Hey, Y'All.   Well, today I drove north about 120 miles to Fairbanks.  This was definitely an interesting experience.   Despite going north, the weather made a rapid change from winter to late springtime here in Fairbanks.  Folks at the local WalMart and Barnes & Noble are in t-shirts and shorts!   The trees are all yellow-green with leaves blooming whereas 120 miles further south, the buds are there but no leaves yet.

At first I thought that the springtime weather must be due to Fairbanks being lower in altitude than Denali.  But I spent the day going uphill and not downhill, so that can't be right.   So perhaps it's because of the earth's tilt?  Is Fairbanks closer to the sun perhaps?  I'll refer this question to my brother William who will have the correct answer momentarily.

At one of my stops to photograph a verdant valley, I met Tad, a white-haired very craggy bicyclist from Fairbanks.  He told me that he is training to build up to daily weekend rides of between 90 and 100 miles.  Today's ride was along the hills outside of Fairbanks and he had done 80 miles so far.  He had 15 more to go before reaching home.  Unfortunately he'd run out of water.  Fortunately I'd just filled my water tank.  He rides a carbon Trek Madonne 5.9 with a power meter.   We chatted cycling for a long time.  He told me he is about to turn 60.  I thought he was in his late 70's.   Oops! 

Sorry about the pic; it turned out very dark.