Faro to Keno City

Our last post might have made us sound a bit negative about Faro. Well I can tell you we’re not.
We attended a craft demonstration by local artists this afternoon and had a great time. Found out that most of the 400 people here work at several jobs to make ends meet, there are benefits to living here. Housing is cheap, the scenery is great and the wildlife is abundant. The local hardware and grocery store is fairly well stocked with the essentials. The RV supplies were cheaper here than in Bridgewater. There is no gas station, the nearest is in Ross River about 50 km east. Everyone usually makes a monthly trip to Whitehorse to stock except in the winter when the trip is once every two or three months.
After the craft demonstration, the pot-luck and wild game bar b q dinner started. The first good thing was that is was almost free. We brought some food to contribute and got to eat for free. Even if you don’t contribute you get to eat for free.

There was tons of food. Moose burgers and moose ribs, bear meat, and two kinds of salmon. Several types of salads, eggs, home made buns and all kinds of sweets. Two residents, originally from France, provided a beer custard pie, which was delicious.
What a feed!
A local trio entertained us with a variety of country music, mainly that of the Mother Maybell Carter and the Carter Family.
A large number of door prizes were awarded. N the new fisherperson won a beautiful trio of hand tied fishing flies. P was skunked. A local placer miner won the 50/50 draw of $110. Over 100 people attended which is better than 25% of the area’s population.
One other plus about living up here is the supply of free meat. It appears that when the big sports hunters come up in the fall to do their big game hunting, all they can take home with them is the trophy head. The outfitting companies cannot sell the meat nor leave it to waste, so everybody puts their name on a list and as the meat is brought in it is divided up among those on the list. Needless to say, most local freezers are filled with moose and bear meat to last the winter, at no charge. A great system!
We got up early the next morning and headed out for Mayo. The sun was shining and the drive back down to the Klondike Highway was good. Slow going over the 20km of gravel road, but allowed us to get some good shots of the Yukon River. Stopped in Carmacks to fuel up and paid $1.14/L for 140L of diesel. Prices increase as you go north and we thought that it could even be higher in Mayo. (We were right, the price in Mayo was $1.28/L)

Some parts of the Alaska Highway are being resurfaced and needless to say we ran into a lot of dust from the graveled sections. The weather became cloudy with the odd shower going up to Pelly Crossing, where we turned off and headed towards Mayo. The 60km drive was not overwhelming, to say the least. We arrived in Mayo looking for the two “free” RV parks. Found out that they were free because they were run down with no facilities as well as being too small for out rig. It took some swearing and jigging back and forth to extract us from a tight spot. Thankfully, the young attendant in the tourist bureau in Mayo suggested the Yukon government campground just 5 miles outside town called Five Mile Lake Campground. Unserviced, but all 20 sites were good. Pit toilets were clean and there was firewood and water available although the water needed to be boiled for 10 minutes. We always carry drinking water and onboard water for dishes, so this is not a concern. Only two other sites were occupied by campers. Very quiet campground and very bright as there are only a few hours of complete darkness. At $12.00 a night, this a good deal, so hopefully we can find a few more like this one to help keep the budget in line.

We got up on Monday morning and drove the 60 odd km to Keno City, population 20, sometimes as high as 30. It’s dirt road the whole way, but a good dirt road as they are still mining silver in Elsa. The scenery along the drive from Elsa to Keno is magnificent although the dirt road is in poorer condition. The mining museum in Keno is well worth the trip, even with the $5.00 admission price for two people. Talked to a chap at the museum who has lived in Keno for the past 40 years. He lived in Whitehorse for three years but found it too noisy and it had too many people. He said it only took him 1/2 hour to pack his belongings in a car and get back to Keno. He also said that he expected to see boom days ahead for Keno. I asked him how that would affect him with more people and noise. He said he would just move further back in the mountains where he has a small cabin. He also told us that at the large silver mining operation in Elsa, turnover of staff is 300 % per month. It’s a hard life and not too many young people are up to the challenge.
Another interesting story comes to mind. Should have talked about this one when we were in Whitehorse. One of our propane bottles had to be refilled. I had it chained and locked in the back of the truck, along with our generator until I found a place to fill it. Found a propane station and proceeded to unlock and unchain the bottle. The old chap, waiting to fill me up made the following comment. “Don’t need to do that here sir. Everybody here knows that there is a rifle in the truck.” Apparently “everybody” carries their rifle in their truck up here. An important thing to remember!
Back to Keno City. This place is well worth the visit. Unfortinately we cannot say the same about Mayo. Enough said!
Tomorrow morning we leave for Dawson City and plan to spend a few days there. The Dempster Highway is apparently still flooded out so out trip to Inuvik looks less likely now.



Quote for the day:  Doing nothing is very hard to do...I never know when I'm finished.

I wasn’t going to do anything today; so far, I’m right on schedule.

Cheers

P & N