...blueberry blues



THE ROUTE:  Upper Russian Lakes Trail
DISTANCE:  4.4 miles RT
TERRAIN:  Gentle rolling trail,  some mud, bridges over streams.

The Hufford girls at the trailhead.

The Hufford girls on a bridge with their shadows.

Blueberry bush leaves eaten away.

A single blueberry.  Not in the best of shape.

The curved bridge over the stream where we took a break before turning around.  We have visited this bridge many times and it used to sag as as well.  The forest service has been busy trying to repair it.  You can see the Hufford girls lounging on the other side if you look closely.

The view from our turn around point.  That's Cooper Mountain in the background.

The berries we were able to pick...about four tablespoons worth... in a plastic bag.

We pick blueberries every summer.  Lots of them.  But, this summer has been different.  We found some nice blueberry patches on Ptarmigan Lake Trail in mid-July, but we haven't had much luck since.  And it's all due to a small green caterpillar that has eaten its way through practically all the blueberries on the Kenai Peninsula, and throughout southcentral Alaska for that matter.

So, today we thought we would take a hike to one of our favorite berry picking trails and see what we could find.  There are always more berries than we can ever pick on this trail and we thought there might be a chance that we would find a spot where the berries had escaped the caterpillars.

We were wrong.

Normally the bushes along the trail are drooping under the weight of an abundance of juicy berries and berry filled bear scat is common.  Not this year.  There were no berries and no scat.  Just a bunch of blueberry bushes with holes in the leaves.  The bears are in trouble if they depend on berries to fatten up.

The afternoon wasn't an entire loss however.  We did chat with a couple in their early 80's for about thirty minutes.  They told us about their cabin on Kenai Lake and their trips to Costa Rica and Kona to watch birds.  They were also keenly interested in Laura and Emily as they had two grand daughters adopted from Korea.  Then, there was a group of backpackers that visited with us as we took a break.  They had spent the weekend at the Aspen Flats cabin.  And, there were some mountain bikers that said "hi" as they rode past.  Of course, Gabby had a wonderful time running down the trail and through the woods following her nose and then checking back in with us to see if we would offer her a treat--which we did with great frequency.  I should also mention that the weather was perfect for the end of August.  It was sunny and the temperature was around 65 degrees.  It wasn't a bad afternoon, the lack of blueberries notwithstanding.

We got back to the truck and drove for home trying to think of what we could have for dinner.  Laura sheepishly suggested that we stop at McDonald's for Oreo McFlurries and call it good.  To her surprise her parents agreed!  After all, what better way is there to get rid of the...blueberry blues?