The Fungihorn

        Well, today I have decided to take my son with me. Adrianna went to the store to go get groceries and I had to pick up David. He is hesitant about the trip but I tell him we will check around the little deep hole that my brother Tanner and I used to swim in as kid. As soon as we make to the bus stop by Schoenbar Middle School, David wants to sit down. I tell him we are almost there but he does not want to walk. Maybe this was a poor decision to bring him with me. I finally coax him up from the bus stop bench and we continue to walk to the deep hole near Schoenbar Middle School.

        We made it to the deep hole to find eagles had taken over the area. There were about 6-7 eagles in the area and three were immature. The eagle teens lacked their parents’ bald heads. As I searched the area for fungus, I found nothing but dirt and twigs painted white with eagle excrement and by the looks of things they have been here a while. I decided we would move on. I told David he could choose the next spot. He decided we should check Schoenbar Trail.

        I looked in the ditches and the hillside of the trail and there is nothing. I told David we would have better luck finding mushrooms if we went into the woods. He was very apprehensive about going in the woods. He has never been in the woods. I told him not to worry and that it was still a little early for bears to come out. The hillside is steep and I am constantly watching David making sure he makes it up the hill without too much difficulty. Once we are further up the hill, David makes his first discovery. He found a bear bread. It is a species I am unfamiliar with; it is more spherical in shape and had more color than the bear bread I found a couple days ago. It still had a blank slate on the underside but the top appeared as though it had been painted with a cherry varnish. Great discovery David!

Lemon cups

         I looked around the floor as we make our way back home through the woods. I heard David calling me to come over to look at something. He found more mushrooms. This time he found a stick longer than a ruler covered in yellowish orange mushrooms. They looked like little cups of OJ. David put the stick up to lips and played away on his fungihorn. I told David not to eat any of the mushrooms because they may be poisonous and that when we get home he needs to wash his hands good. David was making all the discoveries.

Cantharellus ignicolorn a shelter made out of fallen lumber back here. 

        I wonder if there ever was some homeless person that made the shelter his refuge. David and I made our way around the roots of a fallen tree. The roots made a wall of soil and rotting wood and just as stepped down from a root step I made my first discovery.  It was a decaying yellow mushroom the cap was cream in color and was funnel-shaped. I am not sure what this species is. I looked to see if it has any neighbors. A couple feet away there is a bunch of decaying mushrooms that looked like mini-tree stumps disintegrating. The day has been very productive and we were near the end of the woods. I looked around for a way down that is safe and easy to get down. I hopped down some rocks praying that I don’t fall. I made it down safely and David bounded down without a care in the world and made it down unscathed.

Unidentified mushroom remains