North in the Yukon

After spending two days in Whitehorse getting restocked, we left and headed up the Klondike Highway to Carmacks. At Carmacks we turned right and headed up the Campbell highway (Rt#4) to the small town of Faro. Faro calls itself the Yukon’s best kept secret and we just had to go in to find out what the secret was.
The drive into Faro, some 170km long is just amazing. The first 50 to 60 km consists of fairly long climbs with spectacular views of the Yukon River winding down a large valley.  It was along this stretch that we had 20km of gravel road to contend with. It was smooth but the gravel was loose and somewhat similar to driving on ice. Needless to say N was a bit stressed out. She does not like the feel of our 11 tons moving around on gravel.
The next wonderful sight was Little Salmon Lake. How it got its name I’ll never know. It’s about 30km long and is deep. On the far side (south) of the lake everything is black due to a massive forest fire last year.

Arrived in Faro and our first stop was at a beautiful reception center to register for our campsite. The town has a RV park with 12 sites and most have electricity, sewer and water. They are $12.50 a night taxes included. There were hot showers and a fully equipped laundry room. Our first quick walk around town showed that the attraction to Faro was the wilderness around it. The town itself now supports a population of some 340 people, a far cry from its population of the 80s and 90s when it operated one of the largest open pit mines in the world. Needles to say, the town is like many other boom and bust mining towns. Mainly empty buildings and company houses boarded up and falling down. There is a large new looking recreation center and town hall. There is very little if any commercial activity except for a number of artists, hunting and fishing outfitters as well as some small scale mining operations in the area. The service station has burnt down and I’m not sure if there is another one to replace it, there are no motels or hotels and only one very small hardware/grocery store. I saw one B & B but it was closed.
The people we met are friendly and obviously enjoy their life in relative isolation. Any major shopping is at least 170km away.
The real beauty of the place is the wilderness, wildlife and the quiet. It is located in the Tintina Trench, a huge valley that runs for hundreds of km north to south. It provides one of the major wildlife migration corridors every fall and spring.
One very interesting feature of the town is its golf course. The nine holes run right through town, over streets, around buildings etc. Today there is a series of arts and crafts workshops and a “wild meat bar-b-q.
Tomorrow we leave for Mayo. One quick update. Just heard that the Dempster highway is closed due to heavy rains and washouts. I hope they get it repaired before we get there.

Quote for the day:

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
  - Bernard Berenson

Cheers

P & N