Fun with Fungi...

[RugerTrailer]

I've been on countless wheeling and camping trips this year without enough photo documentation to justify a post here. But this trip was going to be different as the pace was going to slow down. Unlike dedicate rock crawling trips, I'd have alot more time out of the drivers seat which I wouldn't be pulling winch cable or spotting. Hoping for alot of hiking and I had hoped fishing this trip, but there were just to many mushrooms !

We were in search for the Rocky Mountain King Bolete (common name is porcini mushroom) for our first time, basically we are newbies. Guided by a few tips from my girls' Russian father and my local fly shop we headed to an area near the continental divide we thought seemed promising between the Roosevelt and Arapahoe National forests. Aiming for elevations between 8,000 to 10,000 ft, we wanted the forest to have both lodge pole pine and conifers which supposedly host kings. Mushroom hunters are notorious for not giving specific details so we really had no idea if we would find anything at all.

DAy 1

We headed out Friday evening after work to our desired camp spot that I've been going to since before I can remember. We call it the Bob Ross spot, pictures will explain that. We had a nice drive into the backcountry for our adventure just missing a rainstorm so things were a bit wet when we got there (Rain prior to a mushroom hunt is a good sign you will find shroom's, or so I was told) We found some cool looking mushrooms on our way to camp, but no King's yet.

The drive up





Some tree climbing



The girl and the pup



The shrooms



I think these ones were psychedelic



The Bob Ross spot

 

[RugerTrailer]

DAy 2

From camp we drove up to about 10,000 ft and started hiking.



Immediately we started to find wild strawberries and the some wild rasberries. This was awesome for me. I've lived in Colorado my whole life and never stumbled upon wild fruit...mainly because I wasn't looking.




Finding some small Kings



The first in a chain of high alpine lakes


Finally...a real King 9 inches across !



We ended up with over 30 lbs !

 

[RugerTrailer]

Not much offroading for this adventure, so here's one more pic with the heep at camp.



The real work started when we got home. Cutting and dehydrating the 30 lbs of mushrooms took over 5 hours.



In the end we ended up with much less than we expected.



Not sure if anyone here is into mushroom hunting, but I had a great time doing it and hope you enjoyed my trip report. It was so different than most of my outdoor adventures. Any tips or recommendations on shrooming from anyone here would be helpful and appreciated, so much to learn about these fascinating organisms. I am such a newbie.

 

[roverrocks]

A very "tasty" report. The only mushrooms I ever hunted and ate were morels in the Midwest as I knew nothing else looked like them. So very many large and interesting mushrooms in the mountain forests.

 

[haven]

Mushroom hunting is a particularly perilous pastime. Mushroom toxins often are fatal. Many edible mushrooms have lookalike poisonous relatives. Each year, we read stories of mushroom hunters with years of experience who make a mistake, and suffer serious illness or death. The liver is particularly susceptible to damage from mushroom toxins.

So why are many mushrooms dangerous to mammals? It's because the mushroom is the fruiting body of a larger fungal organism living underground. The mushroom must grow to maturity before it can release its spores, which are so small they can then be carried off by air currents. By storing toxic substances in the mushrooms, the fungus discourages animals from eating them.

Taxonomists first thought all life was either plant or animal. Then they realized single celled animals were different, and deserving of their own category. Then bacteria and certain simple single celled organisms were discovered. More recently, fungi were given their own class, or kingdom. So fungi are neither plant nor animal, and lead very different lifestyles.

 

[Rot Box]

Cool report looks like good times. They're fun to look for but I didn't know some were edible that's interesting.. My daughter and I found a patch of mushrooms earlier this year. She noticed them first shouting "Dad!!! Giant dinosaur eggs LOOOK!!!!". Sure enough they did look like huge eggs in a nest it was too funny. LOL :coffeedrink:

 

[RugerTrailer]

Mushroom hunting is a particularly perilous pastime. Mushroom toxins often are fatal. Many edible mushrooms have lookalike poisonous relatives. Each year, we read stories of mushroom hunters with years of experience who make a mistake, and suffer serious illness or death. The liver is particularly susceptible to damage from mushroom toxins.

So why are many mushrooms dangerous to mammals? It's because the mushroom is the fruiting body of a larger fungal organism living underground. The mushroom must grow to maturity before it can release its spores, which are so small they can then be carried off by air currents. By storing toxic substances in the mushrooms, the fungus discourages animals from eating them.

Taxonomists first thought all life was either plant or animal. Then they realized single celled animals were different, and deserving of their own category. Then bacteria and certain simple single celled organisms were discovered. More recently, fungi were given their own class, or kingdom. So fungi are neither plant nor animal, and lead very different lifestyles.

They are such an interesting organism to me !

The danger is obviously a big concern. I've studied up on look-a-likes and Kings are very easy to identify, the location where you find them helps weed out possibly dangerous relatives as do the pores underneath the cap. We are going again this weekend with someone who has been doing this for over 40 years, and I look to learn a lot from him.

If I said there wasn't a little excitement in the danger of all this, I'd be lying. Still trying to be as careful and thorough as possible. We've sent pictures of every mushroom we plan on eating to mushroom enthusiasts we know and are waiting for feedback from all of them before we ingest aything.

Cool report looks like good times. They're fun to look for but I didn't know some were edible that's interesting.. My daughter and I found a patch of mushrooms earlier this year. She noticed them first shouting "Dad!!! Giant dinosaur eggs LOOOK!!!!". Sure enough they did look like huge eggs in a nest it was too funny. LOL :coffeedrink:

Very good times. Some look very funny. We found two that had grown together to form what looked like butt cheeks. LOL

 

[gm13]

Great report, love seeing this kind of thing. Novice shroomer myself and haven't done much in the way of collecting edibles, just like to identify them(spore prints sometimes help here-take the cap, place it on paper, colored depending- cover with a glass and wait an hour or so, can then get spore color, neat design too) The first one I harvested to eat was a King Bolete, a monster. Brought it in, grilled it in something I can't remember, but it had the texture of slugs and a flavor that probably matched. I found out later the smaller ones are what is wanted. Those red flecked white ones pictured look like Amanita Muscaria but not sure without seeing the stalk and bulb. The Siberian versions are hallucinogenic, a big hit with the Reindeer herdsmen apparently. N American variety(Var. Guessowii) is more of a soporific IIRC. Enjoy your harvest and thanks for posting.

 

[RugerTrailer]

Great report, love seeing this kind of thing. Novice shroomer myself and haven't done much in the way of collecting edibles, just like to identify them(spore prints sometimes help here-take the cap, place it on paper, colored depending- cover with a glass and wait an hour or so, can then get spore color, neat design too) The first one I harvested to eat was a King Bolete, a monster. Brought it in, grilled it in something I can't remember, but it had the texture of slugs and a flavor that probably matched. I found out later the smaller ones are what is wanted. Those red flecked white ones pictured look like Amanita Muscaria but not sure without seeing the stalk and bulb. The Siberian versions are hallucinogenic, a big hit with the Reindeer herdsmen apparently. N American variety(Var. Guessowii) is more of a soporific IIRC. Enjoy your harvest and thanks for posting.

Thanks for the info ! I'm definitely learning a lot about mycology as the subject is so interesting to me. I will try the spore prints after I get more this weekend.

The red and white ones I found had a relatively small stalk compared to the kings and had gills underneath the cap.

 

[monk]

Cool report. I am an avid hunter and cultivator. Get a copy of Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora. Its a good resource for identifying species. Learn to identify the Death Cap( Amanita phalloides) and Destroying Angel (Amanita virosa). They are responsible for most fatalities. Its a good idea to avoid the entire Amanita genera until you know a more about mushrooms. Lots of look a likes. The red and white mushrooms are most likely Amanita muscaria aka fly agaric. They are toxic but not the same compounds as the Psilocybes genera. Proceed with caution and do a lot of research. The number one rule for mushroom picking is:

When in doubt, throw it out!

Be safe,
Monk

 

[RugerTrailer]

Cool report. I am an avid hunter and cultivator. Get a copy of Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora. Its a good resource for identifying species. Learn to identify the Death Cap( Amanita phalloides) and Destroying Angel (Amanita virosa). They are responsible for most fatalities. Its a good idea to avoid the entire Amanita genera until you know a more about mushrooms. Lots of look a likes. The red and white mushrooms are most likely Amanita muscaria aka fly agaric. They are toxic but not the same compounds as the Psilocybes genera. Proceed with caution and do a lot of research. The number one rule for mushroom picking is:

When in doubt, throw it out!

Be safe,
Monk

That's exatly the rule we were taught by the russians we camped with this weeekend.:sombrero: Also you are correct about the red and white ones.

I will check out that book, thanks ! I have alot of reading material to get after this winter.

 

[RugerTrailer]

DAy 3 A week later we revisited the same area with the help of some guys who actaully knew what they were doing.

My GF's russian father and uncle arrived late on Friday night and we headed straight to the mountains. We started finding mushrooms early Saturday morning all around our campsite. Then we hiked around the forest Saturday afternoon and the mushrooms were never ending. In no exaggeration over the last two weekends we must have picked over 100 lbs of mushrooms !!!













It was great to have experienced pickers along with us this time around. They had so much knowledge about mushrooms it was crazy. They could answer any questions I had and then elaborate, not only on mushrooms but all plants in the forest. I learned how to fry them at camp using sunflower oil with onions and potatoes...amazing ! Also, the days after the hunt they showed us how to prepare them in a few ways. Marinate, pickle, and make a soup to kill for. :chef: All recipes from their younger days in Russia that they've honed over the years. What an amazing weekend and I can't thank them enough.

 

[monk]

great pics!:chef:

 

[RugerTrailer]

great pics!:chef:

спасибо !

 

[Co-opski]

Nice report, been a mushroom hunter for years. We get Kings, Hedghogs, Sulfers (chiken of the woods) and Morels up in my neck of the woods. I also grow my own Oysters from spawn in log tubes.

SNIP FROM HAVEN.........Mushroom hunting is a particularly perilous pastime. Mushroom toxins often are fatal. Many edible mushrooms have lookalike poisonous relatives. Each year, we read stories of mushroom hunters with years of experience who make a mistake, and suffer serious illness or death. The liver is particularly susceptible to damage from mushroom toxins.

So why are many mushrooms dangerous to mammals? It's because the mushroom is the fruiting body of a larger fungal organism living underground. The mushroom must grow to maturity before it can release its spores, which are so small they can then be carried off by air currents. By storing toxic substances in the mushrooms, the fungus discourages animals from eating them. ........SNIP

Wow Haven thanks for looking out for us, please take this lightly. Do you go into every fishing, hunting or climbing, biking or motorcycle thread and tell them how perilous their activity is? Each year we read stories about adults drowning, falling off cliffs, accidental shootings, or rear ending RVs on their motorcycles. I can post examples from the local news paper they seem to happen more weekly up here than mushroom deaths. I get your point but, do all of us adult travelers really need such a warning? :REOutCampFire03: