Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • On The Trail

Berry Picking in the Taiga

  • September 12, 2013
  • Ned Morgan
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

by Ned Morgan.

The long-disused army road, snaking into the taiga behind the defunct rocket range, is a bad one. Our minivan lurches and clunks alarmingly as we follow Bill’s Korean War Jeep. We’re about 25 kilometres south of Churchill, Manitoba, headed for the Twin Lakes and some forested high ground where locals go to pick berries. The men in the Jeep in front of us, Bill and Gerald, carry rifles for protection from threats that lurk in this landscape: mainly polar bears, but black bears too. For extra insurance, Bill and Gerald brought two Alaskan husky “bear dogs” – invaluable companions in and around Churchill. (Polar bears don’t like dogs and will often flee them.)

Here in the taiga you go berry-picking only with rifle, dog and Jeep support.

Korean War–era Jeep at the end of the road.
Korean War–era Jeep at the end of the road.

Through gaps in the roadside bush we see a flat, endless expanse of  soggy turf, stunted trees and countless small lakes – a land devoid of trails or human comforts. (Churchillians call their inland surroundings “taiga” – a Russian word for the swampy, transitional coniferous forest between the Siberian tundra and steppe – to differentiate from the true boreal zone to the south). Once past the Twin Lakes, the road becomes impassible and we walk on into the forest. Here the true colour and variety of the taigascape comes into view. We’re here to pick blueberries, crowberries, cranberries and red currents.

P1060900

In Churchill where fresh produce is expensive, people scramble to harvest these berries during a narrow two-week window. Berries grow everywhere in this spot and your hands don’t have to wander far to find more, standing out brightly against the milky-grey caribou moss.

P1060878

Later I spot a spruce grouse in a spruce tree.

P1060865

When others in my group spot the bird and approach, the grouse prepares to take off.

P1060871

Flight does not come easily to the spruce grouse. It careens from tree to tree, barely making it to each shaky perch. My Churchillian companions tell me the grouse is easy to catch with your bare hands, and tastes like chicken. Fortunately for the grouse, and perhaps due to the presence of vegetarian tourists, no one harvests the hapless bird.

We berry-pick for only two hours because someone has a plane to catch, and many of the berries aren’t ripe yet. One of my guides, Jenafor Ollander of Blue Sky Expeditions, will return next week and spend at least three days picking berries. This is a fleeting time of colourful bounty in an otherwise savage landscape, and all available fruits must be harvested.

North of Churchill, near the Seal River Heritage Lodge, we found cloudberries in abundance.
North of Churchill, near the Seal River Heritage Lodge, we found cloudberries in abundance.
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Berry picking
  • blueberries
  • Churchill
  • Korean War Jeep
  • Manitoba
  • Northern tourism
  • Polar bears
  • taiga
  • tourism Churchill
  • tourism in arctic
  • tundra
Ned Morgan

Previous Article
  • Mountain Lifer

First Highline Free Solo of Lost Arrow Spire

  • September 11, 2013
  • Ned Morgan
View Post
Next Article
  • Mountain Lifer

The Scariest Moment of my Life

  • September 16, 2013
  • Ned Morgan
View Post
You May Also Like
Mountain-Life-20th-showreel
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • On The Trail
  • Photography
  • Videos

20 Years of ML

  • Editor
  • March 24, 2023
The-High-Route-Kaytlyn-Gerbin-Jenny-Abegg-North-Cascades-High-Route-glacier-hiking
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Trips & Expeditions
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Alpine Ultra-Run Sufferfest

  • Ned Morgan
  • March 10, 2023
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • On The Trail
  • Photography
  • Stay & Play

Let It Roar

  • Sarah Bulford
  • February 9, 2023
Life-Time-Grand-Prix-gravel-bike
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail

New Docuseries Profiles the World’s Elite Off-Road Cyclists

  • Editor
  • January 30, 2023
Mountain-Life-Blue-Mountains-stack-winter-2023
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Trips & Expeditions

ML Blue Mountains Winter-Spring ’23 Issue Out Now

  • Ned Morgan
  • January 6, 2023
Golden-BC-mountain-biking
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail

Shifting Gears

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 18, 2022
Nicholas-Spooner-moose-skier-touring-Quebec
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Photography
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Trips & Expeditions

Vie en montagne Winter-Spring ’22-’23 Out Now

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 12, 2022
View Post
  • Food & Drink
  • On The Trail
  • Travel

Under the Influence: Oregon (part 2)

  • Editor
  • December 7, 2022

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Featured Posts
  • Skiing at Hudson Bay Mountain in Smithers 1
    Where Eagles Dare
    • March 27, 2023
  • Mountain-Life-20th-showreel 2
    20 Years of ML
    • March 24, 2023
  • Mustang-Survival-WOMENS-HELIX-CCS 3
    Gear Shed: Our End-of-Winter Picks
    • March 23, 2023
  • natural-selection-Redbull 4
    Friday Flick: Natural Selection Tour Highlights
    • March 17, 2023
  • Powder-Highway-BC-ski 5
    Powder Highway Revisited
    • March 21, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • AleTrailsSouthernInterior_Vernon_MikeGamble_LookoutTrail_BenHaggarPhoto
    Ale Trails: Southern Interior Part 1, Vernon + Shuswap
    • March 20, 2023
  • Elements-Outfitters-Filson-cabin
    Elements Outfitters Partners with SALTS to Protect Alberta’s Incredible Landscapes
    • March 16, 2023
  • Bora-Boreal-Quebec-winter-cabin-stars
    Bora Boréal: Frozen in Time and Ice
    • March 14, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
No one called me Feet Banks back in 1987. In those days, most people called me by my given name—except for my ski buddies, to whom I was known by the most badass moniker to ever schuss the slopes: Twinkle Toes.
We’re celebrating 20 Years of Mountain Life!
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
The Southern Interior region of BC holds an ecological cross-section of the province with alpine meadows, arid Douglas fir grasslands, damp cedar and hemlock forests of the Columbia Mountains and the warm expanse of Shuswap Lake.
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Conceived by superhuman snowboarder @travisrice, the @naturalselection Tour highlights earth’s premier riders, from big-mountain mavens to Olympians, all competing on the most stoketastic—and unpredictable—terrain known to humankind.
Built upon a shared desire to enjoy, respect, and advocate for Alberta’s incredible landscapes, it was a natural fit for @elementsoutfitters to work with a local conservation organization @saltslandtrust to highlight the province’s rugged beauty and outdoor apparel to match.
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

No one called me Feet Banks back in 1987. In those days, most people called me by my given name—except for my ski buddies, to whom I was known by the most badass moniker to ever schuss the slopes: Twinkle Toes.
We’re celebrating 20 Years of Mountain Life!
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.