Trip to Town/Vertical Hike, Blueberries and Invasive Species

I hope everyone's having a great weekend! The last weekend of August, rainy and overcast - the mini heat-wave that so many places seem to have caught is gone from here.

Fortunately the rain held off, mostly, for our overnight camp on Thursday night - here's a very familiar picture for me: Phil's receding form on the way to our nightly shakedown!

We got home late last evening from an overnight trip to Anchorage for appointments, errands and - we hoped - some blueberry harvesting! Phil's favorite place to harvest blueberries is over a mountain pass a little way north of Anchorage.  It is a very strenuous hike - extremely steep up and down, and I was apprehensive of the prospect of hiking up fast starting at 8pm, harvesting blueberries until dark, falling down exhausted (having set up camp!) and then being ready for my 10am appointment on Friday. I also had memories of being stiff and sore for days after the hike in previous years - it's the descent that kills you! And this year is no different in that regard, although really anxiety was unnecessary. Here's the view from half-way up.

It's a mile up to the pass and maybe 1,000ft of elevation gain! So, Phil and I went at our own speeds, Phil carrying the tent, sleeping bags and almost everything and going very fast, dumping the camping gear in a camp spot and on through the pass. I was surprised that I made it to the top in about 38 minutes! It was an intense 38 minutes of hyperventilating and staving off cramps, but it felt pretty good. Imagine how fast Phil went... And going back down, he ended up carrying my pack to - my legs were jelly.

The view from the top -

- and turning around, through the pass -

We slept pretty well in the deep silence of the mountains,

and there was a patch of wild valerian just above our camp spot!

Unfortunately, blueberry picking was pretty much a 'bust.' Between both of us, this is all we gathered - and the black, shiny ones are 'crowberries,' another low-bush berry that is god but much less tasty. 

Usually, we'd expect to get several gallons. We pick with these 'harvesting combs,' which strip the berries off the stems, and you can then knock them down into the holding area.

Why is this? There is a new invasive species of caterpillar, that has been proliferating and systematically defoliating low bushes and trees in that whole area! The many white moths fluttering around in the twilight bore witness to this. Back on the 'invasive species' issue that was such a constant topic back in Hawaii. 'Invasive' introduced species are a problem when they do so very well in their new environment and have no natural predators to keep their population in check. Aside from humans gathering the blueberries, many varieties of bird depend on them in the Fall, and they are an important food source for the bears before hibernation also. Birds preparing for migration especially target berries.

If these moths lay tons of eggs and if the eggs survive the winter, and if the caterpillars eat all the leaves again next year, within a year or two, the blueberry bushes will die and those animal populations will be severely impacted. Meanwhile, the moths can just catch a wind current and fly off to decimate some other area. Sounds kind of like humans, doesn't it?

I was very glad of all those goodies I made the other day, to sustain me with all that hiking. It was good to feel self-sufficient with food in the big town, without needing to compromise on what works for me. 

But we're flapping our ears for some alternative blueberry-picking spots and on the long 'to-do' list we put together, now that we're done with guests, a trip across the bay to harvest currants is also featured!

After all my chia-based recipes lately, it's cool serendipity to see that Averie is giving away 2lbs of chia seeds on her blog - check out and enter here!

Have a great weekend and please stay tuned for some product reviews!