The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Add another moose to the wildlife list!

We drove the short distance to Pelly Crossing yesterday morning. It is the home of the Selkirk First Nation, and home to the Northern Tutchone native culture. Population of the town is about 300 people.

They have a gas station and store on the highway, as well as the Big Jonathon House Interpretive Centre. And they have a lot of internet access. Except none of them are available to the public!

Some towns are really visitor friendly, and others are not so much. The local community of Pelly Crossing is based on hunting, trapping, fishing and guiding. There is a school, curling rink, baseball field, swimming pool, church, youth center and laundromat. Visitor services include food, gas and lodging. There is one motel, take-out food, a grocery store, gas and diesel, minor vehicle repairs, a campground, post office and bank.

But no internet.

Actually, the girl at the store said there is a library in town, but she wasn't sure where it was (huh?) and of course it wouldn't be open on a Saturday.

I think that in this day and age it should be mandatory for these small towns to offer public internet access. A very small cost in the whole scheme of things. But, I also realize that we are in the middle of nowhere up here and that it's only recently that many of these communities have come online to begin with.

The Klondike Highway.

Yes, we are now in Beringia!

Yukon scenery.

The Big Jonathon House Interpretive Centre.

Some interesting stuff to look at.

 The locals make some very nice stuff!

How would you like to float down the river on this old raft?

The town of Pelly Crossing.

We continued north up the Klondike Highway to the town of Steward Crossing. There, we found fast free public wifi coming from the Yukon Highways Department!

We sat and had our lunch there and got caught up on our internet work. From there, we took a detour! Most people continue north to Dawson City. But we wanted to take a side trip to the original gold rush town... Mayo!

Mayo has a few things going for it that make it worth a visit. First, it really was the first place that had gold fever. Mayo's next claim to fame is that it is the hottest and the coldest place in the Yukon. Record high temperature of 36.1 C (97F) in 1969 and an official Canadian cold record low temperature of -80C (-112F) in 1947.

Here's some interesting reading about Canada's Coldest Day

And, it's off the beaten path and we like to see off the beaten path kinds of places!

It's only 50 kms (30 miles) off the Klondike Highway. The route out here is called the Silver Trail.

Yesterday's drive, 203 kms (126 miles).

We were driving slowly along the Silver Trail, at about 70 km/h (43 mph). There's hardly any traffic, so it's easy for someone to pass us should they want to. Suddenly, Ruth says "oh! There's an animal. I'm not sure what it was though...)

I managed to quickly pull off the highway at a viewpoint. We got out and had a look.

Can you see the moose that Ruth spotted from the highway?!

Here... I'll zoom in for you!

So, we can add another moose to the wildlife list!

We stopped a little further up at the Devil's Elbow pulloff to do the short half hour hike up the hillside to the lookout.

Apparently this is grizzly bear territory as well. The sign at the lookout said "Grizzly bears like to eat the plants on hillsides facing the sun... just like this one!"

View from the lookout.

The Silver Trail is paved as far as Mayo. 
After that it becomes gravel road to Keno City.

The Stewart River.

We made it to Mayo!

View of the Stewart River in Mayo.

We stopped at the Binet House which is now the visitors centre here. We spoke to the lady there who is originally from Australia, but has live here in Mayo for 20 years! It turns out there is lots to see and do here, but hardly anybody comes here. She lamented the fact that one day last summer, Dawson City logged 1,500 visitors, while Mayo had 2.

Well, that's why we're here! To show people what they're missing!

But, that will be tomorrow's post.

There are two free campgrounds in Mayo. One right in town, and one near the entrance to town. We drove back to that one and got a beautiful site by the river. We were the only ones there until two pickup truck campers pulled in with British Columbia plates. They went and parked way on the far side.

Sherman, camping for free at GPS 63.604791, 135.901527

So, today we will explore Mayo, and depending on how much we find we will attempt the gravel road to Keno City!

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Big selection of garden planters are on Deal of the Day today...


And in Canada...




20 comments:

  1. Another beautiful drive. I find folks have a different way of talking or expressing things that don't quite make sense until explained. My ex-husband surprised me with 'Let's get groceries' while on a road trip. He meant lets get something to eat. Perhaps the young lady said 'I don't know where it is' about the library as in 'I don't know how to tell you the address/location.' On our rez, it is difficult sometimes to give directions because some areas have no street names. Hence, they'll say 'You know where the education building is? Well, it's east of there' Huh? There's a Navajo joke out about an elderly women hitching hiking home who was asked how to get to her house. She says about three miles down and over the hill....six hills later still not at her place yet.

    Oh the thrill of spotting another animal...we'd yell 'a moose!' and scare the bee gees outta my granddaughter while driving. It was fun to take a picture (even though we had a gazillion pictures of moose).

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    1. This is not a reserve, it's an actual town.

      By the way, in Canada we call them reserves. A reservation is something you make for dinner. :-)

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    2. They call them 'reservation' in the US & I am familiar they call them 'reserves' in Canada :-)

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  2. Happy Father’s Day Kevin & to all the Dads reading this.
    I feel like I am sitting on your shoulders & traveling along with both of you. So appreciate the pace you travel at & your interest in all the small towns & history.
    Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for Kevin's Father's Day wishes. He had a great day. :-)

      We are so happy that you are enjoying this fun journey with us. It is our hope that through our blog we can entice people to travel at a slower pace and take the time to visit some of these little places and all the neat history they have to offer, as well as some amazing scenery. :-)

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  3. Mexico beats (defending World Cup champions) Germany. Big celebrations down there, I guess.

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    1. "At the same time El Tri forward Hirving Lozano scored Mexico’s winning goal at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, at least two seismic sensors detected a minor earthquake in Mexico City, according to a monitoring agency run by Mexico’s Institute of Geological and Atmospheric Research. The Institute theorized that the artificial quake was caused by all the fans in the city jumping up and down in celebration of the goal" (New York Times)

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    2. We don't follow soccer/football but we are certainly happy to see that Mexico is doing so well. I think just about anyone that is a Mexican, is a soccer fan and they certainly would be jumping for joy in celebration of a goal and for Mexico City, that is a LOT of people. :-)

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  4. Enjoying your out of the way places so much - very interesting! Score on the moose!

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    1. So glad you are enjoying them, we are too. Wait until you see today's post for wildlife! :-)

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  5. We traveled up to keno in a 33 ft Motor Home and had no problems loved it stayed 2 days

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    1. Glad to hear that you and Jim made it up here. Keno City is definitely a very interesting place and one that shouldn't be missed. We only found the last 10 to 15km's to be the worst of the drive and if you take it slow then it is no problem at all. The fist 70 or so kilometres, the gravel road was in better condition that some of the main highway. :-)

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  6. Norma has a foster brother who lived in Mayo! He is a gold buyer and has been on several episodes of the reality show, "Yukon Gold". Beautiful country!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Well Mayo would have been one of the places to be for gold up here in the Yukon.

      We don't watch TV so we aren't familiar with that show, but t's pretty cool that he has been on several episodes of it.

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  7. Love the opening blog picture of the bear with the cubs. Great shot! Mayo sounds very interesting. You are right not too many people get off the beaten track and miss so much. Enjoy your travels and be safe! Happy belated Father’s Day Kevin.

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    1. Thanks Brigitte! Aren't the cubs just the cutest things?

      Mayo was interesting and Keno City even more so and the scenery all around is beautiful. The people that drive by are really missing out on something!

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  8. Thanks for the beautiful pictures and blog post as usual. Safe travels.

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    1. You're welcome, so glad that you are enjoying them. :-)

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