Sadly, the weather has been so warm and dry this year that despite spreading out and searching a wide area, no one found any edible Boletus . Lisa finds a Ganoderma tsugae (North American Hemlock Reishi) at Echo Summit (2015) Our hunt included the tried and true locations near the still flowing creeks, but no luck. Happily, we had a great time anyway. Those of us looking for Ganoderma tsugae (North American Hemlock Reishi) found as many very fresh, moist ones as we wanted. Many of them within walking distance of the lodge. One intrepid group even found edible Sarcodon imbricatus which we cooked so everyone could taste it's nutty flavor. Everyone had a great time. Many of us had fun on Saturday afternoon after the morning forays doing other things such as hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail (part of the Pacific Crest Trail) on the high side of Lower Echo Lake and exploring the Taylor Creek Visitor Center . Taylor Creek is where the land-locked Kokanee Salmon that live in Lake Tahoe swim upstream every fall to spawn. The visitor Center has a spectacular Stream Profile Center underground and right in the creek with aquarium-like windows for viewing of the fish in the creek. We didn't see any spawning salmon because it's a little early still but did view trout, minnows, and crawfish. The afternoon was followed by a gourmet dinner prepared by Chef Bob Wynn. Many members generously donated their dried mushrooms from past forays which Bob used to create two brilliant black trumpet and morel flat bread pizzas and a wonderful mixed mushroom ragout of gypsy, hedgehog, and yellowfoot. Other delicious dishes included bacon-wrapped, stuffed chicken breast; polenta; broccoli; collards; and green salad. This was followed by a wonderful fruit dessert. Some members brought and shared homemade beer, hard cider, and mead and you'd never know by the volume of laughter echoing throughout the lodge that evening that no one found an edible Boletus that day. As always, the Echo Summit Lodge provided breathtaking views of crystal clear vistas of the Lake Tahoe Basin; the visibility couldn't have been any better. The water of the surrounding lakes was a beautiful, clear blue. Once again, we wish Lee Yamada a very special 'thank you" for making this epic venue available to us every year through his membership and work with the California Alpine Club. Species List (Courtesy of Dennis Nolan and John Munoz) Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) Boletus sp.? Boletus calopus (bitter bolete) Boletus fibrillosus Fomitopsis pinicola Hypholoma fasciculare (picture says something different) Leucopaxillus gentiana Naematdoma Faciculare (Sulpher Tuft) Neolentinus ponderosus (Sawtooth, Trainwrecker) Gomphus kaufmannii (false chantrerelle, scaly chantrelle) - correction per Debbie V. Ganoderma tsugae (Reishi) Ramaria stricta Russula sp.? Russula albonigra Russula brevipes Sarcodon imbricatus Suillus pungens (Slippery Jack) Suillus tomentosus Suillus umbonatus Tricholoma flavovirens (Man on Horseback) Editors note:  The original article included a link to photos posted on Google+. Unfortunately, Google+ is no longer available for personal use as of 2019.

Alaskan varied mosses. Photo by Katherine Elvin The landscape which is Alaska is alone worth the trip. Snow capped mountains, the fjords, Denali, glaciers, almost virginal forests, deep mosses of varied hues (Not Hugh's), and turquoise rivers. Then you add the animals: bears, moose, elk, belugas, killer whales, puffins, bald eagles, musk ox, Dahl sheep, salmon and much much more. If that is not enough, you add the sports: fishing, kayaking, dog sledding, flying, scuba diving, hiking and you get the picture; lots to see and do. Oh did I mention "mushrooms"? They have mushrooms up there along with berries and other very interesting plants. This year however, the rains failed us. On the Kenai pennisula, where Bill has the lodge, they are experiencing a drought where the rivers all throughout the pennisula are 2 feet lower than usual. Bill pushed the foray week 1 week because last year, the rains came later. Luckily for me last year, I like to linger and for the last couple of days I was in rain and bolete heaven. This year however even, that did not work. We did get a little more the last day before we left. We however did find mushrooms on our hikes some led by Bill and others we did on our own. Gypsies, Birch boletes, man on horse back, hedge hogs, shaggy manes, hawkwings, alaskan gold and birch polypores. We should have Sue Labiste do a current write up on that polypore soon based on what she learned from this mushroom. Here is Sue's feature on the Tinder Fungus . We hiked Exit glacier, had dinner at Salmon Bake just outside of Seward attended by a waitress who was tripping on something but made for an entertaining evening, an amazing potluck where Jerome cooked up 2 racks of lamb which was finger licking good, caught a mess of halibut fishing out of Homer, and managed to wrangle some salmon out of the Kenai river in spite of the "banana jinx" on a rainy afternoon. Alaskan botox The stories... this trip had a mess of them. Talk to anyone who went this year and Alaskan botoxask if pepper spray works. We each had a personal encounter. Did you hear, I got the Alaskan botox? I fought the local flying bugs, won the berries and lost my vision for a day or two. Nothing a little steroids couldn't fix. None of us who went fishing will bring bananas on a boat. By the way — I hear the cure for bananas is iron. I need to find me a small iron good luck charm for the next trip. No matter what happens, this foray never disappoints. Thanks Bill, Jerry and everyone who attended. You made the trip for me again. Now to settle down, enjoy grilled halibut and toast topped by a generous dollup of lingon berry (low bush cranberry) jam while perusing this year's Alaskan photos, and reliving the fun all over again. Yep, it was worth it and yes, I most definitely will do it again, given the chance. Editor's note: More photos from this trip were previously available on Google+. However, Google+ was deprecated for personal use in 2019.

The weather was beautiful, and given the lack of recent rainfall, the group of about 30 attendees found a surprising number of fungi: 20 different species! Foraging is normally not allowed within the park, but the FFSC is granted permission to pick during our guided forays, as long as none of the mushrooms leave the park boundary. We are very grateful for the opportunity! Spring is in full bloom in the mountains, so in addition to finding fungi, the group of foragers encountered a wide variety of beautiful flowers and both edible and medicinal plants, all part of the unique and rich habitat of the sandhills in the Santa Cruz mountains. The sandhills are made up of what geologists call “Santa Margarita Sandstone”, which dates to 10 – 12 million years ago, when this part of the San Lorenzo Valley was underneath the ocean. The habitat is also great for finding mushrooms at Quail Hollow, as there’s a wide variety of trees including Redwood and Madrone. Pine and Live Oak can be found here as well, which are known to establish mycorrhizal associations with fungi which produce some of the most sought after mushrooms, Chanterelles and Porcini. Species List Below is a list of the species that we collected: Amanita gemmata Amanita muscaria Amanita novinupta Amanita velosa Amanita vernicoccora Annulohypoxylon thouarsianum Chlorophyllum brunneum Coltricia cinnamomea Coprinus sterquilinus Craterellus cinereus Ganoderma brownii Hygrocybe sp. Hypholoma fasciculare Inocybe sororia Tremella betulina Pluteus sp. Russula sp. Stereum hirsutum Suillus sp. Trametes versicolor Cass Fuentes FFSC Minister of Local Forays

... and TONS of mushrooms popping up all over! Herecium coralloides  (November 2014). Photo by Cassandra Fuentes Some of the highlights were beautiful clumps of Oysters, fresh Lion's Mane, Dyer’s Polypore, carpets of Mycenas, an impressive troop of Jack O’Lanterns, and ominously glowing Death Caps. Below is a partial list of species found; there were various Agaricus, possible Agrocybes, and LBM’s that weren't included (among others). Henry Cowell Habitat Walk Species List - 11.22.14 Agaricus benesii (red staining Agaricus group) Agaricus xanthodermus (phenol smelling Agaricus group) Amanita phalloides Amanita vaginata (group - Grisettes) Annulohypoxylon thouarsianum Aricularia aricula Astraeus hygrometricus Coprinus sterquilinus Cortinarius sp Ganoderma applanatum (group) Gomphidius oregonensis Gymnopus dryophilus Gymnopus quercophilus Herecium coralloides Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca Hypholoma fasciculare Lactarius rubrilacteus Lycoperdon perlatum Marasmius calhouniae Mycena capillaripes Mycena haematopus Mycena pura Omphalotus olivascens Phaeolus schwenitzi Phyllotoposis nidulans Pleurotus ostreatus Pluteus cervinus Ramaria sp Russula brevipes Russula cerolens Russula silvicola (group) Stereum hirsutum Suillus cearulesencse Suillus fusctotementosus Trametes versicolor Tremella aleuria Xerocomellus chrysenteron (and/or Xerocomellus truncates) Xerocomellus zelleri Xylaria hypoxylon Editor's note: Photos from this trip were originally posted on Google+, which was deprecated for personal use in 2019. If you have photos from this trip shared publicly elsewhere, feel free to let us know!

Craterellus cornucopioides . © Ron Lawrence (from mushroomobserver.org) Although there was frost on the ground, the weather was beautiful and the Black Trumpets were virtually everywhere! Everyone who attended went home with some Craterellus cornucopioides . Also spotted were beautiful Waxy Caps ( Hygrocybe flavescens and coccinea ), various Ramarias , Black Elfin Saddles ( Helvella dryophila group ), and Gyromitras ( infula ?), to name just a few. Hygrocybe (not from this foray). Photo by Hugh Smith A big thanks to the all the great folks who participated! - Cass Fuentes Minister of Local Forays Editor's note: The link to additional photos from this foray was broken, so the link was removed from this post. If you have an alternative link, feel free to let us know!

Antrodia sp.  (a small, large-pored species on Santa Cruz Mtn. manzanita). © Christian Schwarz I chose this time of the year because the fall mushroom assemblage is rapidly transitioning into the winter assemblage, briefly bumping up easily-seen diversity during the period of overlap. Hunting had to be spread out over 4 days (eleven hours), but I’m quite sure that all the mushrooms I encountered could have been found on either the 18th or the 21st. I ended up with 270 species (not all identified to species, but recognizable RTUs). To find out what was found in Santa Cruz County on that day in 2014, visit my post on Tumblr: A Pseudo-Big Day in Santa Cruz , Notes of a Mycophile

For the forager/gatherers in the group, I've come across huge patches of stinging nettles in gullies and along streams. Its not quite chanterelles and black trumpets, but none too shabby. Miners lettuce is also in abundance and still moving towards peak.

On Hwy 50 - South Fork American River - a friend with a cabin along the Hwy near Sierra at Tahoe told me they had no rain since a weekend in June. Apparently the storm on the ridge top where Wright's lake is located was an exception. A ranger at the Stanislaus Ranger Office on Hwy 108 said they also had heavy rain the same weekend of June and nothing since. The Sawmill area had a heavy deluge 2 weekends ago - streets had minor flooding. The ground was very wet in the areas I checked around sawmill. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with good Bolete spots there - so no luck for me. Markleeville also had a deluge from the same storms that hit the Sawmill. The State Park adjacent to Grover Hot Springs had only sprinkles - only a few miles up the canyon from Markleeville! The Leavitt Meadows campground host - Hwy 108- told me they were hard hit by the same storm system. Unfortunately the FS road into Leavitt Meadow was locked - smoke from the Rim Fire was appalling that day, so I didn't try to get around it. East side of the Sierras was soaked in spots while the western slopes look like they have been mostly dry since June - the exception - some western ridge tops have gotten an Occasional thunderstorm. Rim Fire smoke was extremely variable last weekend. It completely depended on wind direction. I camped Saturday night next to Sonora Pass and could not see the mountains or breathe! I would have driven straight home but I was exhausted. In the morning, it was all blue skies. No sign of smoke! Apparently, in the afternoon the winds pushed the smoke up to the ridge tops. At night the winds descended and took the smoke back to lower elevations. Sawmill is wet - good luck at Echo this weekend! Mark Gillespie

Although little rain had yet blessed the Sierras, over 35 species were found as we sought out moisture-hoarding locales. Several intrepid participants found enough boletes to fill their dehydrators, and, to many attendees’ delight, Ganoderma tsugae (reishi) were numerous and fresh. A special thank-you to our California Alpine Club hosts, Lee Yamada and Phyllis Cole. A very special thank-you to the following who held up the sky by providing substantial kitchen support throughout the weekend: Friday dinner: Jan Immer’s amazing enchiladas, beans and calabicitas complemented by Sandi Smith’s baked bean appetizer and Margaret Carpenter’s Ensalada Mexicana; Saturday breakfast: Hope and Milan Jukl’s awesome breakfast burrito bar; Saturday lunch: Lisa Leung, Sonata Chan and Margaret’s sandwich bar; Saturday dinner: Gene West’s porcini pasta dinner complemented by Sandi Smith’s brie appetizer and Vernetta McGuire’s Caesar salad; Sunday breakfast: Kitty Elvin and Sue Labiste’s bodacious bagel buffet; With a strong supporting cast of all mentioned above and Richard Rammer, Richard Lyness and Monise Sheehan. Thank you all! Wendy Wells Minister of Long Distance Forays