Trout Lake

Dry Creek after the fall back

Dry Creek

I got my little one off to school and got on the road as quickly as possible. We lost an hour of daylight the night before due to the time change. I was happy to reach the trail head nearly an hour earlier that on my previous hike. Rain was forecast but only a 20% chance. So I packed my big camera but not my big lens. I stopped at Twin Totems to top of my gas tank and get some extra snacks to go with my lunch. I expected to hike 14 miles today and I did not want to bonk at 12 miles and I’ve learned I can keep that from happening by eating lots of protein, so I packed a high protein lunch and stopped and bought two jerky sticks and 3 snickers bars at Twin Totem. I almost did not buy the third bar, but it turned out to be a very good thing that I did,  more on that later.

I parked my car at the gate to the bridge over the lake and stretched my calf muscles, before I started to hoof it. By 9:20 I was off, I moved at a pretty good clip and I kept my camera in my back pack for the first mile. I knew I was probably going to be hiking out after dark, so I tried to get off to a good start so I would not have to spend too much time hiking in the dark.

This trail tends to disorient me and I’m not sure why. It seems  that I am always drawn to this trail near the fall time shift and when I am feeling stressed and confused in my personal life.  My uncle had brain surgery this weekend. This is the only trail where I have accidentally been sundowned. I’ve also purposely let myself be sunndowned twice on this trial, including today.

With the shorter day and my previous experience on this trial in  mind, I hiked faster than usual and did not take as many pictures. I reached Dry Creek in good time. Most people only hike the 4 miles to dry creek and then turn around, making it an 8 mile round trip hike. That’s not a bad hike but I like to hike well past the creek,  so I can see the old growth. Dry creek was higher than usual I could not avoid getting my pants a bit wet during the crossing, but not to worry, this is why I only wear quick drying hydrophobic clothing when I hike. Patches is a water loving dog who loves to jump into every body of water she sees, but she hesitated and waited for me to cross before she crossed. That is really not like Patches. I worried that she might have trouble crossing the creek on the way back. She is starting to show her age a bit.

Patches dips her toes into Dry Creek

The highest I have seen Dry Creek get

Once I had crossed the creek I felt a wonderful sense of exhilaration, for I had left the rest of the world behind and the trail was all mine. Almost no one crosses the creek. The silly guide books claim that it is dangerous.

I reached my lunch spot at about 1:20. When I got to my lunch spot I was a bit cold and snow was falling but not sticking. So the first thing I did was get out my pot and start brewing tea and then I sat down to have lunch. It was then 7 mile into my hike,  that I realized I had forgot to pack my lunch. Damn! That’s three times this year that I have done that and this time there was no turning back. I had two snickers bars left and some candy including a Hirschi bar, and that was going to have to do for lunch for both me and my dog.

Moss, mushrooms, chocolate and Brena Hirshci, all things that I like

Tea and a Hirschi bar for lunch

I started my trip back at 2pm and it felt strange to be returning so early, but I know the time change was a factor in the strange feeling. On the way down I took a few more pictures,  including a picture of the death site and cross of Kriten Delaney. Someday I'm going to see if I can get this woman’s death certificate so I can know what happened.

I got back down to the creek two hours before sundown and crossed again with no trouble, but after I had crossed I looked back and saw that Patches was paralyzed with fear and standing on a rock just a few feet from shore. She was unbalanced and could have fallen in the rapids below the rock. So I went back into the creek and pulled her out by the collar. I won’t take Patches up there again,  if I know the water is going to be so high.


I hiked quite slowly for the last two miles of my hike; I was tired and I did not want to get hurt. Still. We made it back down to the lakeside before dark. Once we were back down to the lake I relaxed a bit and started having fun taking pictures and I let the sun set on me. But I was very tired from hiking and lack of food and at one point I left my trekking poles behind and had to walk back about aboutr1/20th of a mile in the dark to find them.

I finished my hike at about 5:30. Today my hands are a bit stiff and sore from using my trekking poles for so many miles.

Along with the usual LBMs and LWM’s and lacteria, I saw the following mushrooms on this hike: White, orange and winter chanterelles,  fall oysters, a baby cauliflower and lots of the bright red russulas that mark the end of the Matsutake season. I did not pick any of them.

It rained for almost about half of the time I was out there but it never rained very hard.

14 miles with 2,500 feet elevation gain

Artists Conk

Small Cauliflower Mushroom

Chanterelle

Logging road turned to trail

Fall Oyster mushrooms edible but not tasty

Pigs ears mushroom edible but too pretty to pick (and usually wormy)

Purple cort?

Purple cort?

Tiny mushrooms on a stick

Two mushrooms at my my "lunch": spot

Witches Butter

Bridge over Lake Cushman at the end of my hike

A note about this trail
In either direction the dry creek trail starts the same with views of stumps and environmental destruction. I started from the north end this time. This hike now starts at the bridge over the un-naturally formed Lake Cushman. The lake is pretty, but this time of year the lake is low the lake bed is filled with gigantic cedar stumps. These represent trees that the City of Tacoma cut down prior to the installation of the damn. The Cushman Lodge was also torn down before the damn was installed. The lodge was at what was at the time the base of Mount Rose. I always curse the generations before me who allowed this destruction but this time it entered my mind to thank the generations before me that fought to save at least a little tiny bit of the National Forest. To get to the part of the forest that was saved (saved because it was Hemlock) one must be prepared for a long hike. The trail follows a logging road for the first 5-6 miles then the trail becomes an actual trail. This logging road is older than that logging road that marks the start of the other end of the trail, so it’s a bit more pleasant to walk on.

Both ends of the dry creek trail have been destroyed by logging, but in the middle of the trail there is a beautiful old growth mountain hemlock forest, before all the destruction this trail went from the North Fork Skokomish to the South Fork Skokomish. It must have been grand.

No Comment

 

 

Home Canning Wild Mushrooms

I could not find much info on canning wild mushrooms.  In fact the USDA says not to can wild mushrooms.  But the USDA also says that any canning advice before 1990 is bad and must not be used and that home canned food has to be thrown away after one year. 

  Hmmmm  If that's true then it's  a wonder that my Grandparents and Great-Grandparents survived.   I think the USDA might be a bit over cautious.   But,  I can see why the USDA is so cautious, they have warnings on their website not to use your dishwasher as a canner.  People must do some really foolish things!  

Anyway,  I followed a standard recipe for canning store bought mushrooms and other non-acidic foods, 11 pounds pressure for 30  minutes.   Maybe I should have cooked them for 45 minutes.  Perhaps I will keep them in the fridge.  I'm just telling you what I did so please don't look to me for advice, I've never canned mushrooms before.   I've mostly canned Jams, tomatoes and Salmon.  Jams and  most tomatoes are acid enough not to need pressure cooking.

The chanterelles  were boiled in a  pickling broth before canning and the matsutake were cooked up as a soup first.  All ten cans were hotpacked and pressure canned in a canner, not a cooker, at 11 pounds pressure for 30 minutes.  I pressure canned the pickles because I used very little vinegar in them (I don't like strong pickles) and did not  know if they were acidic enough to keep.  I added a bit of veggie oil to the last two cans of pickled and pressure processed chanterelles.   Strong pickles are acidic enough to be canned in a simple water bath.

Pickled chanterelles and Matsutake Soup

Pickled Chanterelles and Matsutake Soup.  My pressure canner on the left my
Grandma's pressure canner on the right.

When I make matsutake soup I do not use a recipe.  I cut matsutake into bite sized pieces and add it to water with a pinch of salt and a few coriander seeds or a sprig of fresh coriander if I have it.  I heat it to boiling in a tightly covered pot and then simmer it for a bit. 

Ok I have finally found some tidbids of advice on the interenet. I would not follow some of this advice, I'm just posting it for future reference.
From Facebook:

My husband has been eating canned chanterelles since he was a kid. We can 3 hrs in a water bath, just like meat. We don't use a pressure cooker. Cook mushrooms down in boilong water, pack pint jars with cooked mushrooms and top with mushroom water to 1/2" from top, add 1/2 teaspoon salt.

From the web: http://www.backwoodshome.com/advice/aj88.html

Canning mushrooms is easy, but the experts now warn not to can wild mushrooms, because some people picked poisonous mushrooms by mistake and canned them up. I don’t often listen to “experts” who are trying to keep us safe from ourselves. Of course every mushroom hunter should only hunt mushrooms they can positively identify. That makes sense. And if you’re going to eat ‘em, why not can ‘em? I do. Frequently.

Be very careful in your picking, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. Here’s how I can them:

Sort the mushrooms and soak in salted ice water for 10 minutes to remove any sand or insects. Morels often harbor both of these and are one of the best mushrooms. Can small mushrooms whole, removing any large, tough stems. Larger mushrooms may be sliced. Place in a pot and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes. Pack hot into pint or half pint jars. Add salt (1 teaspoon to pints), if desired. Cover the mushrooms with boiling water to within half an inch of the top of the jar. Wipe rim of jar clean and place hot, previously boiled lid on jar, screwing ring down firmly tight. Pressure can only at 10 pounds pressure (adjusting pressure upward for higher altitude; check your canning manual for directions) for 45 minutes.

I use these wild mushrooms in a lot of recipes, from pizza to stews. They’re great.

Jackie

Mount Rose on a Sunny Day

I left the house at about 9:00 and arrived at the trail head and was on the trail at 10:10. I expected to take about 4 hours going up, about an hour for lunch and about 2 hours going down. But then something happened that changed my plans. I found mushrooms! Big beautiful voluptuous sweet smelling mushrooms. Nothing to eat, but plenty to take pictures of.

Big Beautiful Boletes by the light of day (Leccinum ponderosum or a close relative)

So I had to make a decision, shoot mushrooms or hike. It’s November and there was no option to hike and shoot mushrooms and be done before dark. But,  I opted for both anyway and finished my hike well after dark. A quick check to see if my headlamp was working, it was,so the plan was set. Spend all day and part of the night on this mountain.

At the fork I went to the left, that’s the steep route that goes right to the summit. While on the summit I saw the birds and the birds saw my lunch, but they also saw my bird dog. So I tied up my bird dog about 20 feet from the summit so I could share my lunch with the birds. My poor bird dog went crazy she wanted to eat both the birds and my lunch. Oh well, I’ve got the mountain to myself on a Wednesday… or so I thought.

I was happily taking pictures of birds while my dog went crazy and then I heard the CLANK CLANK CLANK of trekking poles.. Oh, so I did not have the mountain all to myself. Anyway I apologized to the approaching hiker, for all the noise my dog was making and then I left the summit to him.

Lunch is over

I kept going in the same direction and finished up my lunch at the little meadow near the top and then I headed back down the trail to complete the loop. I always do the entire loop, unless there is snow. When there is snow I turn right at the fork and take the long way both up and down; that’s the safe snow route.

Dry Creek could be clearly heard from the summit

I hiked out in the dark and had fun re-finding all the mushrooms I had way pointed with my GPS(r) while it was still light. Finding them in the dark was a bit harder.

The hardest part was finding the big bag of mushrooms that I had stashed at about 3,000 feet. I did not want to carry it up and down that hill, but hard tough experience has taught me to pick them on the way up, or I will find that someone else has picked them before I make it down. Sooooo I picked the mushrooms and then stashed them for pick up on the trip back down.

I’m not exactly sure how far I hiked in the pitch dark because I messed up my track log, but I think it was ½ mile and boy oh boy was it dark. But I have a supersonic headlamp and a Springer spaniel raging dog so I knew I was safe. Ok, ok, it was a little creepy but my portable tunes blasted into my headphones helped with the ambiance. I only looked back to see if a mountain lion was stalking me, once or twice.

Same boletes as above but in the dusk (with a big ass flash and a slow shutter speed)  on the way down

Mount Rose is my personal fitness gauge. I can tell what kind of shape I’m in by how sore I am the next day. Well now it’s the next day and I’m mildly to moderately sore, so I think I’m in good shape in spite of having to take the entire summer off from hiking. I’ll hike again this week, if I can find the time or the energy. I really need to lose some weight.

I hope I can keep doing Rose well into my 80's just like my heroes on the Mount Rose trail.  This was my first time summiting Mount Rose with my new camera.  The last time I went up there was too much snow and rain for a camera that is worth more than my Jeep.

3,500 feet elevation gain and loss in 6.9 miles RT

Some other times that I have blogged Rose

Saturday, February 13, 2010  (snow)
Friday, February 05, 2010     (snow)
Sunday, September 06, 2009 (thunder)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Saturday, June 09, 2007

beautiful old grown mountain hemlock forest

Mount Adams above the smog from the Trans Alta Coal burning plant and
a curious purple looking hill that I messed up with photoshop

Camp robber Jay come to steal my lunch away

These  tree roots grew around a nurse log and absorbed its
 nutrients until the log was gone "biomass" needs to stay in the forest!

Mount Saint Helens at dusk

Looking up to the dead burned out summit

Russula Brevipes 

Sunlight on beargrass

Distant mountains and sky through the branches of dead trees

Part of the lump called Ellinor-Washington-Pershing

The Mountain, you can clearly see the smog from the  Trans Alta coal plant at its base

OMG patches has animal eyes!

Hey it's dark!

Over 1000 feet per mile!