Berries on Another Mountain

Squinting into the Sun

(It's so annoying when the best place to stage a photo is into the sun.)

It was Wednesday again, the day our schedule is a little more open to go berry hunting. Kara picked a likely location from the berry picker group she joined. We headed off to South Fork Eagle River Trailhead. It's not too far away, but Kara took us on a twenty minute detour because the directions given assumed more knowledge of the Eagle River area than Kara has. We eventually made it to the parking lot and piled out.

We started up the trail (and all mountain trails do lead UP), but since all berries next to the trail were long gone, we wandered off the main trail looking for a good berry patch. The pickings were slim to very slim.

There are FOUR berries in this photo. 

2 nagoon berries (lower half of photo, one is half hidden by a leaf)

1 dogwood berry (edible, but insipid so never collected)

1 crowberry (close to the dogwood berry, but 80% hidden)

We went down the main path a little further and then I suggested we just go straight up the mountain because that worked for us last week at Arctic Valley. Sure enough, the higher you climb, the better the berry patches, but it still wasn't great picking. I won't be adding this location to my list next year.

nagoon berries

lingonberries

I concentrated on picking nagoon berries, but I didn't get enough to make a batch of jam. They will be juiced with the other berries. I don't think most of my pickings were ripe because a few berries were translucent and juicy, but most were solid and hard. 

Bentley picked mostly lingonberries. There were small patches here and there, but no mother lode. Mother lodes are the goal of any dedicated berry picker. I'm still educating Kara and the grandchildren on this concept. It would help if we could find a mother lode--then they would totally get it. It's a special experience to find The Mother Lode. People travel hours to return to epic berry patches. They do not share their location with anyone (not their best friend, not their adult children, not even out-of-state family).

Kara stayed lower on the mountainside picking crowberries. (She has a bad hip and tries not to unduly aggravate it). I took the children a little higher. Viva, Lincoln and Evan spent half their time eating grass instead of picking berries. They formed a grass eating club. (When Viva appointed Evan treasurer and explained his duties I had to ask how she thought their club was going to make money. She said they'd do other activities and maybe rename the club.)

After a while Jake and Evan went down to join Kara. Jake picked berries under a pine tree and got sap in his hair. Eventually I sent Viva and Lincoln down to Kara and I finally forced Bentley to abandon his berry patches. It was getting cold and windy on the mountain. We had a combined yield of a little over six cups of berries. Six cups for seven people is not a good yield, but that's okay because we had a great time outdoors.

On the ride home we tried quizzing the children about how much they enjoy berry picking. Did they like last week's (sunny!) adventure better than this week's adventure? Jake, who asks when we're going home five minutes after we hit the trail, gave last week a 10 out of 10 and this week an 8 out of 10. Evan gave this week an 80 and last week a 10. Kara took that to mean that he really, really like this week, but upon further quizzing, I think he was rating this week on a scale of 100 and last week on a scale of 10--in any case I'm not sure how well four year olds understand 1-10 or 1-100 scales (even if they can count to a hundred). The other children all gave our excursions high ratings.

No. 1 Berry Picker!

B is scowling because I'm taking a photo.

J is smiling because we're headed home.

Photos don't tell the whole story!

Down the Trail 

Berry picking is the perfect excuse to clear your calendar and get outside!

One last photo: Alaska doesn't have the best fall tree colors, but if you look to the ground cover, you can see some amazing changes! (Bentley brought home a couple of the red leaves because they were so beautiful.)