fit my bike. This mistake cost me $75. Once we got that settled we were back on the road to the trailhead. Even as we pulled into the parking lot (again) I really wasn't letting myself relax and enjoy the day because I was so on edge about something else going horribly wrong.
Well...we did it, and despite all the wasted time, extra driving and the $75 for the axle...it was totally worth it.TheKeystone Basin trail exceeded all of my expectations and was by far one of the best things I had done all summer. This trail challenged me on so many different levels. Long, technical, lung busting climbs. Fast, rocky descents. Single track that hugged the side of some seriously big cliffs. Just the fact that we were in the middle of really big mountains in backcountry terrain made me think twice about a couple sections of the trail...because if you bail here, medical attention is very far away. Also, at some point along the way I stopped to take a couple pictures while Bevan kept riding. I stood there for a moment in complete silence, all alone, in the middle of the BC Backcountry and I realized...there are animals up here that could eat me. After that realization I kicked it into high gear and caught back up to Bevan.
So the ride took us just over four and a half hours. And as we rode the final descent back into the parking lot, and I knew we had finally made it, I was completely overcome with an amazing natural high. I was completely euphoric. I was so happy that I had decided to keep going despite a pretty rough setback in the morning. It would have been so much easier to just give up and go home. But after finishing this ride, I knew I had made the right decision.
As I stood in the parking lot soaking up the sunshine and drinking a celebratory beer (thank god Bevan had the foresight to bring beer) I started to think that this trail, and this day in particular was...in a way...kind of symbolic of things happening in my life over the past year. Starting my own photography business has been without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done, and I am constantly faced with challenges and at times have experienced heart breaking set backs. This day was a reminder that when you take on a big challenge, you will face setbacks. Setbacks that make you question why your even doing this in the first place. Setbacks that make you want to throw your bike of the side of a mountain. But for those with the persistence and strength to push through, the rewards are AMAZING.
