Here's a link to a rather twisted video my sister did on their morel picking escapades
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHMH7hjFPMQ
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Meadow Motherload in October!
After striking out at a couple of hotspots which we visited earlier in the season, our last stop was a previously unexplored steep north facing slope close to town. Although I felt better earlier (I'm fighting off a cold), I decided to sit this stop out, and waited in the truck reading a children's book that someone left there.
About 10 minutes later, Becky came running up, rather breathlessly, her eyes and rushed movements betraying a discovery. I rolled down the window in order to hear the news. "Huge, perfect meadows up on the slope" she said. "I've picked almost a full basket." Suddenly feeling a lot better, I sprang to action, and bolted across the road.
The slope was steep, steeper than I've ever picked mushrooms on before, and extended at least 200-300 feet to the ridge. The trees were all spruce, and deep green sphagnum moss carpeted the ground. I ran along the base of the slope, scanning upslope for telltale round white fungi. All I could see were stumps and shavings, where Becky and Evie had already exploited the most obvious mushrooms. Becky had headed up the slope, and was already about a hundred feet up, and said she had found a couple up higher. I trudged up the slope but saw nothing but moss, and a few unidentified LBMs (Little Brown Mushrooms). I reached the elevation where Becky was and stopped for a breath of air. As I stopped momentairly, my eyes began their involuntary scanning of the forest floor. Under a large spruce, just peeking out from under a carpet of needles and a mostly rotten fallen branch, were two of the biggest agaricus I have ever seen. I call them the two brothers (see above).
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