Berry picking on Pillar Mountain

I missed the entire summer here in Kodiak, but it turns out that autumn isn't so bad. The rainy weather has been punctuated by many sunny and relatively warm days. The landscape is still beautiful, with lots of green highlighted by warm golden and brown hues. Although daylight hours are decreasing noticeably each day, the sun is still out until almost 9pm.

Oh, and there's berry picking!

Yesterday, we drove to the top of Pillar Mountain to pick

wild berries. Pillar "Mountain" is really more of a tall hill on the west side of town. At the summit are about six wind turbines (98% of Kodiak's electricity comes from alternative/renewable energy sources) as well as several roads and trails perfect for exploration by ATV or foot. 

View from Pillar Mountain of the Coast Guard base south(ish) of town.

We took a short walk on one such trail and stopped at a patch of wild bog blueberries and lowbush cranberries (a.k.a. lingonberries). 

Rainbow loved the cranberries.

It took a while, but we collected enough berries to make a large batch of muffins with a couple of big  handfuls leftover for use in yogurt or on waffles or pancakes. Rainbow can't get enough of the berries despite their significant tartness.

What a great way to celebrate fall.