The Revy Triker: Meadows in the Sky Parkway

I look forward to every ride up Mount Revelstoke. When I pedal, generally, it’s “me time”. I am in a very different situation than most and actually have time to spend on “me”.

Having a lot of physical disabilities, I focus on what I have left. We must prioritize some time to keep moving. If you stop, it is really hard to get started. Use it or lose it! There is a lot I can’t do, but so much I can. I like to think the healthier the mind, the healthier the body. While I pedal, I do a lot of things: sometimes I listen to motivational podcasts or music, make a phone call to an old friend, and always, a lot of thinking.

Occasionally, a piece of a story may pop up and I will use Siri to make a note. Continual stimulation is ever-present. The duration and amplitude of my ride depend on how much time I have and what the weather is like.

Revelstoke sits at the base of Mount Revelstoke. Just minutes from downtown, behind the Railway Museum, a commemorative site marks the Tournament of Champions, where athletes once began their trek up “Suicide Hill” on a narrow, snowy track. Today, this route provides non-vehicular access to the Meadows in the Sky Parkway. This 26-km alpine road, one of the only paved routes to the alpine, started construction in 1911. Locals pushed for the road to make the alpine accessible, and in 1927, it was officially opened by the Prince of Wales.

The Parkway is open from Spring until Fall. This year, during our cooler and wetter spring months, I started to ride a new route on the lower mountain. I traversed north from town to the trailhead of Inspiration Woods, which also contains the steepest section of the road. A short descent from there leads to the entrance of our new Snow Forest Campground, where a quick lap around reveals all the wonderful smells of camping. A short distance down the road for leads to my final climb up to the base of the Nels Nelsen Ski Jump and the Beaver Lodge Skills Park. The campground, located very much out of tow but minutes from downtown, was opened last year and having camped all my life, accommodates its campers at some of the nicest sites I have seen. The Beaver Lodge Skills Park provides an outstanding location for our wee ones to acquire the necessities to put their wheels on dirt and is also fully accessible, providing optimal viewing locales.

During our snow free seasons, I ride 4-5 times a week and as the snow melts, the road is opened higher up the mountain. One of the bonuses of early season riding is the “break-in” period of your “getaway sticks”.  I try to make it the to summit a couple of times a year, which takes over 4 ½ hours. I time it with alpine blooms usually around the beginning of August. The road surface is very smooth asphalt, where in my mind, an electric assist hand trike would be perfect and depending on the time of day there is very little traffic. As the flowers bloom from the valley to the mountaintops, the visual stimulation during the climbs is always rewarding.  Every shade of green imaginable provides the backdrop for nature’s palette of vibrant reds, purples and yellows. The most incredible sunsets over the Columbia Valley are also viewed from this West facing aspect. One of my favorite vantage points is the top of The Nels Nelsen Ski Jump, though access can be quite challenging. All stops along the way provide the viewer with staggeringly spectacular scenery including my “number one” venues, The Monashee Lookout, Dean Flick’s memorial bench, Eagle Pass Lookout and Panorama Point.