“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” –Robert Louis Stevenson

Gray days are my favorite kind to spend in the forests of the West Kootenays. I pray for them. Thankfully, the West Kootenays are blessed with a plethora of grayness...except when it’s late July of an unseasonably bright summer. So as Stu Dickson, Casey Brown and I watch the clouds build on the horizon during the ferry ride from Revelstoke to Nakusp, we are hopeful despite the harsh sunlight beating down on the iron deck.

There’s a reason I pray to the gods of the Kootenays: they are usually gracious deities. As we arrive at our first trailhead a cloud bank curls over top of us, a wave of rain, thunder and lightning poised above. Snuff, Casey’s dog, paces with nervous energy—apparently he isn’t too fond of storms.

Forests here are a cathedral of towering old-growth, a living roof covering enormous moss-covered stumps, dark abandoned mine shafts and forgotten artifacts. As lonely as the trails may seem, these relics—both human and arboreal—are reminders that many feet have crossed these lonely paths we now ride, inspiring quiet awe and reverence. Years from now, both the trails and ourselves will be gone. These temples, however, will remain.

One of these relics is the Kuskanax Trail, a century-old route in Nakusp leading to a natural hot spring. As expected of such an ancient trail, it’s steeped with an enormous amount of history, the archetypal West Kootenay forest. In the grayness, its stunning visuals are a photographers dream; it’s even better to ride.

Forty miles away, up Highway 31A near New Denver, the purpose-built trails of Retallack Lodge are the antithesis of the worn-by-generations Kuskanax. Shutte-able access roads, originally built for logging and mining, branch in every direction, and despite the operation being only a few years old, trails weave through ruins of the silver craze that struck the area in the late 1800s. Kessel Run is Retallack’s flagship, a flowy masterpiece of dirt, loam and roots dropping 5,000 feet to the shuttle pick up. They may not have been thinking about future mountain bikers, but the miners chose their zones wisely.

One of the area’s living mountain biking legacies is Greg McRae, a 67-year-old trail builder and creator of the beautiful Butter Trail. Constructed over two years, the reason behind the name is obvious: with a perfect grade, swooping turns and bench-cut sidehills, Butter is one of the Kootenay’s newest trails—and, like surrounding forests, it only seems to get better with age.

Back at the Kuskanax trailhead, our faith is rewarded as clouds cover the blaring sun. We offer our thanks, hop on bikes and drop into the arboreal cathedral— this is our type of worship, Kootenay style.