Photo by DON BARTLING
Another thing to remember is that people aren’t the only creatures working huckleberry patches. Black bears and grizzlies eat them too, so whenever you’re picking in bear country be “berry aware” of the bears, stay alert and make plenty of noise to reduce the chances of surprising a bear.
August 2, 2018
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Huckleberries: Boundary County's wild purple gem
I have only lived in Boundary County about two decades, but that time has taught me by late July and early August North Idaho mountain ranges will be crawling with treasure hunters searching for purple gems. Armed with plastic ice cream buckets, grocery store sacks, coffee cans, or other containers, the prospectors comb hillsides from dawn to dusk. In coffee shops and cafes, they speak in hushed tones of finding “gold mines,” “mother lodes,” “bonanzas” or “purple gold!”