Revel-Smoke

Smokiest place on earth? Mid-afternoon in Revelstoke feels like perma-twilight

We made our annual August pilgrimage to Revelstoke and met up with Chad, Grace and Woody for a weekend of camping by the lake. We rolled in after dark and were treated to an amazing view of the perseids meteor shower as we sat around an illuminated water bottle due to the fire ban.

We started the weekend off with an attempt on Mt. Joss with our bikes. There is a fire look out at the top of the mountain that apparently has some epic alpine riding. We followed back roads up from Three Valley Gap to the eastern trailhead for Joss Mountain which was fun adventure on it own. The trail began with a nice grade and easy pedaling but that did not last long. Soon we were pushing through dense foliage and lifting our bikes over dead fall. The trail started up through an alpine meadow and contoured up and up. It was overgrown and too steep to pedal. 

Off to a bushy start on Joss Mountain

Views to the back side of Mt. Begbie

After an hour, we had barely climbed 300m and were feeling exhausted. We hadn't even reached the steep switchbacks and had another 900m elevation to gain. Kyle was the first to verbalize what we were all thinking, "lets bail." 

Too dense to continue

It turned out to be a good decision. Not long after we got back to the truck, the smoke started to roll in. All our hard work would have been for nothing with no views to be had in the alpine!

Jungle riding

Woody in the woods

Back at camp we regrouped with Chad and Grace and spent the rest of the afternoon floating around on the lake as the smoke got thicker and thicker.

Later that afternoon...

Constant air traffic over the smoky lake

Plans to pedal the next two days quickly faded as it became apocalyptically smoky. To save the lungs we rode the bike park and shuttled Boulder Mountain and made the most of our time in one of my favourite summer destinations!

Top of 5620

Mid-day snack