NAMA Foray Report: McCall, Idaho

Before the masses discovered the mycological motherlodes, plenty of fungi could be had by hunting various wet zones...along lakes or stream-courses, and in moss-laden seeps.

The non-fungal wildlife was abundant, too, with ospreys and eagles, blue grouse and spectacular mountain woodpeckers overhead, and moose, elk, bears, cougar and even wolves skulking the woods. I didn't see very many of those splendid denizens of Idaho, but I am sure that some of them saw me!

The human element was no less spectacular, with a great variety of friends and acquaintences and myco-luminaries present from across our great country. Rod Tulloss, master of amanitas, drove to McCall from New Jersey after a brief, unexpected stop in Salt Lake City. I think that I speak for everyone when I say that we were beyond delighted to see him appear, and even more delighted to get his scholarly opinions on our amanita collections!

Dr. Cathy Cripps was our Chief Mycologist, and presided over the taxonomy lab for the duration of our stay. A fine contingent of mycologists from the PNW collaborated on IDs and lectured to the masses, including Michael Beug, Steve Trudell, Judy Roger and Patrice Benson. Contributing members from the Great Plains states included Steve Miller, the University of Wyoming "Russula Guy", and Larry Evans from Montana.

We were, as always, delighted to see Tom Volk, who educated, entertained and regaled us. Vera Evenson, talented CO mycologist, was also a constant presence in the taxonomy lab, and was the proud and genuinely surprised recipient of the 2008 NAMA Knighton award for devoted and exemplary service to NAMA in particular, and to amateur mycology in general. Pennsylvania mushrooms were well represented by the Plischkes both Sr. and Jr., and Carlene Skeffington was a great example of North Eastern mycology at its finest. Many, many others contributed in myriad ways.

The California contingent was its usual enthusiastic self, comprised of BAMS members Hugh and Sandi Smith, Dimi and Alex Bojantchev, BAMS/FFSC friends Henry and Marje Young, David and I, and Ron Pastorino and Tom Sasaki from across the Bay. And of course, the inimitable elder fungal statesman Larry Stickney, who was always cheerful, as well as mindful of the decades of NAMA history that he has lived through.

A number of our fine California photographers were represented in the NAMA photo contest: the perennial Ron Pastorino, Hugh Smith and even myself were photo prizewinners. Although my new buddy from North Carolina Todd Elliot, aka the "Cordyceps Kid" was unable to attend, I was pleased to see several of his entries in the photo contest. And there were several entries by the talented David Work, a photogra-pher with both a good eye and the ability to capture what he sees. Michael Beug also had many fine, prizewinning photographic entries, and produced a nice Saturday night "Mushrooms of Idaho" program for both NAMA members and paying members of the local McCall community.

The very fine, fine artist Paula Fong displayed and sold her artwork to the myco-masses. I spied Tom Volk purchasing some of her morel prints (go figure!), and I became the proud owner of a gorgeous print of her spectacular "candy stick" painting (indicator species and obligate achlorophyllus parasite on matsutake mycelia).

Maggie Rogers brought with her a veritable library of mushroom and mycology books, all for sale to the highest bidder, and I managed to increase the weight of my already bulging suitcases with a number of fine and bargain purchases, the proceeds of which benefited NAMA.

SIMA, the local Southern Idaho mushroom club, worked hard to put together a broad spectrum of talks and field excursions, and our meals, such as they were, were produced on site by the Pinewood Camp Baptist Church; hope the food's better in the afterlife, folks! But maybe I've just lived too long in my little slice of California gourmet ghetto....

The weather in the McCall mountains, elevation 5,000' and up, was delightfully cool and sunny. The forests where we hunted were mostly comprised of conifers: spruce and fir, hem-lock and larch, and a smattering of pine. Our tree ID was helped along by a little booklet produced by the Idaho Forestry Service. There was some old growth, too, although I never got into any ancient forest myself. But there was not much in the way of hardwoods, despite a few pockets of aspen.

And of course, as promised, there were plenty of hot springs. While David sweated in an all-day NAMA meeting, Marje and Henry and I happily sweated in the delightful Gold Forks hot spring, followed by a quick jaunt up a streamside mountain road, where my first mushroom of the foray was a gi-normous Boletus edulis just off the road, itscap at least 18 inches broad, adjacent to a cozy cluster of three more big boletus. Many other curious mushrooms followed.

Amanitas in the field primarily consisted of muscaria var. alba (the white-phase muscaria) and something that Rod is calling Amanita ameri-muscaria, which differs in significant ways from the European muscaria, as shown by DNA analysis. This beastie had an orangish cap, and a rather odd universal veil, similar in some ways to aprica; Micheal Beug and I were arguing over this very ID when Dr. Tulloss drove up, to have the ultimate final word. Talk about good timing!

Collaborative IDs were the rule, and the lab was abuzz with congenial and happy mycologists, from seasoned pros to talented amateurs and several formal students of mycology. I was amazed by the broad spectrum of colors represented by the species complex Russula xerampelina, all tied together by that distinctive odor of shellfish.

We had at least forty species of lichen IDed to species by Dr. Roger Rosentreter, a former student of Orson Miller, who was a decades long, local lichenologist, and plenty of polypores too, brought to life by Tom Volk and another gal polypore expert, Jessie Glaeser.

I was delighted to renew my acquaintence with Walt and Fran Sundberg, who happily attended and contributed to both the NAMA 2008 foray and the Highlands NC mushroom class we all enjoyed in July. And of course, Hope Miller was a constant presence, our mycological godmother as it were, as she shared and smiled and remembered in a place that she and Orson loved so well.

Great mushrooms, great people, great times.