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!

Postcard from Fairbanks - Generosity of Strangers, Long Drive, Long Hike

Here I am in Fairbanks! I'm in the 'Great Hall' of the Fine Arts Department of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks: it's been a long time since I've been in a school building like this one and certainly long since I've been in an arts complex that seems so well-endowed. This hall opens into a concert hall on one side, with a corridor connecting to the rest of the building, and a theater on the other, the third is open to the outdoors, and the fourth is that back entrance/loading zone that one always finds around the side of a theater. I've been told I'm a bit early for them to answer my questions or find me the promised bus pass, so I'm cooling it off to the side. Someone is practicing an accordion in the middle of the room with various commentators around her. There's a general hubbub of activity-in-potential, coy squawks of woodwind instruments backstairs, kids asking incredulous questions, people walking around with bulky keychains around their necks, cameras, instrument cases squashing them asymmetrical. 

And now registration is underway in full swing, officials are fast-walking around balancing laptops on palms and looking harried, an epidemic of name-tag necklaces is going around, the space is filling up and the impression is generally one of a lot of people who are very enthusiastic to be here, to immerse themselves in their music or art and in all the outward stuff that goes with it - a variety of partnered poses are struck.

When I got here last night, it rained in torrents! I took a hike to the Fred Meyer three miles away from where I'm staying, partly to get a look around, partly to get essentials like 'Bengal Spice' tea, jicama, lettuce. I got absolutely soaked - my boots still aren't quite dry - but I also got to see an amazing double rainbow 

and several other things I'm glad not to have missed. A full-blown garden outside a university building, with cole crops, mint, bolted basil, the sunflower-looking plant looks like Jerusalem artichoke to me -

The Chena River, swollen with the heavy rain, gilded with green -

And this intrepid little fireweed, flowering in the gutter at the roadside, right next to the trash!

That was a big hike, 6 miles round trip, for a chronic-fatigued person! I was proud of myself for having done it, taken care of supplies, and shown myself that the walk to the campus, which is about a third that distance, should be quite doable. At the same time, I was nervous that such a strenuous mission right at the start might leave me more tired than I'd want to be. I'd say I was right both to be proud and to be concerned - I am very sore and fatigued today, but I'm also taking it easy. After the more-than-six-hour drive to Fairbanks, a long walk seemed indicated!

I had a ride to Fairbanks from an extremely interesting person - an amazing storyteller: I spent a few hours last night just getting as much as I could of what he'd said and told written down. I'm so grateful for that connection, and for having undergone the extra stress of getting a ride on Craigslist for the eventual opportunity to get a ride and meet someone really interesting whom I never would have met otherwise. Great company for a long ride. And when I got in from that long hike around town, I got to meet the guy whose cabin I'm crashing in. He's one of the festival directors and extremely busy, but he's a totally kind, awesome, interesting and very welcoming person too - and once again I feel doubly lucky in my choices.

Today, it rained in the morning but now the sun is out and the air is warm in that spongy, post-rain way. Walking up to campus, feeling my apprehension at not knowing where I was going coupled with the certainty, soon-validated, that I would see a map and find my destination very quickly, I could feel the warm vapor coming up at me from all the fumey plants beside the path: the air seemed constantly on the verge of sending a gently cooling breeze but never quite blowing.

The library is a welcome refuge from the registration hubbub, but the orientation is soon-to-begin. I'm not yet sure how much I'll be posting during this intense course - my internet access should be good enough to make regular posting possible but we'll see what the other constraints are...

Much love and happy weekend!