Normally we see them on the red cinder roads, but this patch was in normal gravel. You can see that they grow very close to the road in the compacted soil.
Nice huh?
Here is a close up of what they look like when they get too old to eat. These are in the "Inky Cap" genus and as you can see, when they mature, the cap flares and turns inky and gooey.
After harvesting a few here we decided to continue on to the "jackpot" that the hunter had described. His description was spot on! Slowly we traveled the road and found our treasure. I especially liked this little clump. It looked like eggs in a nest.
This was a prime clump. I could almost taste them at this point. Such delectable goodness!
A little later on, after we had bagged enough for a meal (you have to eat these mushrooms right away, they will not "keep"), we were traveling adjacent to a river. Our map told us it was the Sycan River and since we had not ever seen it up close we got out of the vehicle and peered over the edge of the drainage. Beautiful! We were on the edge of a bunch of large boulders and spied some bones down below. They are in the center of this photo.
We had to investigate... We decided they were either cow or elk bones because they were so large. It did look like mountain lion country.
Well,...since we were down that far we figured we would check out the river. What a wonderful spot!
I will leave you with this final photo. The Sycan is truly a beautiful little river.
Anyone who collects and can identify mushrooms are like super heros to me. I can only get mine from the supermarket or local greengrocer, but it is fascinating to come across them in the wild. To date, my most curious find was the lattice stinkhorn...mother nature is such a creative artist!
ReplyDeleteRowena, you are so right! Mother Nature is indeed quite the artist. I have seen the most beautiful, comical, unusual and creepy mushrooms. I worked on a fungi crew for the Forest Service for a while and it was so fun and interesting. I have yet to see a stinkhorn though but I know from photos that they are pretty wild looking.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rowena, I am in awe of anyone who can identify mushrooms!
ReplyDeleteThat last photo of the river is gorgeous.
I sure did enjoy my slice of that big tomato! It was a great reward after having a good day building geoquonset extensions with Simeon. Wish I could have been there for the mushroom hunt. Don't see the snow we had last year. lol You folks know how to find good eats! BTW still working on the huckleberry jam you made. Good stuff!! We use it to flavor plain yogurt. Hope we can pick more next year.
ReplyDeleteKC, I am lucky that I was in a job that taught me how to identify mushrooms. It's been really beneficial to me. Glad you liked the River photo.
ReplyDeleteHappy Hank, Yup, you got to experience that jumbo tomato! It was good huh? We happily had no snow to contend with this year on our mushroom hunt. Let's plan on more huckleberries next year!