The Fungus AmongUs (Maybe)

Who's ready for a treasure hunt? The recent warm temperatures and copious amounts of rain have or are currently making mushrooms. Let's go find 'em!

Is it delicious? Can it kill you? Can some of them help the body fight cancer or regenerate nerves? No matter how you look at them, mushrooms are pretty amazing, and make great subjects for wildlife photos and sometimes a delicious addition to unique home-cooked meals. But eating the wrong one can kill you, and from what I’ve read, it’s a bad way to go.

*****Today, we’ll hope to identify some of the fungus amongus, but please don’t think that going on this hike will make you an expert. If you want to forage for wild foods, I fully encourage you, but you’ve GOT to put in a lot of hours of study, or… you could die. Seriously. You also must be sure to harvest responsibly and sustainably.*****

While I am by no means an expert, I’ve successfully identified lion’s mane, oyster mushrooms, turkey tail, cauliflower (BRAIN fungus), American Caeser’s mushroom, Witches butter, reishi, chicken and hen of the woods, and others at this location. Some of those are in season right now, some are not, and some don't care... if the conditions are right, they'll show up. :)

No promises though! Yesterday, we didn’t find quite as much as I’d hoped for at Vickery Creek, but we did find some oysters and mock oysters as well as a handful of cute, colorful mushrooms I couldn’t identify.  At any rate, they all made for great photo subjects, and we enjoyed the great weather and great company.

We’ll hike about 3 miles. There are a few elevation gains here and there, but generally, this is a pretty easy trail and our pace will be leisurely to moderate. The more mushrooms we see, the slower we'll go, stopping here and there to identify or take pictures.

We'll meet in front of the dog park at Leita Thompson Memorial Park. The park is on Hwy 92, just West of the big SuperTarget plaza and about a mile east of Sandy Plains Road.

There is ample parking at the dog park, but if it's full, use the overflow lot on the other side of the big driveway.

*I'm bringing our new pup, Vegas, along for training and socialization. She's a great dog, with great manners! I'll allow up to three other well-behaved NON-AGGRESSIVE dogs on this hike, but they must be kept on leash (NOT the retractable kind) the entire time and you will be responsible for cleaning up any messes your dog makes.