Wild Blueberries in Turnagain Pass

Last weekend my best friend, her 11-year-old daughter, and I took a road trip from Anchorage. This has been a different sort of summer, what with Covid-19 shutting down much of the travel industry, so the roads have been a little more clear of tourist traffic. Alaskans have all taken advantage, and we're no exception. We'd already planned to make this summer one of many trips to touristy parts of the state, but with a lot of the mandates we've opted to stick to our normal routes and explore the "wilds" where we can. We've dubbed it the "Summer of Sub-Par Adventures" because after introducing the Indiana Jones movies to the kid, she decided she could not be an adventurer, and could only do sub-par adventures. 

Anyway, on our way up we stopped off in Turnagain Pass. There are trails behind the rest stop, and I'd wanted to explore for many years but we're always on our way somewhere - plus I am not gonna do it by myself! - and this was the day! We made a spur of the moment decision. The 11-year-old was not convinced we would have fun until we suggested if she looked she might be able to find some sort of berry to eat. This perked her up and we let her lead the way. Have to say she is a good little Alaskan-type Sherpa.... except she likes hills and I do not.

The trails are well worn, but often dead end, so there was a lot of searching for the next one, but that just meant we could keep going further into the pass. We didn't do any creek crossings, but we were tempted to try and find our way to the bridge used in winter for the snowmachines and back country skiers. My best friend has been obsessed with the bridge all summer as we pass through the area and she spies it through the bushes. Her goal was to find it (spoiler: we never did), but the Kid had no idea what we were talking about and was just focused on finding berries (she had very little idea on what she was looking for there, too). 

To be honest, we have very little knowledge on berries. We were hoping we'd run into something easy like blueberries where we wouldn't have to dive into our rusty knowledge of what a safe red in color berry looked like (like cranberries, salmonberries, etc). The Kid kept telling us "facts" on how you could tell which berries were poisonous and which ones weren't, and none of it sounded correct - but that doesn't mean it wasn't. Still, it gave her a goal while her mom and I explored an area we drive through so many times and never stop to enjoy.

The fall colors weren't all the way out yet, I'm guessing we've got more color in the area now (man, should've gone to find some POP this weekend). But it was still more fall than summer in both temperature and foliage. We were not the only "hikers" in the area and we met quite a few dogs out on the trail. Just a great afternoon jaunt on the mountainside.

Either we weren't good at spotting the berries, or they just weren't around for the first part of our walk. It's wasn't long before my bestie and I got a little silly. The 11-year-old was not amused. She's definitely in the age where she is easily embarrassed by the adults in her life and to be honest I'm totally here for it. I was belting out Disney's "Just Around the River Bend" (Pocahontas) and her mother was all about "The Sound of Music"... you can clearly see from the pictures that the child was not amused. If looks could kill!

We reluctantly turned around to head back to the car to continue to make our way to Anchorage. The Kid ran up ahead to get away from the most embarrassing people she knows. As we made our way, the bestie looked down and spotted a few blueberries. The Kid came running back to gather them up, then suddenly it was like the ground exploded and they were everywhere! We spent several minutes scooping up handfuls. At one point I smooshed a bunch on my shoe - and then the kid fell and sat in a big bunch of them so it looked like we'd slaughtered something. We all laughed a lot!

We didn't bring any containers so we only took what we could carry in our hands and the kid ate them all as she walked back to the car (fine by me, I don't like berries of any color). All in all a fun experience and we're already talking about trying different trails next time.