Huckleberry Hunters

Sorry for the small blog hiatus, summer has been nutty! Lets get right to it…We were back at the ranch a couple weekends ago for some r&r and to introduce Blue to the wild…Come to find out, she knows the wild like the back of her paw and prefers it to civilized living. She ran away a couple of times to chase cows (it’s in her genes for crying out loud!), deer and other critters. She is a little faster then our lard butt friend Charlie…Look harder, I swear he is the picture.

The only way to tame the wild beast was to walk her with a ski pole I was using to hike with.

We went on a long hike and for a couple miles kept seeing huckleberry bushes that were about 2 weeks from being ready to eat. What the heck is a Huckleberry you ask? It’s OK, don’t feel bad my city slicker friends, I had never heard of one or had one until Matt came along. Think of a slightly sour and red colored blueberry. You will not find them in grocery stores because the little buggers are impossible to cultivate. So you just have to know the secret spots to get a taste! I was bummed and hungry, but I did come across some wild strawberries. They were yummy!

Once we came to the waterfall we had been trying to get to, we stumbled onto a massive Huckleberry patch!! Matt was a better collector and I was a better eater. In my defense, I did have competition from small black dog who was eating the berries right off the bush – I will spare you the ugly “after” pictures the next day.

We had a great dinner down the road at the Pine Creek Cafe. Then we caught a sunset, drank a little, played Gin Rummy (I won like always) and the accordion – look out Polka circuit, here I come!!

Going home is always hard, harder if you are a cross-eyed little cow dog who took a face plant into a cattle guard during one of her wild sprints and skinned all the hair off her chin. *See definition of cattle guard below if that term is a mystery to you.

Stay tuned for the next post about our meeting with Matt’s new little nephew Henry!

*Cattle Guard