Another Rimrock Lake Morel Adventure 6-03-11

After my Rimrock Lake adventure about 2 weeks ago proved to be a little early for my "money" spots, I decided to take another little trip to the lake.  I headed out mid-day on Thursday, which ended up being a shorter than usual ride.  I decided to take the hwy 410 to 123 route instead of the usual I-90 route.  It only took about 2.5 hours from Seattle, but I'd say from Cayuse Pass to Rimrock lake it really seemed to drag due to the crazy down pour of rain.  Usually this would be pretty disappointing, but in the mushroom world this is a great sign.  I got to my jump-off location around 3 and quickly hopped into the woods.  My spots were just starting to pop and I ended up having a pretty good day.  Unfortunately it was really wet,so I don't really have a lot of pictures of the first day.

The final harvest for day one....a good mix of blondes and blacks.

Day 2 started with a bang.  I broke camp, had a bite to eat, and was in the woods by 9.  By 9:30 I had half a bread bag full. Once again, a good mix of blondes and blacks.

I pretty much was finding Morels in all kinds of areas; however, the shaded areas around 2800'-3000' we producing the biggest and freshest morels.

The harvest after 2 days.....Really starting to fill the cooler now.

For day 3 I decided to check the other side of the lake.  The conditions in this location where much drier, a lot rockier, and filled with downed branches.  I spent a good 4 hours over there and found nothing but blonde morels, about two bread bags full to be exact.  Once again, unfortunately, I forgot my camera at camp so no pictures for that day.

Day 4, the final day was one of the best.  To start off the morning, I meet up with two individuals from the Seattle area to help show them the ropes of the mushroom world.  They really seemed to enjoy themselves and we all ended up going home with at least a few mushrooms.  This day was filled with HUGE natural black morels.  I mean HUUUGGGEEEE.

Overall this trip was a huge success.  I checked at least 7-8 different Forest Service Roads and pulled all kinds of Morels from each area.  When it was all said and done I had nearly 22 pounds of market quality mushrooms for my friends at Manzo Bros. Produce down at Pike's Place Market and another couple of pounds for personal consumption.  Just look at this bounty.

Things are really starting to take off now so it looks I'm heading off to Lake Wenatchee next.  Check in next week for any updates, and feel free to let me know how any of your seasons are doing.  In addition, if you have any time you should take a trip to Pike's Place Market and stop by the Manzo Bros. Produce stand and check out the fresh Morels; let them know that Ediblemushrooms.org sent you.  Good luck again, and Happy Hunting.

Morels at Cle Elum Lake 5-28-11

So for what ended up being a pretty nice Memorial weekend, my girlfriend and myself decided to check-out Cle Elum Lake.  I've heard all kinds of great things, and it's only an hour and half drive from Seattle.  Not really sure why I haven't stopped there before.  The purpose of the trip wasn't solely for morels like most of my other trips.  This trip was for relaxing, hiking (getting ready to do the Washington section of the PCT in mid-July), and just a little mushrooming.  We intended to stay at the Cle Elum River campground, but to no surprise on this busy weekend it was completely full.  Therefore ,we went a little further down on the Salmon La Sac road to the Salmon La Sac Campground.  It's a fairly large campground, and even though there were  A LOT of campers we still managed to find a nice spot.

Our mushroom adventure was short, but somewhat fruitful.  Being that neither of us had ever hunted for morels in this area, we were on more of a scouting mission.

We searched two different forest service roads for a total of about three hours.  We started by searching some partial shade areas, but as it turns out the only place that we found some where in the open grass sunny areas.

Total we only found 5 morels.  It still feels like it may be a little early for the Cle Elum area.  Just need a few more warmer days and nights.  However, on a good note, this is the first trip with my girlfriend that we actually found some morels.

In conclusion, it was a great trip to a new location and we both had a lot of fun.  So, if you have never been to Lake Cle Elum it's definitely worth the trip.  Good luck and Happy Hunting.

Morels at Rimrock Lake WA 5-20-11

Due to some unforeseen lingering snow at my higher elevation spots in Oregon, I decided to check out an old reliable spot; Rimrock Lake Washington. It's a really large lake surrounded by all kinds of great camping spots, and numerous forest service roads to explore.  However, as is life, my journey to get there didn't really go as planned.  On I-82, just south of Ellensburg, WA, my car decided that it needed a little break.  I pulled over and with a little help from my lovely girlfriend Francesca I found Dean's Towing & Auto Service.  The tow was cheap, there customer service was great, and the service was fast.  If you ever find yourself  in trouble while in the Ellensburg area, I would definitely call Dean's Towing and Auto Service.

Well, after all this craziness, I finely arrived at my final location just outside of Rimrock Lake around lunch time.  Due to some other craziness regarding my car's warranty I had to get my car back to Seattle by the end of the next day.  Unfortunately, this meant that I only had about 6-8 hours of hunting time.  The first day started a little slow.  I wasn't really sure of what specific areas to be checking, but after an hour or so it seemed to be the flat, half-shaded, open forest areas at 2500'-3000'.

I didn't really find many locations, but the ones I did find were fairly large in quantity.

I'm sure I missed plenty of mushrooms though because most of these locations were also covered in Pine cones. Just take a look for yourself.

The first day ended pretty well with a good pile of black morels, and a super bomb campsite with a great view.

The second day was a little slower, and most of the morel locations I was finding were in full to partial sun.  This seemed a little weird to me because the sun was getting pretty intense; almost in the 80's.  In addition, most of the mushrooms that I found were of the gray type.

Nevertheless, both days finds may have been slightly different, and in slightly different locations, but they were all super young and fresh.  So young and fresh that I even found a few mushrooms that were still on there way up.

With both days harvest combined I had roughly 5 pounds.  Not to bad for 6 hours of hunting this early in the season.

While on this trip I also had some pretty cool other mushroom finds.  Just take a look at this golden mushroom I found; not really sure what it is. Any ideas???

I also found all kinds of False Morels - Gyromitra montana

and a bunch of Caloscypha fulgens.

Overall the trip was short, but a big success.  I harvest a good amount of mushrooms, checked out some new areas, and soaked up a lot of sun.  This area was looking good, but I can't wait to see what it looks like in a few weeks.  I'm not really sure on my next trip yet, but I'm thinking Highway 97. Check back next week for more information.  Good Luck, and Happy Hunting.

Morels at Mt. Hood National Forest OR 5-13-11

The time has come, it's official Morel Season is finally here.  With that being said, this past week I decided to take a little trip south to our sister state Oregon.  On this journey I was headed to the Mt. Hood National Forest for some much needed Morels.  From my home is Seattle, the drive took a little more than 4 hours.  However, the drive was a beautiful one and seemed to pass by fairly quickly.  On the way down to my mapped out area I made a few stop along the way.  My first stop was at the Clackamas River Ranger District - Estacada Ranger Station.

I was first greeted by an extremely nice lady, Loraine I think.  I asked her about mushroom harvesting permits and she quickly gave me all kinds of great informational pamphlets.  She than also informed me that no other hunters had filed for permits at all this year.  I knew I was a little early.  Nevertheless, I decided to purchase the $20.oo 10-commercial pass which allows you to harvest an unlimited quantity. I figured its a cheap price for a lot of mushrooms, or a nice donation if I couldn't find anything.  Lastly, she made sure to let me know that this year is the last year you can harvest small amounts without a permit.  Next year, a permit is required for any amount harvested.  However, if under 1 gallon is harvested the permit is free.

My second stop brought me to what looked like a 3-4 year old burn area.  I really didn't know about the area until I drove by, but you could really tell by the battle scared trees and the clean and open forest floor.  I walked around for about two hours and found no morels, but I still had a super cool find.  I finally found one of my favorite Pacific Northwest Orchids the Fairyslipper or Calypso bulbosa.

After my two brief stops I finally arrived at my mapped area.  By this time is was around 6 o'clock so I loaded up my backpack and headed into the woods to find my camp spot for the night.  I found an amazing spot sitting right next to an unknown creek.

After I set-up camp I decided to do a little investigating.  I had some very unexpected finds.  I found all kinds of Hedgehogs (aka. Sweet tooth) Dentinum repandums. They were obviously leftovers from last year because they were a little soggy. Nonetheless, I did find a good handful of decent ones that I decided to cook-up that night.

I also found all kinds of Winter Chanterelles, Craterellus tubaeformis. They too were leftovers from last year.  I decided not to dine on any of these guys. Not really my favorite when they are of good quality.

And the biggest surprise that I found was a leftover, but in pretty good shape, Blewit or Clitocybe nuda.  Just look at that purple coloring and that hugely swollen base.

By this time it was a little past 8pm and starting to get dark so I headed back to camp just walking the edge of the area that I planned on walking the next morning and sure enough, the lone Morel of the day.

The next few days I spent a lot of time walking up and down my little burn area looking for morels.  Here is a good picture to give you an idea of the type of habitat i'm talking about.

The area was super steep, and by no means does this picture give it justice.  I really focused on the 2500' range and had some great success.  Here are just a few pictures.  Look at how fresh these guys look.  You can really tell that they are only one or two days old max.

All and all when the trip came to an end I had 15+ pounds of top quality Morels.  Unfortunately not all the mushrooms made it home though!

In addition, if you are interested in seeing any of these delicious little guys you can go take a look at Manzo Bros. Produce at Arcade #5 in Pike Place Market.  You may want to give them a call to see if they have any left.

On this mushroom trip I also had a few new finds for the directory:

Pigs Ear - Discina perlata

Gyromitra melaleucoides

Gyromitra esculenta

Geopyxis carbonaria

Lastly, I had a close encounter with these two menacing guys.  I was greeted by both of these guys with a nice big lunge and hiss.  I think that this guy is an Oregon Red-spotted Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis concinnus).  However, I'm not really sure because the size and shape of his head doesn't really match-up. Anyone have any other ideas?

and this guy is a Northern Rubber Boa (Charina bottae)

Overall this was a great trip, and a good sign that the season is here.  I plan on heading back out on the 19th.  This time I'm headed to the east side of the Cascades in the great state of Washington (~2000-2500).  Check in next week to see how it goes.  Get out there, Good Luck, and Happy Hunting everyone.

Spring White King Bolete! Late June 2010.

Last weekend I was looking for edible mushrooms in Washington state in the Snoqulamie National Forest. The weather was great as we hiked up the hills looking for anything that would catch our eye. We saw several False Morels and also a handful of spent Puffball mushrooms that were about to burst out their cloudy mist spore storm. I even helped a few get going by giving them a helpful stepping on . Toward the top maybe near around 2200 feet we stumbled on what looked like a large bunch of Puffball mushrooms but upon closer inspection these mushrooms turned out to be White King Boletes (Boletus barrowsii) although we are quite sure this is a White King Boletes we also want to note that the King Bolete (Boletus edulis) is known to be this whiter color when young.

Monster Morel Find in Snoqualmie National Forest!(6-28-10)

Morel Mushrooms in Washington Snoqualmie National Forest (6-28-10) - Here is a quick photo breakdown from a Morel mushroom hunt from 2 weekends ago. We ended up finding over 350+ morels this day and only picked for about 4 hours. Mostly we were finding Black Morels but we even ran into a few White Morels. This day started out with just a few Black Morels here and there but after about an hour of walking though a variety of different altitudes and landscapes, we ended up in a nice burn at around 1900 feet. The burn was PACKED with Morels. Out of the 350 Morels we found, more then half were found in this patch that was about 100 feet long and wide. They were thick. As you can see in the pictures we begin to find groups. I was looking for edible Morels with a buddy and his dog, LD. In one of the pictures you can see me explaining to LD not to step on the precious Morels. Enjoy the pictures and good luck!

A Couple Black Morels Just Hanging out in a small burn mid June 2010 in the Snoqualmie National Forest Washington State

This is how our Morel spots started. Beautiful but stand alone Black Morels.

This stand alone 4 inch Black Morel made a great example for LD our little dog friend. I tried to explain to him that we are looking for these and not to step on them. I think he needs to work on his skills a little more.

This young Morel was just poking out in the sun not even one inch tall. My friend Chad Donavon took this great picture!

Things started to pick up. We walked over toward some burns and saw these stubborn Black Morels poking right out of an old root burn out. This  was sort of when the day started to take a turn for the better.

Close Up

This Fur tree was home to about 20 Black Morels. Can you see them all? With so many mushrooms in site we were able to leave some of these ones behind so that they could spread! But as you can see things are really starting to pick up. This tree does not seem to have been burned I guess these Morels just decided this was the place to grow. This picture also gives you an idea of the Morel habitat.

Our little dog friend is getting better at finding Morels. Here he "leads" us to 5 very fresh looking Black Morels. Good job LD!!

A few more Blacks relaxing in the summer sun

A great patch of Black Morel Mushrooms. Also, in this picture you can get an ideal of how dense the woods were and what kind of habitat we were in for this patch.

After about 4 hours of picking we were happy with our find. This is a picture of almost the entire 350 Morels we found. Alright well feel free to leave  a comment. How has everyone else been doing out there???