Berry Hunting

Courtney managed to get a 4-day weekend in August, so we took one day of it and went searching for berries on the Kenai Peninsula. We started out at Ptarmigan Creek, where we first had a quick lunch break.



Then we hiked along the creek, on a trail we later discovered to be none-too-stroller-friendly, to begin our search.



We actually shot a little video of the creek and our HUGE berry harvest:



We had lost patience with the stroller by then, so Tallis got a ride from Dad back to the car.



Our next destination was the Lost Lake Trail, starting from the Primrose Trailhead. Assuming that we would regret the stroller again, we carried Tallis in the backpack. Lo and behold, it was a perfect stroller trail! As luck would have it…. But luck actually DID have it, because after hiking for quite a distance and only finding mostly green high-bush berries (we came too early in the season apparently), Tallis started protesting that he wanted to get down from the back carrier and he wanted down NOW. We relented at the nearest clearing, and as we set him down and took a rest, I spotted BLUE. Ah-hah! Our berry patch had been found by a squirming baby. We give Tallis the credit, because we may not have noticed the low-bush berries had he not demanded a stop. Here’s Tallis in our berry patch:



There weren’t gallons and gallons of berries as we had hoped, but we got enough to snack on for a few days and to add to some pancake batter. Yum!

Our next stop was the Trail River Campground on Kenai Lake. It’s one of our favorite developed campgrounds – we took Tallis there when he was only 7 weeks old. Frankly, I wasn’t game for it. I was cold and tired and hungry and ready to head home before dark, but Courtney had a mission to bake potatoes and grill pineapple over a campfire on the shores of the lake, and nothing would stop him. So be it. Tallis enjoyed the rocks on the beach – he LOVES playing with rocks – though we had to keep a close eye on him and his fascination with the water. (Happily, he has long-since outgrown any tendency to put rocks or other non-food objects in his mouth.)





The fire was warm and the pineapple was good, but the plain fire-baked potatoes were quite dry. Good attempt, sweetie. We didn’t make it home by dark, but twilight was lovely on the Kenai Peninsula and our berry hunting adventure came to a safe end.