Huckleberries in SW Alberta, Pincher Creek/Castle area?

[molly]

I reviewed some older threads on berries... last time we went up past the Castle resort was in 2012. Has anyone been up that road lately? If so, how far did you get and did you see if the berries are coming along this year? We are not interested in attending the festival near the end of August. Don't like the crowds and according to friends of ours who have lived here for decades, the resort should move the dates up as the berries ripen sooner in the season now.

Anyway, any information as to the huckleberry situation would be greatly appreciated!

[bessiedog]

I’ll be headed up there next week.

You can’t 4x4 to Middle Kotaney Pass no more, the first bridge after Castle got changed out and is a quad bridge now.

Which means hiking for me and the fam.

It’s put a crimp in the Hutterite harvest platoon though. Man can they pick!

If I remember to.... I’ll pm

They should have got enough water this season. Just need sun.

[molly]

Thanks, Bessie. I decided to message the resort and they said this:

This area is within the Castle Wildland Provincial Park and motorized use, off-highway vehicle or otherwise, is not permitted. You can find information on trail usage within the park, which is managed by Alberta Parks, at https://www.albertaparks.ca/parks/south/castle-wpp/

Kinda forgot about the new park boundaries! We'll go up there to check around anyway. Wonder if any huckleberries or even saskatoons grow over in the Lynx-Carbondale area. We plan to pick thimbleberries too and we can see that they are on track for a decent crop over past the Shell plant.

[slough shark]

Wait what?? There are thimbleberries down there? I haven’t been down there for some time and apparently never during the season, are they up high or down in the valleys?

[artie]

I was down in the Lynx creek /carbondale last week. Some of those roads have not seen a grader since they turned the area into a park/wildlands area. The road from the Lynx creek bridge west had more potholes than I have ever seen in my life but yea there still were holiday trailers in the area. I think their plan is to not grade the roads then no one will go there. They have signs all over no atv vehicles on the roads. Who would want to ride on those roads?

[molly]

Originally Posted by slough shark

Wait what?? There are thimbleberries down there? I haven’t been down there for some time and apparently never during the season, are they up high or down in the valleys?

Yes! Right by many roads a bit higher but easily accessible. They are just in the hard white berry stage and there looks to be a good crop. We were going to pick around the Shell plant area but today saw lots all the way from the Castle through the Lynx-Carbondale. I picked some years ago and made the yummiest jam...full of weensie seeds and they are very delicate but worth the effort. Of course, picking any right beside the road may mean dusty berries but with care, they can be rinsed.

Originally Posted by artie

I was down in the Lynx creek /carbondale last week. Some of those roads have not seen a grader since they turned the area into a park/wildlands area. The road from the Lynx creek bridge west had more potholes than I have ever seen in my life but yea there still were holiday trailers in the area. I think their plan is to not grade the roads then no one will go there. They have signs all over no atv vehicles on the roads. Who would want to ride on those roads?

Just got home from driving from the Castle Campground turnoff to 507 via the Lynx-Carbondale. I have a Nissan X-Trail and it was not as bad as we have seen it, but gotta watch for those potholes in the dappled shady areas! Met a grader coming back from the Lynx camping area, so it was super dusty. Very dry back there, too. But, we were driving quite slow so as to scope out toonie bushes and boy, they are lookin' good! If the ones not ripe yet don't get scorched by the sun and have a chance to ripen, it will be a great crop!

As for huckleberries, we saw a few bushes up by the ski hill on the first part of the Syncline-Brook trail but they are just blooming now...Not sure how long one has to wait from then till the berries show up??