Chanterelle Season!

I was not overly motivated to get out on the water this weekend, but I did take two long walks between rain showers and saw lots of mushrooms, including hundreds of Fircone cap -- that funky little mushroom that grows out of fir cones littered on the forest floor.

Of the edible kind I saw a few Rosy Gomphidius, some puffballs, and happily some Pacific Golden Chanterelles. Of the non edible variety I was fortunate to see what I believe was Clustered collybia along with some very large Rosy Russulas and some very badly mangled Wooly Chanterelles.

From Mushroom Hunt -- September 18, 2010

To view a video of the habitat I found these in, and some more photos, see the album here:

Mushroom Hunt -- September 18, 2010

Farewell Lake

I visited Farewell Lake with Tom in the late and lazy days of August. It was a perfect day on an enchanting "off the beaten path" lake in the Sayward Forest.

We ate our lunch here at the place the outflow becomes a creek over rocks too shallow to admit canoes at this time of year.

For more photos visit my Jalbum Album of Farewell Lake.

Pixie Lake

The road from the main to the put-in is overgrown and has two large deep puddles. We waded in to test the depth before putting the Tracker in 4 wheel drive and fording through. At the lake edge a swarm of wasps arrived to examine the hot vehicle.

I stood back nervously but James was brave.

After a few minutes the wasps lost interest and we put out onto a strange and eerie world. the shoreline bristled with dead trees, watershield decomposed under the sun, dark deep water slid under our hulls.

We did not see any pixies, but at one point James commented that it was the sort of place you thought you might look into the water and see ghostly white faces looking back with dead eyes.

Memorable would be a word to describe the experience.

Here is a photo album of the paddle: http://www.homestead.com/rrpowell/files/PixieLake

Fairy Lake

Fairy Lake Photo Album: http://rrpowell.homestead.com/files/fairylake/