March 20, 2021 Vernal Equinox

It seems I start waiting for vernal equinox the day after the autumnal equinox. In McGrath today we have twelve hours and eighteen minutes of daylight. At 62°56’59”N latitude, I doubt anyone reading this is farther north. So from now until September 20th, you all have less daylight than here.

Because Alaska only has one time zone except for the Hawaii-Aleutian Zone at the tip of the Aleutian chain, most resident’s daylight comes late and lasts late. For us waiting to view the northern lights this puts us outside way late. Last night it was 10:30, way past our bedtime. I still woke up at 4:00 time for more northern lights.

We alway hike on the equinox. Here, if you hike 10 miles on the road to nowhere, you get a good view of Denali. It was an ambitious plan. We couldn’t leave our house until 12:30 for two reasons. # 1 it didn’t get above zero until then. And #2 We were waiting for a report on last night’s NAC attack. In other words waiting on the veggies.

We did run out of time. It was too hard in the snow to make fast progress. We ended up completing fourteen.

Happy Equinox to all and to all, nighty night!