Oh a Huckleberry Picking We Go

When we first moved to Idaho Falls I remember during August hearing people talking about Huckleberry picking. What were they talking about? What are Huckleberries? Eventually after asking a ton of questions, I'd get one little tidbit of info. "There just up at Heise right off the road," which I interpreted as "Just up at Heise right off the road." What they really meant was, " You better not find my spot and it's really past Heise and up the mountains and good luck because you probably won't find any anyway. So we followed instructions and didn't see any right off the road. I think we did climb a bit with two backpacks full of children and found 1/4 of a cup" Yippee." We were pretty excited and figured that was normal, and then it started to rain. Well, finally after a few years I had a sweet friend ( Valon) take me to her secret spot and we picked about a half a gallon. When we got home she gave me some huckleberry/raspberry jam and let me have all of the huckelberries because she had plenty in her freezer. She is basically a saint. We kept trying and I even drew a crude map to Valon's spot, but still more like 2 cup, 3 cups at the most. Two years ago, my friend, Launa felt so sorry for me with my pitiful 2 cups that she gave me some of her precious stash. So, now that we just play around and hope for more than 2 cups we finally hit the jackpot. It was incredible because now I know how good it can be. We actually found a spot that had not been picked and the berries were bigger than normal. This may never happen again, but after 14 years I think it's about time. So after huckleberry pancakes, ice cream and jam, I'm pretty content for the next year or so. Jeff ended up going back up and let the kids pick to make money for sports. They got another couple of gallons and sold them all.