McIntyre Park Mayo, Yukon, Canada Day 2

It was 39 degrees this morning when we got up.  We are seeing more trees turning yellow and brown.  We know it is time to turn around and head south.  We don’t want any part of what Mother Nature can do up here in the wintertime.  The town of Mayo advertises itself as both the hottest and coldest town in the Yukon with a recorded low of -80 and a high of 97.

But for today we are going north to finish the Silver Trail.  The sun was shining brightly as we left for Keno City.  Areas of marsh and pretty lakes as well as spruce forest flanked the gravel road.  We saw geese and ducks and grouse.

Tim was driving the obstacle course that is this road, carefully straddling potholes and avoiding sinking shoulders.  There is just too much road here for all of the crews to keep up.  It looks like every road sustains damage with the seasonal changes.  The road construction/repair season is so short…they probably never finish before it is time to begin again.

This is our last look at the beautiful Ogilvie Mountains.  They served as a backdrop on our ride.  Keno City is an authentic old mining town.  For a short while it tried to be a gold mining town.  Silver was discovered and was more prevalent and profitable in the early 1900’s.  We toured the Keno Mining Museum which was a very tangible history of the silver mining industry.

After walking the town, we took the Jeep and found the 4WD Sourdough Trail.

This turned out to be a wonderful surprise.  The scenery was gorgeous as we traveled above the tree line in the mountaintops.  We had our lunch along the ridge.

Mining on the mountainside.

Keno City far below us.

You have to take what the road and the weather and nature offers.  Today we had gifts of all 3.  We met this fox in the road as we made our way back.  First on Tim’s side of the Jeep and then he circled around to mine.  I thanked him for posing for pictures.  He flinched at the sound of my voice before running into the weeds.

Old truck of the day.

We had a pleasant evening by the fire, watching the flowing river and the eagles soaring overhead.