The RCA’s year end costume party and fun ride at Macpherson on Oct. 23 was the official end of the season for the club. Club members braved the muddy conditions to participate in costumed fun rides around a short or long loop taking in the usual assortment of fun and challenging single track trails, as well as a blast down the new Meltdown trail. The kids’ event involved laps around the stadium loop and carbo loading with cookies, fruit, and pumpkin pie. Rory Luxmoore had best costume, riding the trails in full wool suit and tie, including dress socks.
Presentations and thanks were given to many. The RCA thanks its sponsors from this summer, Arrow Helicopters, Helios Physiotherapy, Skookum Cycle, Flowt Bikes, Selkirk Tangiers Heli-skiing, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, The Last Drop, La Baguette, Kaslo Sufferfest, Stoke Roasted Coffee, Pharmasave, Patagonia, and Mt. Begbie Brewery. We also give our gratitude to our funders, partners, and contractors; the City of Revelstoke, Revelstoke Tourism, Ken Gibson at the Ministry of Tourism, Art, and Culture, Eric Marsden, Rob Parkin and Little Big Works, and Columbia Basin Trust.
We also must say thanks to the members of our board of directors, our road, x-country, race, and downhill committees, and over 100 volunteers who came out to build and fix trails and run events. Finally, we offer a special thanks to the Ministry of Forests fire crews who did an unbelievable amount of work on the trails this year.
What was accomplished? The new Frisby Ridge Trail had its inaugural season and was an overwhelming success, with riders coming from many places to see what the fuss was about. The late season weather and alpine flower bloom really showcased this trail as in instant classic of epic Revy high mountain riding. Thanks goes to the RCA’s previous board of directors who made this trail a reality. The Boulder Mountain area re-build has begun! Many downhill trails in this area were legalized this year and are being re-built and upgraded. The first trail work day here drew 60 volunteers! Over at Macpherson, a new trail called Meltdown was constructed. This is now the longest single trail in the area ad is accessible to many as a moderate and flowy climb and descent, a great addition to the area. Several trails received long needed TLC to restore their buttery goodness.
The RCA toonie race series entered its second year and was a great success, doubling the number of racers from last year. Lee English drove in from Salmon Arm for every race to take the men’s series, and Melanie Bernier came out on top on the women’s side. RCA road riders tested one another in our Tuesday night time trials, got together for weekly group rides, travelled around to a variety of races and events in the Interior and did a couple of great road trips including a spectacular tour of the Banff-Jasper highway.
Many, many people have been commenting of the explosion of the biking scene in Revestoke in the last couple of years. The hard work of many is realizing the potential of the area and developing the cycling community, and we are all looking forward to more of the same next year. Revelstoke is now live on mountainbikingbc.ca, and for photo galleries, trail updates, race results and all kinds of other news check out the Revelstoke Cycling Association website at bikerevelstoke.org or our Facebook page.