Each fall around Alaska, friends and family gather buckets and bags and head to their favorite blueberry spots. These, of course, are kept somewhat secret from the masses, but in general, anywhere there is tundra, you should look for blueberries. While high on a hillside or low beside a lake, berry picking lets your mind wander while your hands stay busy. Solve problems large and small, or just decide how you’ll use your berries throughout the winter—freeze them for pies, muffins, pancakes, and smoothies; dry them to toss on cereal; or make jam to enjoy all winter. For details on nutrition, storage, and recipes for blueberries and other Alaskan foods, visit cespubs.uaf.edu/publications.
By Steven Merritt Just like checking the hiking box for Flattop Mountain in Anchorage is a must for visitors or newcomers alike to southcentral Alaska, no trip to Whittier would be complete without a side trip on the Portage Pass Trail, which offers access to Portage Lake and unmatched views of Portage Glacier. While the Begich, Boggs Visitors Center in Portage Valley is a great jumping off point to catch a ride on the M/V Ptarmigan for a lake tour to the glacier, earning the view with your feet is a rewarding option. Once through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel into Whittier, an access road to the small U.S. Forest Service trailhead is just to the right. The trail ascends some 800 feet in less than a mile before cresting at Portage Pass, where the glacier and lake emerge in a broad panorama. Looking back gives hikers a great view…
After more trips around Alaska than I can count, I had yet to see bubble-feeding whales until this summer. I filled in for a photo instructor aboard the National Geographic Quest on a Lindblad/NatGeo cruise of the InsidePassage, with my eye on this ultimate bucket-list reward. Most humpback whales feed independently or with their calves, except when they do the coordinated dance of bubble-netting. As a group, multiple humpbacks descend below the surface of the water, sounding off and cueing one another, creating a circle of bubbles that “trap” herring inside the confusion. Then, all the whales rise at once, mouths gaping like the Hungry Hippo game our son once played, their hair-like baleen straining out water to keep nutrient-rich fish. Staring into the mouth of a whale topped my adventures at sea this July and made the 16-hour days pass like the gulp of a giant humpback
Alaska fruit growers are a generous bunch. Ira Edwards is known around Alaska as an avid outdoorsman who fishes, hunts, cycles, and skis—these days from a wheelchair or other adaptive gear. What people may not know is that he’s also an avid gardener and fruit grower. Edwards believes in community and among his many passions, he teaches kids with disabilities to ski and is establishing apple orchards at local schools. Through an Alaska Community Forestry Program grant, he grafted 100 baby trees two years ago and then partnered with the Trailside Elementary PTA in Anchorage to plant the trees on school grounds last year. “The end goal is apples for kids and then apples for everyone,” Edwards said. The apple harvest, still 10 years down the road, will be donated to local food banks.
Founders of a community supported fishery After Micah Hahn and Ben Tietge moved to Alaska in summer 2017, Tietge bought a boat and started commercial fishing in the Copper River Delta and Prince William Sound. 2019 was their second season operating the Copper Valley Fish Collective, which allows consumers to cut out the middle man and purchase their fish directly from Hahn and Tietge. Buyers can select at the beginning of the season how many pounds of salmon they want, essentially reserving a portion of the catch, which is then shipped at the end of the season. ~as told to and edited by Alexander Deedy Alaska: Can we start with a little background on yourselves? MH: I’ll start. We moved up to Alaska in the summer of 2017. Ben had been salmon fishing before then, but he decided he wanted to make it his profession. I have a background in…
Who else has Alaskan steelhead and salmon on the brain?
