Ghost Rider Mountain Trail (Mount Hosmer) - August 9, 2024
7.9 kilometres - 899 metres elevation - 7 hours overall
Ghost Rider Mountain, also called Mount Hosmer is easily visible from the town of Fernie with the Ghost Rider and his daughter visible on a sunny day and at sunset. There's a legend behind that I have provided at the end.
I drove the nine miles up a dirt road with large pot holes and water bars slowly for fear of damaging the driver's side read axle any more than it is. A rattling sound can be heard when hitting any kind of a bump that I'm sure any mechanic could diagnose just by driving it.
The trail begins through thick undergrowth that's much more lush than what we have just the other side of the Rocky Mountain Ridge to the east and south. Through the avalanche chutes we passed thick strands of fireweed that Nicola would like to pick one day to make into jelly. The forest differs from our area as well with the usual fir trees but also cedar and white spruce. There's not a huge difference in annual rainfall between the two areas, Fernie 942 mm versus the 766 mm of Fairmont Hot Springs but it must be enough.
About half-way up the trail, we reached a fork with one trail leading to a lower peak and the other to the higher, Mount Hosmer. Both trail steepen with the Mount Hosmer side climbing considerable more. Fortunately, we did not have the dogs as the second part of the climb was steep and long. After an hour or hour and a half, we reached a ridge that falls off several hundred metres to a bowl. The trail veers off to the right for a few hundred metres to the summit. Nicola was perfectly happy to be left here while I made the last push.
The trail up to the summit was steep but not tricky. It has been nicely carved into the scree by the Fernie Trails Alliance. I envisioned filming a 360 degree panorama from the top however the summit are is small and the idea of plummeting several hundred metres should I stumble held little appeal. So, I took. a couple of panorama shots on my behind before the battery on my camera went dead. As a result, I have only one still shot from the top.
We took a wrong turn at the fork on the way down (totally my fault) although I couldn't use Alltrails. Fortunately, Nicola could access the app on her phone and we were back on track. At the bottom, I found my jackknife perched on the handle of our car. Some angel must have seen it on the ground and concluded it was ours. That is passed down from my dad although I've lost it a couple of times, the last time replaced by Liz for my birthday. I'm not sure I could find it again so hats off to whoever did that.
Legend of the Ghost Rider as quoted from Nicola; Prospector William Fernie met a native woman wearing a necklace of black stone. the native people told him they would show him the source of the coal if he promised to marry the woman. They showed him the coal but he backed out of marrying the woman. The native people cursed Fernie and the town experienced fires, floods and mining disasters which only ended after the native people held a peace ceremony. The "shadow is William Fernie's ghost.
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