Verpas at Al Borlin Park in Monroe, WA 4-26-11

So I had a couple of extra hours this afternoon as I passed through Monroe, WA, so I decided to check out Al Borlin Park.  The weather man was calling for rain, but it ended up being a really nice day with a nice long sun break just as I pulled into the parking lot.

Al Borlin park is a 90 acre park inside Monroe, WA just off of the Skykomish river.  The park is at a low 200ft elevation, and is full of large Cottonwoods.  The park should be perfect for some Verpas.

Right off the bat I was greeted by all kinds of Corydalis (Corydalis scouleri).

and a bunch of Pacific Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra formosa).

Soon thereafter I found one of the few mushrooms of the day, an "Ear" mushroom (Otidea sp.).  Some people choose to eat this one, but I've never tried it.

I also stumbled upon a bunch of Panellus mushrooms.

I also found a bunch of little brown mushrooms.  Probably some type of Cortinarius.

I also found a bunch of polypores.  I really like the early budding stages of the polypores.

Overall I hiked around for about 2 hours.  I had some good finds, and some really nice views of the fast flowing Skykomish.  However, I still haven't found my first Verpa of the season.  Hopefully, I can find a nice patch this coming weekend because come May I'm going to be heading down south.  I've got my Green Trail Maps, I've done my research, and I'm ready for the Oregon Morel season.

Watershed Park Kirkland, WA 4-11-11

Are the mushrooms here yet???  I've been hearing about all kinds of nice finds in the WA and OR areas.  I've heard of a couple nice Morel finds in Oregon's Rogue Valley, and a bunch of nice Verpa finds in western Washington.  With all of this news, Darvin and myself have been getting pretty excited.  Therefore, we decided to check out a nice early season indicator spot. We took the short trip across the 520 bridge to Kirkland's Watershed Park.

It's a relatively small park.  It has three different loops of trails, all pretty easy walking with a range of ecosystem types; the drier evergreen upper trails, and the lower soggy Cottonwood trail.  I've  seen a few different types of mushrooms here, however, on this trip I was really just trying to find some early season Verpas.  Like I've said before, not the tastiest mushroom (if you are even brave enough to try it) buy really good practice for Morels.  In addition, if you weren't aware, Verpas love Cottonwoods.  Luck for us, Cottonwoods are fairly easy to spot.  Just look for the huge towering trunks.

The big furrowed ridges in the bark.

And probably the easiest way for someone to identify a Cottonwood that is searching the ground is by the buds.  When the tree's buds begin to open in early spring, the buds outer coverings are shed, and dropped to the ground.  They are really sticky and have a very pleasant odor.

Unfortunately we didn't find any Verpas, but we did have a few other finds.

An Apricot Jelly - Dacrymyces palmatus

Some Mica-caps - Coprinellus micaceus

We also found a Marasmiellus candidus

and possibly some Hypholoma fasciculare, not sure on this one yet.

and of course some turkey tails, and about 4 different types of polypores.  So as you can see, it seems like mushroom season is here.  Even though we didn't find what we were looking for, we still had some nice early season finds, and we got to enjoy some of the great weather.  Happy hunting everyone!!!

Lord Hill Regional Park near Monroe, WA 3-16-11

So..... Much like everyone else out there, I'm ready for Morels.  It's mid-March and feels like the season is right around the corner.  Temperatures are starting to warm up, the snow line is around 3000', and people all over the United States are starting to report finds. (www.morelmushroomhunting.net)

Well, Darvin and I caught the bug and just had to get out.  We decided to check-out Lord Hill Regional Park just west of Monroe, WA last Wednesday.  It was a beautiful "Seattle sunny" day in the upper 40's to lower 50's.  We hit the trail at roughly 11am and were completely alone.  Right off the bat we started to blaze trail.  I wanted to get off the beaten path and see if any of the gilled species were out yet.  Sure enough, we were greeted by our first little brown mushroom, a Mycena sp.

We walked around for about 15 minutes finding nothing more then Polypores and more mycenas.  Here is one of the Polypore Turkey Tails, Trametes versicolor.

We then decided to check out the River trail and see if our luck would change.  The Snohomish river was still a little higher than I would have thought.

We found a nice Panaeolus stypticus on a moss covered Alder log.

and we also found this cool looking slime; Fungus, Eggs, any ideas?

We also found these little guys, which I was told are Lichenomphalia sp.

It was a great day filled with some not so sought after mushrooms, but cool looking nonetheless. Darvin and myself had a great time and really enjoyed the parks easy trail system.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any of the Verpa bohemica we were looking for.  They are decent to eat, if you aren't allergic, but more importantly, they are great practice for Morels.

Lastly, the park had some very nice animal life. An American Robin.

A Hairy Woodpecker

and the Common Garter Snake.

Only about 50 or so days to Morel season... We'll let you know about our first finds, feel free to do the same on our Forum Page.  Happy Hunting!

Carkeek Park in Seattle 11-30-10

After a couple days of Thanksgiving feasting, I figured it would be nice to get out and burn off some calories.  So Darvin and myself decided to go check out Carkeek Park in Seattle.  I've only been there a handful of times, but I've never really full explored the trail system they have.  We decided to take the South Ridge Trail.

It was a really nice, well maintained trail, however, due to the large amount of deciduous trees there were leaves everywhere.  It really made it hard to find any mushrooms.  Nevertheless, we did have a few finds.  The first mushrooms that we found were some nice edibles: Late Fall Oysters, or Green Oysters.

I even saw some newly emerging ones.

We walked a little further down the trail until something really caught Darvin's eye.  He was mesmerized by this Red Headed Piliated Woodpecker.  He never really made a sound, he just stood frozen in a deep stair. It was pretty cool.

We managed to stumble upon a few more mushrooms as we went down the trail: some Common Mycena

Some Deadly Galerina

And this guy which I'm not really sure what he is. I believe its some type of Clitocybe, but I still need to key it out.

We also came across some amanitas, some polypores, and a bunch of Jelly fungi.  Overall it was a pretty nice day. We had nice weather, basically had the trails to ourselves, and we found some nice mushrooms.  What more could you ask for at a city park. If you are looking to get in a nice easy walk, steal a couple nice views of the sounds, and maybe find some nice mushrooms you should give Carkeek Park in Seattle a try.

Hamlin Park in Shoreline, WA 11-16-10

So due to the surprisingly nice day today, 53 and "Seattle Sunny", I decided to go take a look at Hamlin, this local park that I love to run through.  I've been to this park many of times, and always thought that it would be some good mushrooming grounds; however, I just never really got around to checking them out.  Nevertheless, I'm certainly glad I got to it today.

There were so many mushrooms, I would have to say I found around 30 different species.  I even found a couple of really nice surprises.  However, unfortunately since it is mid-November.  Most of the nice edibles were past there prime, some have withered away, and the others just supppper soggy.  So as I walked up one of the many trails right off the main parking area I was first greeted by our psychedelic friend: the Bluing Psilocybe (Psilocybe cyanescens)

Now to let all the far-out there crazy hippies know, this was the only patch of cyanescens that I found; nothing to crazy.  So Darvin and myself ventured a little further into the woods until we stumbled upon my first surprise.  We found a little patch of Chanterelles.  There were only 8 of them: 2 little guys, 2 good ones, and 4 shredded soggy messes. Here's the best one.

I guess it was just a little surprising to find them so close to home, after driving all over this fall to find them in different areas. Well we walked for another 10 minutes along this really nice trail until we came to an area that had an open canopy and a good amount of moss coverage.  This area was covered in Boletes.  I believe there were like 4 different kinds, but the crazy part was one was actually a King. Granted it was a little wormy and almost mush, but the smell was all there. Take a look!

After continuing on the same trail for another 15 minutes I came upon Coral country: once again probably 3 different kinds.  Here's an idea of how many were out there!

But than came the biggest surprise of the day.  I found what could be my first Hen of the Woods.  I'm not a 100% sure that's what it was because it was just so beat-up, but that's my best guess. Well if it was, it was a little bittersweet.  It was awesome that I found it, but it sucked that it was so old and mushy that there was no way that I could eat it.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to get out there next year and see if the Hen is back.

Overall it was a great day.  Not a drop in the sky, Darvin and myself got to stretch out our legs for a couple hours, and we had some really nice mushroom finds.  If you haven't been to Hamlin Park in Shoreline, WA; and you have some free time. Check it out!!

Camano Island (aka. Mushroom heaven) 11-10-10

Camano Island 11-10-10

What an amazing day.  Sunny, dry, high in the upper 50's, low 60's.  I was getting a little bored with the Chanterelles.  It's been a great year, but I needed a little more variety and taste variation.  So I did a little research and found that at this same time last year the Puget Sound Mycological Society took a field trip to Camano Island so I decided to take a look.  Camano Island is suprisingly close to Seattle; only about a 45min drive.  I went up there with four different locations in mind, but you'll see, I only made it to two of them.  The first area was very thick with fallen branches, tons of Salal, and sword ferns.  I found all kinds of mushrooms: Boletes, Coral, Puffballs, and a bunch of unknowns (to be identified).  But then with a little help from my dog Darvin, I stumbled upon on of my greatest finds of the year. LOBSTER MUSHROOMS!!!!!!!!

When it was all said and done, in this one area I found 23 Lobsters.  However, of the 23 only about 12 were quality enough to take home.  I found one Lobster that was roughly a foot wide and about 8 inches tall!  The picture really doesn't give it justice.

In addition to the choice Lobster, I also found a handful of Shaggy Mane's

I even found what seems to be a tiny Hedgehog (aka. Sweet tooth or Hydnum repandum.  It was really small, and when I picked it, I tore the cap in half. Booo me.

In addition, I also found what I think is an immature Comb Tooth mushroom (Hericium ramosum).   Still need to check a few things for id conformation. Right season, right habitat:found on decaying deciduous birch, somewhat common in our area.  I just need it to grow a little more to confirm physical appearance and spore sprint. My first time finding one of these so I'm being overly cautious.

And lastly, I even found some good old Chanterelles.

This was by far one of the best Mushroom hunts that I have been on.  The hunt was filled with a wide variety of quality specimens for the pickins.  If your a mushroom lover, and you haven't been to Camano Island all I can say is, "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR".  Camano Island  is a great place to spend a day, and an even better place to find some of those elusive edible mushrooms. Good Luck and Happy Hunting!