The Silver Trail to Keno City: Part I

This was an amazing day, and will probably have to be divided into two entries, there was so much to see.

Field of wildflowers near the Stewart River

Last year, I pretty much stayed on the direct way to Alaska, without much exploration. This year is a little different. I'm taking the time to explore, talk with people and literally smell the roses.

I'd pulled over somewhere along the road the night before. Gravel pits are a great, relatively private way to stealth camp. While a few have been gated with "NO ENTRY" across them, most are wide and open and have evidently been used before, based on the fire rings found at them. 

Native bees on cow parsley

Along the Stewart River

It is coming into full summer now.

Willow catkins are releasing their fluff, so much so that in place, the air almost looks like a July snowstorm. It doesn't take much to set this off — even the slightest breeze will release the fluff. If the concentration is heavy enough, it gets blown into "fluff-banks," accumulating in corners and hollows along the roadsides, and next to people's houses, leaving an irritating mess.

There are fields and fields of wildflowers, but, for the most part, their presence is subtle. The field above is a diverse mass of flowers: yarrow, goldenweed, cow parsley, ranuncula, strawberries, horsetail and more, but it really doesn't look like much until you get close.

Vetch blooming by the side of the road is more spectacular, lining the roadsides with deep purple, pink and white flowers. Unfortunately, this plant is highly invasive, edging out other native plants.

I spent a little time at one of the roadside rest stops (I think this one was the Stewart River stop), appreciating the flowers.

It is interesting to note that most flowers are white, yellow, blue and pink. Relatively few are red or orange.

Apparently this has something to do with how pollinators see colors: they seem to be more responsive to the blues than reds.

There was also bear poop. No bears here, just the leavings.

Showy Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium pulcherrimum)

If you don't like flower pictures, you'll have to skip this section. I'm partially taking pictures to help identify them, but also I'm quite fascinated by the intricacy, symmetry and structure of flowers.

And while I have a fair grasp of California wildflowers, the ones here are different.

The unmistakable magenta of fireweed is just starting to bloom in some places. In other places, the blossoms are already moving up the stalk.

First bloom on a fireweed stalk

I used to wonder why fireweed had its name, since the pink color didn't seem to have anything to do with yellow or red flame. However, it's called fireweed because it often grows in places that have been burned, thus the name.

It's so iconic of this northern latitude that fireweed is the Yukon territorial flower and the Alaska state flower!

They say that a blooming fireweed stalk is like a calendar countdown to fall — that in just six short weeks from first bloom, the first snow could fall.

Summer is so brief. The time just races by. It reminds us to value every single minute.

The Silver Trail

After getting back on the road again and driving south on the Klondike Highway, I didn't keep going south, but stayed on YT-2 to Mayo and Keno City.

I also needed to stretch my legs a bit and had read about a preserve where cow moose are supposed to go to have their babies. Moose cows with their babies are all over the place now — or at least I've seen pictures of them from Alaska. Here, though, I've only caught glimpses of a couple of moose, and I really kind of wanted to see more. I thought this would be a great stop and opportunity to see some safely.

I got to the parking lot, and there was a trailer with the bumper sticker "Proud to be Danish" on it, and one of those big army-type vehicles with Czech plates! Do people really ship these monster vehicles over the ocean so they can drive them?

I headed to the trail, but...unfortunately, the sign at left was just a few feet off of the trailhead.

I guess that with all the baby moose at least one bear was hanging around hoping to get lucky. I don't think they usually post these signs unless a bear has been somewhat problematic.

So... I moved on and did not tempt fate. Really, really did not want to run into a bear protecting a moose carcass, so I got back in the car and kept going.

Sure enough, just a little while later, I saw a mother black bear and her cub by the side of the road. Unlike other bears I've seen though, these did not look particularly well fed, so perhaps the moose hunting had not been going so well. Or the OTHER bear was preventing these bears from grazing at the dinner table!

Another bear: she looks kind of skinny.

It turns out that one of the best places to see animals IS by the side of the road. They are often inured to the passage of cars, and totally ignore you (a good thing). Often the side of the road will have a wide greensward of cleared land that can be 25 yards wide. It's helpful because then you're able to see animals from afar, and prepare for them to possibly cross the road. If the transportation departments did NOT keep these zones open, they would be choked with brushy willows and eventually trees, and it would be much harder to avoid hitting animal that might decide to cross the road just in front of your oncoming vehicle.

Keeping these spaces clear is a pretty massive undertaking, and it looks like they do it on a rotating basis every few years.

Mayo

By the time I made it to Mayo, I was ready to stretch my legs.

The Binet House Museum in Mayo

Mayo is a town of about 300 people, many of whom are indigenous. Named after the founder, George Mayo, the town is at the confluence of the Stewart and Mayo Rivers. While the native people have lived here forever, from the 1880s onward there was an influx of miners looking for gold in the Yukon. The Stewart River was known as the "grubstake" river because — while there was no major find like the Klondike on the river — miners could reliably pan for gold there and get enough money to let them keep searching for "the next big strike" year after year.

Mayo Centennial quilt (2003) detail, showing the Binet House

The Klondike strike in 1897 brought a lot of people into the area. Not all were miners: some saw the value in land and trade.

Gene Binet was one such man. While he came over the Chilcoot Pass in 1896 before the rush on the Klondike, he bought and sold claims rather than working them himself. He saw Mayo as a trading center and eventually built a hotel in the new town of Mayo in 1903.

After silver was discovered in Keno in 1919, Mayo became a major shipping point for the silver ore. (The paddlewheeler "Keno," now a historic drydocked attraction in Dawson, was one of the ore-haulers on the Stewart River.) Binet, now a successful businessman, married a young woman named "Jewel" and built the "Chateau Binet" for her in about 1920. She declined to live there during the winter, preferring to stay at their home in California, but she did visit Mayo during the summers.

Beaded moccasins in Mayo

The house has been turned into home-grown and well-loved museum, with displays on geology; a 3D map; a stuffed grizzly that made the mistake of breaking and entering into a local B&B and creating havoc; photographs of early residents and visitors; studies on climate change and the ecology of the area; plus a fine collection of medical and dental equipment dating from the 1940s and '50s. Some medical equipment hasn't changed that much!

There was an associated "welcome" building for staff, tourist brochures, gifts and more memorabilia, including the lovely Centennial quilt — it was evidently a labor of love.

Mayo Centennial Quilt: the detail is beautiful

The historical committee has done an enormous amount of work. They even published a book in 1990: Gold and Galena by Linda & Lynette Bleiler MacDonald, that was eerily reminiscent of Larkspur Past and Present, chock full of photos and historic details.

The staff ladies were founts of information, as well. One of them regaled me with tales of how she had come to the Yukon from Australia, first to Whitehorse and then to Mayo. She found a property nearby on  "Froggy Pond" and pretty much bought it on the spot. She's had bears breaking and entering into the cabin, despite the fact that she doesn't have food there since she "lives day to day."

They were selling the soap that the sister of Fran (from Danoja Zun) makes, but unfortunately they did not have the "Mosquito" herbal variety that I would have considered purchasing.

I checked out the Canada 150 activities for Canada Day: they were going to have a parade ("all of four cars," the helpful lady said), plus a pie-eating contest, a $20 steak dinner and a dance in the evening. It sounded much more my speed than the non-stop music and celebrations scheduled in Whitehorse...

It was a lovely visit, but it was getting on in the afternoon, and I really wanted to get to Keno City before dinner. They assured me that it really didn't take long to get there (maybe 45 minutes), but knowing how find places to dawdle, I knew it could take much longer.

Back on the Silver Trail

I confess I was just a teensy bit nervous about going on another gravel road with repaired tires. However, the road was quite good, with not much loose gravel, and a drizzle here and there kept the dust down.

I did stop at Five-Mile Lake, where there was a campground and day-use area. I wanted to scope it out in case I needed a place to stay. It was a pretty little lake, and actually might have been a nice place to put in with the kayak, had there not been a few too many annoying mosquitoes. Nothing like Inuvik had, but enough to be annoying (may MI=5).

Five-Mile Lake

I'll continue this in Part II, another day!

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I've been forgetting to put in my maps! This was the route from Dawson City to Keno City, via the "Silver Trail."