#NatureWritingChallenge: An underrated experience in a national park, refuge, or national forest

Ultralight trail snacks. Because when every ounce counts, what’s better than food you don’t have to carry? I certainly don’t claim to be some pro forager. In fact I should probably disclaimer here as well. If you’re not 100% sure, don’t eat it. And always be aware of rules on gathering food wherever you are.

On to the fun part. Berries! I love berries. I have a dozen mature blueberry bushes in my yard at home, along with strawberries and raspberries, I get home from work and pick some berries from my yard all summer long. But my favorite berries are found along the side of a trail. I’m calling berry picking underrated because it’s rarely the primary reason anyone goes to visit national public lands.

Often in unpredictable areas. They require water and sun and are very particular about their soil. So the wet depths of a rainforest isn’t their favorite spot to grow. Neither is the top of a hillside in the center of a meadow. They like the edges of areas, the spots where you’re always paying attention to bigger scenery changing so you can often miss them.

My favorite wild berries are found at higher elevations, many call these mountain huckleberries. They grow in areas that are under snow for close to half the year if not longer. Any flora that endures those elements near alpine levels amazes me already, but the flavor these berries have are unmatched imo.

There’s also the common lowland red and blue huckleberries. From each berry to berry aften varying greatly in taste. My favorite way to eat them is get a handful, at least a dozen, and eat them all at once. That way any sour ones will be drowned out by the overall flavor.

Honorable mentions are thimble berries, salmon berries, wild strawberries, evergreen blackberry (not the pesky invasive Himalayan blackberry) oh and I even enjoy a few salal berries sometimes combined with others.

Another favorite trail snack of mine out in the woods in the pnw is redwood sorrel, or as I called them growing up, sour clovers. They remind me of a spinach texture but tastes like an extra sour apple candy flavor. I’ll pick a bunch and stack em up, like a lunchable sandwich.

This was a quick write up at last minute. No big story for this week’s challenge but I’ll leave you with one of my favorite lines from a pct documentary. I think they were discussing worrying, how you’re always counting how many miles to go, days till weather changes, hours in the day, and how being on the trail is a great analogy for life… “you just gotta stop and pick the huckleberries every once in awhile.”