Huckleberry season not over just yet

It’s already August, but huckleberry picking season is not over yet, according to Greg Hall, who has been fascinated with the pastime since moving to Libby in 1990.

Hall said he recently found the mother lode of huckleberry deposits, though like a successful angler, he won’t reveal his secret spot. 

“I hand-picked a gallon in 2 1/2-hours,” he said. “That’s pretty good picking and, no, I won’t tell you where. Find your own.”

He did share the location with a few friends and says that the area is pretty well cleared out by now.

Huckleberries grow in the mountains at elevations between 3,500 and 7,200 feet – starting at about 1,500 feet higher than Libby.

Hall suggests hunting for berries in sheltered areas on an east slope. He said he has discovered some good, undiscovered locations this year, but they’ve been at a higher elevation than usual.

Jeanne Spooner, who worked for the U.S. Forest Service for 30 years and has picked berries in the area for decades, agrees that they grow bigger with access to shade.

“In an open place, they’re bigger in the edges where the berries are getting some shade part of the day,” Spooner said.

Huckleberries grow well in 20- to 50-year-old burns and old clear-cuts, and open, high elevation forests that receive plenty of sunlight.

Hall points out that a good huckleberry spot one year won’t necessarily yield good fruit the next year. He likes to hunt in some of the more remote areas.

“You don’t have to, but it’s usually better picking,” he said. “If you find plants in an area with a lot of traffic, go 100 to 200 yards (further) because no one is usually that ambitious.”

Though huckleberries can be purchased from roadside stands in the Northwest – saving the energy of trudging through the terrain in the sweltering heat – Hall and Spooner believe that it’s more about the pursuit than the outcome.

“Ninety percent of the fun is to find them,” Hall said. “Every year I say I’m just going to buy them, but every year I break down and do it.”