WILL YOU BE MY HUCKLEBERRY???

When one comes to spend the summer in Whitefish,one has to go on a huckleberry picking adventure. On a beautiful morning a few weeks ago-we did just that. Don and Sheri invited us to hop into their jeep and take a ride up the side of a mountain with them-how could we say no to that! We found ourselves on the west side of the Hungry Horse Dam-an amazing sight on its own-it is huge! The reservoir goes for miles and miles,and if you want to go around the whole thing-it takes an entire day.
This day we had only one thing in mind-huckleberries! We wound higher and higher above the dam-the views were spectacular. Don and Sheri had come this way last year, and found a bounty of berries-so we were all hopeful that today we would be rewarded with the wild delicious berries that the bears here LOVE!! We were prepared-we had our bear bells, our bear spray and our zip lock bags and buckets too!
Finally after quite some jeep climbing-we were at the famous spot. We put on our bells-tested them out by doing some funny "keep away from us bears" dance-and into the thick,thick woods. This berry hunting game is not as easy as one might think. We soon found out why these berries go for quite a few$$$ in town-and in roadside stands. You have to climb your way thru a lot of bushes-hold tree limbs away from your face-and basically walk somewhere where you cannot see anything in front or around you-but bushes and trees! All the time we are making our way thru the woods-in the back of our minds-yes,the bears! We are out in the middle of nowhere-in bear country-and we are looking for the bears favorite treat-what is wrong with this story?! After a bit, we find a few huckleberry bushes-but we are sadly too early for the berries-just little nubs have formed-no berries-but no bears either,as it turned out-so we are still way ahead of this game. We had a beautiful drive-spent some time with good friends-and on the way home stopped for a huckleberry milkshake-yum!
It was a fun day to be sure. The next week I cheated-purchasing 2 gallons of those delicious little Montana jewels- I made jam for the first time ever-lots of work, lots of fun-and the scrapes on my arms from the huckleberry adventure are all healed up now! Anyone who can guess what they will be getting for Christmas this year????