Lille

On Saturday September 24th... Hailey's 20th birthday... Margarit and I awoke in Coleman.  The Beer Parlor Project the night before had been somewhat of a bust, with the exception of some exterior shots of the century old Greenhill Hotel.  We headed into Blairmore in the morning and had breakfast at a little cafe.  We met up there with Chris and Connie.

After breakfast we headed out to the ghost town of Lille.  This required a drive on a rather pothole filled road up above the Frank Slide area.  Along the way we spotted an aspen tree that had been all marked up with the claw marks of a bear.  These "bear scrapes" are territorial and usually advertise the presence of a large male to his adversaries. Once we parked the truck we had to walk about 3km in to the old town site.  Along the way we came upon the remains of a stone building that was once part of the mining operation.  The mine was shut down, and the town abandoned around 1913.  Along the way we came upon some bear tracks on the trail, but they weren't particularly fresh, so we were not overly concerned.  There were actually quite a few other hikers and cyclists on the trail on this beautiful fall day.  Further up the trail we came to a clearing where the Lille townsite was once located.  There is not much left here... just some depressions where the foundations of buildings used to be.  You can see the grid layout of the streets, but not much else is remains.  There were a couple of old fire hydrants.  Near the edge of the site the stone foundation of what once was the hotel, still remains.  This building may have also served as the train station.  Further below that are the remains of some old coke ovens.  It was a very interesting and enjoyable walk on a beautiful fall afternoon.