Snack as you hike - it's huckleberry time in the hills

Sure, Northwest hikers enjoy incredible views, stunning scenery and fantastic wilderness destinations. But for some of us, the real payoff comes along for about a month each year, from mid-August to mid-September. That's the prime time for ripe huckleberries in Washington.

These wonderfully juicy berries come in a variety of sizes and colors - ranging from deep purple to almost fiery red - yet they all share the same succulent flavor. A burst of sweet, tangy juice and pulp in every berry.

Many hikers take the berries for granted, enjoying them wherever and whenever they find them, without actually going out to look for them. That says a lot about the distribution of the fruit: You can find huckleberry bushes just about everywhere in the mountains in Washington. But while the berries are widely distributed along our wilderness trails, experienced berry-hounds know that the best huckleberry hunting is in a few key areas.

As a freakishly devoted huckleberry enthusiast myself, I have a few specific places I go, but I will not be sharing these places with you. I also have a few other places with a healthy number of berry bushes that I'm willing to share since I visit them only occasionally.

There's really only one place for huckleberry hunters to go in Washington if they want to find really plump, juicy fruit in a hurry: the berry meadows near Trout Lake in the South Cascades.

I enjoy hiking the trails of the Mount Adams Wilderness and the Indian Heaven Wilderness areas this time of year because nearly every trail passes through at least one broad berry patch, and most sport berry bushes along their entire length. That means you can graze as you hike and look at some of the most spectacular wilderness in the state at the same time.

One favorite is the trail north from Red Mountain. It leads north along Berry Mountain (!) in the Indian Heaven Wilderness, intersecting the Pacific Crest Trail near the Indian Racetrack. The berries along the trail - starting with a vast field on the south flank of Red Mountain, just below the lookout tower - tell you how the wilderness area earned its name. For centuries, local native tribes gathered here each summer to enjoy the land's bounty. They harvested roots from the broad meadows that cover the areas, hunted deer and elk, fished in the hundreds of small lakes that dot the landscape and picked bushels of berries. Heaven, indeed.

Another great place to hike and harvest berries is the William O. Douglas Wilderness, east of Mount Rainier National Park and between Chinook and White passes. Named for one of Washington's greatest sons, the Douglas Wilderness produces some of the largest huckleberries I've every seen - about the same diameter as a dime. The best bet here is to hike east to west along the long spine of American Ridge. The beauty of this trail is that the long, sloping ridge offers ripe berries for nearly a full month: You just keep hiking higher up the ridge line as the season progresses to find berries.

If you prefer a shorter drive to berry trails, explore the routes along Interstate 90. Most of the trails from Granite Mountain east to Easton Ridge boast huckleberry patches. Earlier this month, the berries were ripening around the 4,000-foot level; as the month progresses, the fruit will ripen at higher elevations. Just keep pushing on up the trails until you hit the purple berries.

Regardless of where you go, keep in mind that humans aren't the only critters that crave huckleberries. They're a favorite among black bears. My first encounter with a bear occurred in a berry patch (I was just 12 at the time, and came face-to-face with a juvenile bruin) and I've seen scores of bears in the intervening years. Yet I've never had a problem because I was always more than willing to relinquish the berries to the bear (my love of huckleberries only goes so far!) and the bear was more interested in eating the fruit than in pursuing some puny human. Still, berry pickers should be aware that they're likely to encounter bears and should know how to react safely in such an encounter.

There are plenty of berries in the Washington wildernesses, all it takes to find and enjoy them is a little planning, a bit of hiking and some time to pick as many as you desire.

If you go:

To get to Red Mountain from Interstate 5, drive east on Highway 12 to Randle, Lewis County, then continue south for roughly 50 miles on Forest Service Road 23 through Skamania County to the town of Trout Lake in Klickitat County. Turn west onto Highway 141 and drive to its junction with Forest Service Road 60. Stay left, continue west to a junction with Forest Road 6048. Turn right (north) and drive to the road end atop Red Mountain (Note: high clearance vehicles only on this road). Alternate route: Take I-5 south to Vancouver, continue south on Interstate 205 and then east on Highway 14 to Underwood. Go north on Highway 141 to Trout Lake, continue to Forest Service Road 60 and follow above directions.

If you go

To get to American Ridge, drive east from Enumclaw on Highway 410 to Chinook Pass. Continue east another 19 miles. Turn right (south) onto Bumping Lake Road and drive a half-mile to the American Ridge trailhead.

Dan A. Nelson is publications editor and gear specialist for Washington Trails Association.