This wasn’t an impressive year for huckleberries at my Waldo Lake spot near Shadow Bay. I had hoped for more, but I decided to quit early and drive down to Marilyn Lakes off Waldo Lake Road, where I knew there were both blueberries and usually a few huckleberries. It was a cool August day in the Cascades with significant mist above 4000 feet when I drove up and even on Waldo Lake itself, at 5400 feet.
Marilyn Lakes, upper and lower, are similar size, a bit over 20 acres, south of 50 acre Gold Lake, the latter’s having a campground and not allowing internal combustion motors. There is a network of trails throughout the several lakes in the area: Gold Lake Sno-Park south of 58, with Odell, Midnight, and Arrowhead Lakes; Willamette Pass Ski Area 3 miles further up, where the PCT crosses the road northbound to the Rosary Lakes, with a northern access to the PCT from Gold Lake Road as well, passing above and south of Gold Lake on the Maiden Peak Trail.
I parked on the side of the road, just south of Fuji Mountain trailhead on the other side, hiking downhill a short distance to Gold Lake. I crossed the bridge over its outflow, Salt Creek, which flows towards spectacular Salt Creek Falls, 20 miles later joining the Willamette in Oakridge.
A couple of years ago, we power saw logged out the Marilyn Lakes trail system, during which I noted a nice patch of blueberries south of Upper Marilyn Lake. Somehow, during multiple prior times on the trails, it must have been before or after blueberry season, because I didn’t notice any. There are huckleberries as well, which I thought I might sample on my three-quarters of a mile hike to the blueberries. The trail is generally flat; upper and lower lakes are separated by only three feet of elevation and 300 yards.
I hiked in from the campground and within 50 yards saw blueberry bushes, although with few berries. The trail became wet, a small seepage maybe 50 feet wide with several large skunk cabbages with individual leaves over a yard long and blooms at least a foot high. Along a small wooden puncheon were multiple, large, thick branched blueberry plants the size of cultivated ones I frequent every year to pick my own berries for morning cereal. These larger plants had berries.
For the next hour and a half, I picked. My foot was bothering me, but once I started picking, I realized I didn’t need to hike further. After obtaining what I could from the puncheon, I stepped off into the dark mud over branches that at first I didn’t even realize were blueberry plants. Wild berries are smaller than cultivated ones, so I picked to save for maybe 40 minutes, before I picked several handfuls just to eat. The branches were thick, the ground damp, with a convenient small log to sit on while I picked berries individually or in groups of two, three, or four. I could go further into the woods if I wanted for more berries, but I didn’t need to. I came here for berries and to get into the woods on a nice, cool day. I had to decide whether to wear my sunglasses for sharper vision in the dark woods or to take them off for more light, but struggle with my astigmatism and perhaps miss my target.
As I worked my way back out of the bushes, trying to protect the branches from more abuse, I placed my berry bag on the trail so I could extricate myself. As I finally stepped onto the trail and bent down to pick up the bag, I saw something red on the other side peeking out from underneath a stem of a small plant with alternate leaves resembling a false Solomon’s seal. I picked up the end of the stem and looked underneath: there were a series of red berries hanging off the underside, which I had never seen before.
This was twisted stalk (Streptopus amplexifolius). Earlier this summer, I had heard this name (as “twisted stock”) used at Pioneer Gulch Trail, describing something larger, in a different habitat, that clearly wasn’t. That latter plant remains to me unnamed. Twisted stalk berries are not poisonous, but I didn’t plan to eat any, only to be fascinated with their color, number, and hanging.
When I was a guide for Sandhill Cranes viewing, some were impatient if the birds were late. I told them the world was unfolding as it should. The birds always came. I went for huckleberries, ended up with wild blueberries, saw an interesting plant, and learned something about real twisted stalk, its name, location, and hanging berries. The world unfolded as it should.
See you on the trail, and may your world unfold as it should.
Boreal B[l]og 
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