Far-Flung Blueberry Enthusiasts Converge on Mossyrock Festival

Posted

A rolling stone may not gather moss but a rocking and rolling blueberry festival is certain to gather moss-backed revelers in a certain sleepy East Lewis County town.

Over the weekend, the city of Mossyrock hosted the 10th annual Blueberry Festival, and people flocked from far and wide in order to mark the occasion. And while fickle weather made things interesting at times, the skies were unable, literally or figuratively, to rain on the blueberry parade.

The well-rounded festivities included a puppy dog show, a classic car show, long-haul bike rides, guided tours of the region’s most famous mossy rock, an organized jaunt over the spine of the Mossyrock Dam, a traditional parade, a vigorous kids’ dance contest and of course, a crowd-pleasing blueberry pie eating contest.

Additionally, assorted members of the Mossyrock High School football team were on site, and in uniform, in order to lend a helping hand and conduct a comprehensive public opinion survey. The survey summarized festival-goers’ favorite, and least favorite, events, as well as any suggestions for the future of the event. 

One Viking of the gridiron who was out of uniform found himself in way over his head at the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival. Cedric Miles, a class of 2017 senior, dutifully performed his role as rippled dunk tank fodder Saturday morning even as clay gray overcast skies muddled the festive air.

The dunk tank station was a fundraiser for the impending 2017 graduates of Mossyrock High School. 

Showing off her charitable heart as well as her accurate throwing arm, Melinda New took the opportunity to support next spring’s graduates by sending Miles plummeting feet first into the chilled dunk tank waters. 

Fresh from the bustling hamlet of Boring, Oregon, New said she knows a good time when she sees one.

Flanked by her husband and an entourage of three adolescent boys, New explained that she and her kin were camped out at Riffe Lake over the weekend and saw signs and fliers for the festival while they were making their way through town earlier in the week. 

When the campers awoke to weather more suited to gathering earthworms than lakeside recreating they decided to ditch their campsite and head into town to see what all the blueberry hubbub was about. 

After Melinda showcased her pinpoint pitching skills and soaked Miles, the proud Viking, the Boring contingent came to a consensus that the Blueberry Festival was indeed a good time.

Mark Swanson also arrived at the Blueberry Festival fresh from a local campground. Swanson, his wife and young son camped out at Thousand Trails campground last weekend and took advantage of the proximity of the festival to diversify their Saturday recreating options. The family regularly attends the festivities at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup but last weekend was their first trip to the Mossyrock blueberry jam.



Sitting at a picnic table at Klickitat Park and scarfing authentic tamales and a Mexican mango on a stick dessert, the family from Puyallup detailed how exactly they wound up at a blueberry celebration in East Lewis County.

“We’ve been camping out here a few times so we saw the sign that said (the festival is) the first week of August,” explained Swanson.  “So we deliberately camped out this week so we could come to this.”

One of the most popular events at the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival every year is the blueberry pie eating contest. Sticking with the sticky tradition, 2016 was no different.

Grahem Hahn, 9, Kent, took home the pie eating honors for the 9 and under crowd. With whipped cream smeared across his smiling face he said that the key to victory is not to take a few big bites. Nor is it to wolf down a lot of small ones. Instead, he explained that in order to be a king pie eater one must eat “a lot of big ones!”

In the next bracket, Gary Carpenter, 12, a well-traveled Washingtonian, and Johnny Huffman, 13, Portland, shared the pie scarfing honors. It is the second year in a row that Huffman, who attends the festival every year, has come away from the Blueberry Festival as a pie eating co-champion. He said that a hiccup in the early going likely cost him the undisputed title. Both sloppy pie masticators promised to return to Mossyrock in 2017 in order to defend their blueberry belts.

In the adult division of the pie eating contest, Steven Tongue ran away with the honors. Tongue, 31, was born in Everett and describes his current status as that of a world traveler. 

“I love pie!” explained a giddy and blue-tongued Tongue post victory. “I just inhaled!”

This year was not Tongue’s first foray into the competitive world of pie eating contests in Mossyrock though. He got his first taste of the competitions nearly three decades ago.

“I came in second- or third-place when I was a kid but I loved it so much I came out today to do it all again,” said Tongue. 

The Mossyrock Blueberry Festival is presented by the Mossyrock Area Action League. Additional information and photos can be found online at https://mossyrockfestivals.org/.