Huckleberry picking & exploring yesterday

[Okanagan]

Went up a road I discovered last Fall when the snow was too deep to get up it far.  It goes nearly to timberline.  I've seen goats on those peaks from the other side.



Found good huckleberry picking a half mile father up the road but the berries are not ripe.  Forgot to take the camera when picking and only picked a few.  Hope to get back on opening day of deer season & might get an incidental buck.  Wild mountain huckleberries from near timberline are flat out the best berry taste on the planet, bar none.  I picked a gallon and a half last week in another place and have had one big pie plus used on cereal, ice cream etc. 



Note the snow in the gully across the canyon in the pic below, then check out the closeup zoom of the same snow.  The hole melted under the snowbank is a good 10-12 feet high.





The road uphill starts down by the lake just right of center in the pic below, very steep for three or four miles to get up to where the photo was taken.  Lots of cross stitches cut in the road to run off rain and melt water plus rough in places so I ground up much of the distance crawling in 4x4 low range.  The transmission got hot.  Don't ever recall that heating up but don't recall driving in low range for so long either. 



View to the southeast toward the US.  The most distant row of snow capped peaks are in the US.  I think that the kind of square topped jagged one toward the right side of the skyline is also in the US, or right on the line.

[FinsnFur]

Nice little journey, thanks for taking us along
It's tough to really apprehend the incredible massive size of those mountain or even put it all into perspective. Looking at those pines and guessing each on is around 30 foot tall gives the wow factor a little nudge on how big those mountains and valleys really are.

[Hawks Feather]

Not that I have been on that road, but the views sure make me want to head back west.  I need to start saving for a ROAD TRIP!

Jerry

[Rick Howard]

Beautiful country.

[HaMeR]

Beautiful place to live for sure!!    I'm guessing those pines would be closer to 60'+. 

[Okanagan]

Beautiful place to live for sure!!    I'm guessing those pines would be closer to 60'+.

60' is a good guess for the trees over half way up the mountainside.  In the bottom of the canyons are mostly huge old growth fir 4-6 feet diameter that are likely 150+ feet tall.  With each gain in elevation the trees get smaller till trees can't even grow.  The best huckleberries grow at subalpine elevation where the trees are small, 10-15 feet tall or less and scattered widely apart to let sun in.  Brush dominates rather than trees.   A little above that only moss and grass grow where winter is 9 or ten months long near the top of the peaks.   

FWIW, Jim, those trees in the steep chute by the snow bank look in the 30' tall range to me, stunted from elevation and extra snow that piles in there each winter.  That's a wannabe glacier.

Notice in the next to last pic that the logging clearcuts are almost all on the lower half of those mountainsides, where bigger trees grow.  What is surprising about this road is that it goes to such a high elevation, and they actually did log patches up there.  The trouble with logging roads if you are a goat or sheep hunter or like to hunt deer in the alpine, is that logging roads only go as high as saleable timber.  Mine roads may go right over the top however, and I suspect some kind of mining influenced whoever built this road.  It is an odd one to go so high.

[Dave]

Very interesting.
Out of curiosity, how far is all this from your home?  Beautiful country!

[Okanagan]

Dave, it is about 36 air miles and maybe add ten more for indirect roads.  You could take a car to the bottom of where the side road starts up, within 3 or 4 miles of the top end.  We can see the tops of some of these peaks from our house.  I left our house about 10:30-11:00 and was home again by 5:00. 

FWIW, here are some close ups of huckleberries.






There are about 20 varieties of huckleberries.  They look like they are in the blueberry family.  One kind is red.  The best ones are these almost black ones that grow inland near timberline, and fairly close to the 49th parallel.  I've eaten them from Oklahoma to Alaska and the best are from southern WA/Idaho to the middle of BC.

If you really like blueberries I recommend that you never taste a huckleberry, because blueberries will never be the same.  Huckleberries are so much better that they will jade your taste memory.  Every time you eat a blueberry you will recall how good somewhat similar huckleberries are, and how good a blueberry on flavor steroids could be!   

[FinsnFur]

The fruits of your labor. I dont think I've ever had a Huckleberry

[KySongDog]

My wife picks blueberries and cans blueberry jam every year.   It is hard to imagine that huckleberries are better but now I've got to get some!   

[Okanagan]

My wife picks blueberries and cans blueberry jam every year.   It is hard to imagine that huckleberries are better but now I've got to get some!

I meant domestic raised blueberries and should have said so.  We have commercial blueberry fields around here, and they are a very good taste -- as long as you don't compare them to the wild huckleberry variety!

Some people call these wild ones I've pictured blueberries and there is a lot of cross over in what people call these from one area to another.  In northern BC there is a low bush blueberry that will carpet the alpine with berries so thick that you can hardly take a step without crushing some.  They are the dusty blue variety, very good and sweeter than these dark shiny ones, but not quite as good tasting IMO.  In this region we have several varieties of theses dark shiny ones, plus red ones (not as tasty) and a bush loaded with dusty blue ones here and there among the shiny ones.  I've been told that the dusty blue ones here are female and the shiny ones the male plant.  Don't know but the dusty ones here don't taste good.

It used to be a tradition among Shuswap and Okanagan people for several families to camp near timberline for a week or so while the men hunted deer and bear and the women and kids picked a winter supply of huckleberries.  Good tradition.  Wish we could do a berry testing and tasting series of camps to try berries in different regions.  Our family has stories of running into bears while picking.  My wife heard a huckleberry picker converging with her and when it was within ten feet, on the other side of a big bush, she spoke to it thinking it was me.  Oops.  It was a black bear that ran off.






   

[MI VHNTR]

Beautiful country and the berries look delicious. Thanks for sharing.

[FinsnFur]

Our family has stories of running into bears while picking.  My wife heard a huckleberry picker converging with her and when it was within ten feet, on the other side of a big bush, she spoke to it thinking it was me.  Oops.  It was a black bear that ran off.

Ummmmm yeah