October 21st, Crater Mountain, Hargreaves cabin.

Another Alltrails trail that seemed like a good excuse to go back up to the Ashnola valley, and promised a ruined cabin at the end of it. Driving back up to Ashnola…..the scenery was a bit different again as we are a little further on in the fall season and there is a bit more colour….The reds of the Ontario maples are obvious by their absence….golden and green landscape with little splashes of red from the sumac.

It was a crisp cool fall day…..and the discussion on route often involves bears…..we have not (yet!) seen any on an actual hike in BC or Alberta….but the possibility is something we are always aware of….Its interesting how often one sees a black shape through the trees…….(flinch..!!) oh its a burnt stump….or a cow…..or a shadow…!!!

It was another straight up trail with lots of switchbacks.( I know…I know…its a mountain thing 😂 )….one impressive thing on Alltrails for this one was that there are a couple of reviews from peops who have done it as a trail run….I’ll tell you walking was enough for me…!!!

The ‘beautiful meadow’ described in the app was clearly in the wrong season…presumably the spring and summer sees it full of wildflowers. In the fall in late October…..its mostly dead grass….!!! But the views were still quite spectacular…!!!

Hargreaves cabin…the goal for the day…….( I could not find any more information on it ie how old it is…who built it and why). It is a turf roofed wooden cabin halfway up Crater Mountain….(resident= 1 cow..!!!)

There were lots of cows…..beef cows ( beef cows are notorious for their unfriendly demeanor !!) and they started making a bit of noise at us…so I insisted that the photographer finish up and we head back down……at least back across the Texas gate (cattle grid).

The sun came out on return trip. We stopped a little longer in the meadow…..

….and found some interesting artifacts…..!!!…there has to be a story here…!!!

There were many breathtaking views, as seems to have become the ‘normal’…..an advantage of having to stop to look (so you don’t trip over something and fall down a cliff face…!!!)…..is that you can also sneak in those rest stops to catch your breath…!!!

Back down to the river again….

Another very satisfying day…..after the always impressive drive back down along the Ashnola river back to Keremeos…we unraveled another little minor mystery….the historic Grist Mill……..which will be the next post…….

Extra Pix.