Bear Basin/Brundage Road

Bryan and I made a quick trip to our favorite bolete spot. Story of the year...stopped by snow. So we went into the four corners/green gate area and found a few morels in a quick look-around. There were lots of orange cups, ramaria, slime molds, corts and hygrophorus. In fact, it looked alot like what we were finding on the foray. Still scattered patches of snow and standing water, but it is drying out fast. I am beginning to wonder if the morels will ever pop this year up there. Good hunting!

Morels and Corals

Here is our morel haul from about 8 hours of hiking and picking. The first day, even the really big ones (bigger than my fist) were not buggy. The next day, a few were, but not bad. My mom and dad got about this many in the same amount of time, and then doubled the amount over two more days. The final day mom said 2 out of 3 even "fresh" morels were riddled with bugs and practically crawling away from you. Sage Hen Reservoir area around 5300', on the 9th and 10th. I was surprised by the variety of colors - mostly your "usual" black morel, but also quite a few gray-to-almost white ones (which never had bugs) and a few beige, rounded ones. Dad said this was a better-than-average haul for "our" spot, but we had to hike about 3 times as far to collect them. The hike was wonderful, regardless.

Found lots of yellow coral fungi. Didn't pick any to try yet though, as I figure if tolerance is genetic, I only have a 50/50 chance. My dad likes them, but they make my mom sick...

Also many Gyromitra (seemingly two varieties), and a number of "pig's ears."

Thanks to everyone who helps out with the association and contributes to/maintains the blog. My family and I are having a great time hiking and learning! (And BTW, David Aurora's recipe for stuffed morels is FANTASTIC! Though I didn't bother to stuff them - just sliced them and tossed with the rest of the ingredients, then served them over a pile of sauteed Lamb's Quarters. Mmmmmm!

Fungi Variety

Hi, Krista W. here. Wanted to post some pictures of the various fungiI found while morel hunting with my kids a couple of weeks ago. I took samples to identify when I got back home, but most of them were too dried out after processing the morels. I'm hoping that some of you may know one or two of these by sight. If not, no worries. Just enjoy the pictures. We had perfect weather for hiking with convenient breaks in the rain. These first two pics are of "pink" mushrooms that had popped up all over, right along with the morels. Most were 8 - 10 cm, with a pink cap and a streaky pink stipe. The stipe broke like chalk, which made me think Russula...Pleasant smell.


I think these are a Lentinus/Lentinellus. White spores, growing mostly on Birch logs, pleasant smell, with ragged gills.


A pile of bluish translucent "snot." =)





Pretty beige mushrooms with concentric circles on the cap. The stipe was shiny, with a little bit of fuzz.



A tuber-like fungus(?) that we found near the bases of fir trees. We only saw them when they had been dug up by something. I assume more were there, but were underground. Something large, like deer, or maybe bear, seemed to have dug them up and worried them a bit, but those we saw didn't look to have anything eaten off of them. I thought they were a slime mold at first, but they were quite tough and didn't break up unless you really tromped on them.


Buttons of a light-greenish-yellow-capped mushroom. Greyish-green gills. The color is not very good in this picture. The top was a rather vivid green.







Last of all are these medium-sized (4-6 cm) conical capped mushrooms.

Blue Mountains

Hello this is Kevin S. I made a trip over to a place in the Blue mountains that I have found Boletes this time of year last weekend. I was hoping that the cold weather would let me catch them before they got to buggy. As it turned out I found about 5 in my secret spot but the main crop hadn't come up yet. The elevation is around 3600 feet. I hunted around and found morels in various states of age but no more Boletes. I tried to follow the Grande Rhonde over to Granite but snow was blocking the way. I think the Anthony lakes trip may run into a lot of snow. I went up Ladd canyon off of I84 and did find some morels but most were already over ripe. Wendy and I plan to look for Boletes in the lower elevations near McCall next week-end.

Bear Basin a bit slow

Just a note to let you know that Bryan and I went up to Brundage Road to get to Bear Basin. Unfortunately, the Honda was stopped by snow prior to getting to the four corners. The further you got up the road, the fewer the mushrooms. We walked Brundage Road, and did find a variety of fungi, including most everything we found at the foray two weeks ago. There were a few morels out in a variety of age classes, but nothing to get excited about! We did scare a sow bear and two cubs, so be careful.
The Cambridge area is now slowing down on morel production, so we will continue to search at higher elevations next weekend. Good hunting!

Verpa

Hello
Kevin again. I went up to McCall again this last week-end. I found some morels but they were really full of bugs. I have enclosed a photo of some slim mold, a trillium flower which are really out this spring and a shot from the Forey showing the Verpa compared to a true morel. The one where the stipe goes up under the cap is a Verpa bohemica which you shouldn't eat compared to a Morchella elanta which is great to eat. You need to make sure the stipe is attached to the cap at the base of the cap not up under the cap. Thanks to Hope we had a very nice side by side comparison. Note the cotton inside the stipe of the Verpa.