Hosmer Mine Ruins

Wed 5th Oct: We were unsure what to do today so headed to the visitor centre to see what hike they could suggest. We were considering Mt Fernie which sits above the town. It is 8km return with 910m elevation gain, and gives good views of the town however the one I really wanted to do, and if you goggle everybody says it's one of the best hikes they have done - is the Heiko's trail to the Three Sisters summit, only problem is the 9 km forest road to get to the trailhead really requires a 4wd. But after discussing with Doug he said he would be okay with giving the road a go. So with that decided, we went into town to get some groceries and too buy a couple of prints of bear paintings done by a local artist that we saw yesterday and really liked. We then drove 10 kms north of Fernie to Hosmer where ruins of the short lived coal mine operations (1908 to 1914) remain. The ruin buildings were just ideal for photographing, and we spent quite a bit of time here enjoying the peaceful surrounding. And just a bit further down the road was the remains of the coke ovens. It was then back halfway to Fernie we turned off to find the forest road which leads to the Heiko trail. It was a very slow and carefully driven 9km up to a clearing where we have parked for the night - apparently the next 2.5 km to the trailhead is best done on foot unless you have a good off-road 4wd. Steps V 6040Read more