This weekend I got the itch. The itch to go romping through the woods looking for morels. This is nothing new for me, every year around this time I get the itch. Normally we don't start finding little greys until around the second or third week of May. Not this year, we have already started finding them! While I am Thrilled to be finding them already I am concerned with the short, warmer than usual winter we had and the impact that it is going to have on the local ecosystem.
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| Our first find of 2017 April 22 2017 |
Earlier in the week last week the diesel truck that we have, with the extended cab, decided to have issues. We are not sure if it is the turbo ($900 part) or the transmission ($800 from a junk yard.) So we are relying solely on my single cab S10. Due to this fact we decided to stay close to home. We head out to Squaw Creek Park, a park that is known for producing mushrooms. It was even featured on the local news talking about mushroom hunting a few years back... in the 90s... lol
Upon arrival my Darling Husband informed me that since I am the Outdoorsy Mommy I am going to be carrying our son. Blah lol.
So I strap him on and we head off into the woods! I let Daddy take the lead and push all of the thorns out of the way. Gotta be safe right?
After about 5-10 minuets I realize that I forgot to put on bug spray. OOPS! We use 40% deet regularly and I need to purchase more Bug Soother. So we stop and spray on the bug repellent, carefully as to not get any on James' skin.
As we continue on our way I get this feeling that we need to go to our right. I stop dead to look around to my right and I spot a perfectly dead elm. Now when I say perfectly dead I mean that some of the bark is falling off but not all of it, in fact most of the bark is still on the tree. These trees have always been the best luck to me.
I set off, on a mission. When I get on a mission like that there is almost no stopping me! My poor legs are proof of that, I have so many cuts from raspberries and roses on my legs. I really do try to avoid them but sometimes it just doesn't happen as planned.
So Scott and I make it to this tree and at first impressions it doesn't seem like the right area, there is a what I can only speculate to be a cross country ski trail about 3 foot from this tree. The area has been marked out with pink and orange ties and all of the underbrush has been knocked down and cleared out. We definitely had our doubts about this spot.
The first time that I bent over to start looking I almost fell over forward! Who knew that 16 lbs could throw your balance off so bad?! I really hadn't thought about it.
There aren't many morels out yet and the woods are still working on coming back to life but on Saturday we were able to find 3 in total. 2 of which we cut and one that was small enough that we left it to grow.
We continued to search to no avail.
Sunday we decided to get together with some friends and head out a bit farther. We went to Matsell Bridge Natural Area. We chose to go up the equine trail and try our luck up that way. We searched for an hour or so and found nothing.
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| James got hungry |
We took a break because James got hungry. We figured it was a good time to clear our heads and gain some new direction.
As I sit there feeding James, Scott and our friends wandered off a bit to search around the area. The wind had died down, there was no one around me and James was content with eating. My mushroom stick is one that Slim had found and used in 2015. As I was feeding James I was thinking to myself how I needed some direction because I really didn't want to get completely skunked. All of a sudden Slim's stick seemingly fell over and turned to point at a dead elm. I can't explain it. Honestly I don't even try at this point in my life.
I sent my friends over to the tree where the stick had pointed. Drew found the one and only morel of the day.
The remainder of the trip was spent exploring and looking. We were unable to find any more morels but overall it was a great time with great people!
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