Matsutake and the king in the same place??

This was a surprising day. I asked my huband if he wanted to go to the park that we went to early in our relationship and he said yes. This was to be a sentimental trip. I though I could look for mushrooms while there but ddid not really expect to find much. Boy was I surprised, I found Matsutake and a King BBolete! I also found orange earth tounges a witches hat (my first) and lots of dead russula brevipes.

I found the King Bolete first. I was such a surprise to see it there in such a public place. Clearly this place is not frequented by mushroom hunters.

The King??

Matsutake

Matsutake from a different hunt

Dead Duff Pumpers

Matsutake Buttons

Matsutake

Big Creek Trail

I really wanted to go see the lower big Quilcene trail today, but with the days getting short, I decided to stay closer to home instead. I guess I started my hike at about 9pm and finished at about 4:15. I found a bunch of chanterelles; more then I felt like picking. I also found pigs ears, which I picked some of, because my oldest daughter wanted me to. I think they are far too pretty to pick and they are always filled with maggots.

Pigs Ears

I left a game camera out there today and I hope that I get some wildlife shots. I did not have any luck the last three times I left cameras in the woods. I’ll go back and check it in a couple of weeks.


A new bridge over the north fork of Big Creek has been built, it is just before the connector trail splits off; it looks like a nice bridge. My usual water source is about a half mile past the bridge and I was shocked to find that it was bone dry. With all the rain we have had, I assumed it would be running. I did not have any water and I wanted to have tea at the overlook, so I followed an old logging road out to the main road and was able to get water without losing too much elevation. Then I walked up the road for about ½ a mile before I took a different old logging road back in to the trail.

View from Lunch Spot

The view was pretty good today except it was misty. The clouds were high, but a low mist blocked some of the view. I got peek-a-boo views of the volcanoes. An old growth mountain hemlock tree at my lunch spot is about to fall down. I drew that tree one time and only when I took the time to draw it, did I notice the bullets that had been shot into it. The tree is breaking right where the bullets went in. I'll miss that tree, but it will open up the view a bit with its demise.

After lunch, I wandered up to the beautiful old growth hemlock forest at the start of the lower Ellinor trail. I really love that forest, that was spared from logging due to being above the Douglas-fir line.

Wonderful Old Growth Forest Fringe on the Ridge

This tree is about to fall

I headed back down towards the car at about 2:30, this gave me 2 hours to hike out the last 4 miles before the sunset. It was nice to be able to complete my hike without feeling rushed and without getting sundowned. I took some advice from another hiker and packed my car keys in with my lunch the night before, that way I could not leave without my lunch.


I’m sorer than I expected to be this morning. Compared to my other recent hikes this was a pretty easy hike, but I’m feeling it today. Perhaps it was the extra weight of my game camera and lock box and chain and my big lens for my DSLR that made this hike harder.


My ankle was good until about 2 miles before the end of the hike and then I tweaked it a couple of times. It really hurts when the joint slides forward. Not much I can do about that other than resign myself to wearing clunky boots for the rest of my hiking days. I don’t know if there is a surgery to fix it. The last time I did this trail my ankle was so bad that I went in for physical therapy. The therapy helped a lot. My ankle is now as good as it has ever been since my bilateral modified Watkins-Jones surgery 20 years ago.

What used to be Potlatch State Park has been logged down to near the shore of the Hood Canal. When I first saw it, while driving on my way to my hike, I surprised myself by screaming a bunch of expletives into my empty car. My poor doggie probably thought I was mad at her, so I consoled her and told her she was a good dog, after I calmed down a bit. It’s going to be awful for me to drive past that area for awhile now. Just like it used to be horrible for me to drive though the clear cut outside of Mcleary.

8.5 miles
1,900 feet elevation gain

Mount Washington

Pretty Purple Mushrooms

Earth Tongues

Coral Mushrooms

Old logging road converted to trail lined with alder trees

Close relative to the store "button mushroom" but mildly poison (based on smell and yellow staining stem)

Morning Sun Backlights the Moss near the Lower Bridge

Chanterelles

Honey Mushrooms growing on "biomass"

My turn around point 4 miles from Big CR. Camp (the sign is wrong)

Puff Balls growing on woody biomass

Elevation Profile

One way track log going up

Water fall with some sort of oyster (?)  mushroom

My Chanterelle Spot was Logged this Week

I'm so sad and angry at the same time.  Some of my favorite second growth trees have been cut down and one of my best mushroom hunting spots is now gone.    The forest and trail system next to Potlatch State Park, is gone forever.  They logged it all the way down to within 20 feet of the road and 40 feet of the Hood Canal.  Why is that legal to log nearly to the edge of the southern Hood Canal, with all of its oxygen problems?

On a brighter note, I found a wonderful surprise on my front gate today.  It did not have a card, so I'll have to figure it out by looking at my deer cam source.  Until then, thank you, who ever you are.

These woods are now gone forever

My oldest daugher crawling under the brush and trees (that are now gone) to collect Chanterelles

This Chanterelle mycelium will  never fruit again, with its host tree gone

We did not pick this edible and rare "hawks wing"  mushroom because it was so pretty

This deadly but beautiful aminita will never fruit again with its host tree gone

I'm so glad that we made it out there this year before they destroyed it.   Keep enjoying what is left of nature, before it is all gone.

Trumpets of Death?

 My daughter found these, we think they are black trumpets or Craterellus cornucopioides

Spider Lake

I needed to get back out into the woods to clear my head but I was not up for a big hike. I mostly just wanted to enjoy the solitude and devote time to photography. It rained most of the time but I was prepared with an umbrella to protect my camera. I did not find any edible mushrooms. There was a lot of logging activity coming from the high steel bridge direction and lot of piles of burning slash just North of South mountain. I thought they were saving all the "slash" for biomass incinerators. Maybe this is a good sign. But they still should not be burning stuff. Stuff needs to stay in the forest to nourish the forest.  The logs being  hauled out were bigger than usual.

I only walked around the lake one time.

2.5 miles no elevation gain

Conks, moss and hemlock seedlings growing on "biomass"

Hygrophorus bakerensis they smell just like maraschino cherries  I like to carry them around and sniff them

Trees growing on a moss covered nurse log

Artist's Conk

Lacteria sp.

Purple corts

The east side of spider lake sports some old growth