Rumford White Cap 7/26

[peakbagger]

I made my yearly trip to Rumford White Cap on Saturday. Last years visit was great weather but the berries were marginal. This year the forecast was somewhat marginal but the berries made up for it. Based on recent reports the berries were a bit early this year so I went up a week earlier than in the past. Typically there are 4 distinct varieties of berries, a standard blue berry, a dark earlier variety, a "silver" variety and an alpine berry. The alpines are decidedly tart and almost guaranteed to be present in some quantity. In order for it to be a great year the other three varieties need to be present. This year two of three varieties were prolific in spots with only the silver berries very poor. Silver berries are regular blueberries but they have distinct white powder on them that disappears when rubbed. After a bit of roaming I settled down to do some picking. I started out slow but quickly sped up. After about 2 hours I had 8 quarts in the pack and probably another quart eaten along the way. A major plus was that as the picking continued the sky cleared up to blue skies.

Some of the berries were borderline unripe so I expect the picking will be good for another few weeks,

Rumford White Cap and berry picking is always a nice break in the hiking season